2005-2006 season Repairs and Mistakes

We began the season with Cat coming to PV again for a week. It is always fun to have her with us, and we all enjoyed the beach and the great restaurants and other sights of the area. Cat and I dove the Tres Mariettas, although the water was unusually cold ( I started with a shorty and changed to a full wet suit for the second dive). We went to the Rhythms of the Night show with Cat and our friends Dick and Carol, at Las Caletas, the private area operated by Vallarta Adventure. The show is a special experience in an outdoor amphitheater surrounded by the jungle and featuring Aztec and Mayan era dances, fire dancers, and exotic sounds, followed by dinner and a night cruise back along the bay. After coming down in October, we decided we needed air conditioning on the boat, so I bought an Aqua Cool portable a/c that we decided to have our friend John of Scarlett O'Hara install. John had done a lot of the electrical on the boat with our original contractor, and was great to work with. He invited me to race on Bright Star, a Jenneau fast 40, a full-on race boat with Mylar sails and several spinnakers. It was a real learning experience . Bright Star is owned by Dorr Anderson of Seattle, and he has raced boats for may years in Washington, California and Mexico. I was only trusted to handle the traveler and the main initially although I have since moved up to sometime spinnaker trimmer. It takes a surprising number of people to handle the boat, especially when setting or jibing the spinnaker when rounding a mark. 8 or so is the ideal number with everyone very active for several minutes before moving back to the weather (windward) rail. I met Bruce of the red trimaran Migration, while racing on Bright Star. After we had the boat essentially repaired from the flood damage and collected the insurance proceeds (dealing with a female Russian Lawyer who knew nothing about boats in settling the claim)we were ready to go around the beginning of March. Unfortunately, I spilled a small amount of water out of a portable bilge pump onto the bench in the engine room, it leaked onto and put the inverter/charger out of commission. We purchased an overpriced battery charger to keep the batteries up while we awaited shipment of the new inverter/charger. Besides getting held up in Customs in Guadalajara, the new inverter failed on installation. Rather than hassle with the customs folks again, I purchased another inverter/charger and flew home to pick it up and return it to PV. Meanwhile, we had the old inverter repaired so we have it as back-up. We left for Punta Mita on April 6th. We hosted a celebration dinner on board with Pat and Gene of Chalet Mer, Dick and Carol of Tanoshii, and Bruce and Ailene of Migration. We left Chacala on the 8th for Chacala, arriving after a nice 5 hour sail. Jim and Lois Ann of White Star, and Roy and Marlene of Jelly Bean were anchored when we arrived. Chacala is the cove you dream about when you think of cruising the tropics. White sand beach backed by a large palm grove and surrounded by mountains, with cute little palapa restaurants on the beach. Migration arrived the following day. Along with Bruce and Ailene, we hiked up to the Guayaberra Grove overlooking the bay and visited the cladera (an extinct volcano area). That evening we had cocktails onboard Migration with all the other cruisers in the bay (about 12) and Bruce showed "Don Juan Demarco" on the sail of Migration using his projection tv and dvd player. We had a problem with the genset and the alternator which delayed our departure, but I got the latter working and we left for Matanchen bay next to San Blas. We were pleased to see Migration was still there. Usually when we arrive, I dive the anchor. On arrival at Matanchen Bay, I noticed a large dorsal fin and big black shadow approaching the boat. We were in only 12 feet of water. As It got closer, I could see it was a whale shark, the largest fish in the sea (true wales are mammals). Unfortunately, I did not have a camera, so no photo but I estimate it was around 25 feet long We hosted Bruce and Ailene for dinner and the next day we visited the historic town of San Blas, made famous by Longfellow's last poem, "the Bells of San Blas". We visited the new art gallery and a beautifully restored hotel. San Blas is infamous for no-seeums, tiny biting insects that can penetrate all but the smallest screens. We anchored a mile off shore and put up our no=seeum screen around the cockpit, and no one except Bruce was attacked. We left the following morning for Isla Isabela, the Galapagos of Mexico. We had a great sail over, and anchored along with Migration at Los Moanes (the Manikins) on the east side of the island. The next morning, we all took the dingys to the main landing at the fishing village. What an incredible place. The frigate birds breed there and despite being beautiful fliers in the air, have the ugliest progeny I have ever seen. The "babies" are bald, about the size of a vulture (they are related) and perched in a large nest in trees that are only about 4 or 5 feet off the ground, so the babies are at eye level with you. We hiked up to the top of the island where the blue footed, yellow footed and red footed boobies breed. There are thousands of them, along with several species of gull. The boobies do an amazing dance during courtship, and the males feet turn bright blue. Although there are so many it is hard to walk, the mothers are very protective of their young, squawking away if you get closer than a couple of feet. The view from atop the island is spectacular. Deep blue water. Later that afternoon, I went free diving and saw my first free swimming tuna (about a 20 pounder) in only 15 feet of water! The visibility was nearly 80 feet and there were scores of schools of different species with over a thousand fish in some schools. Quite an unusual place and the best diving we have had since leaving Baja. I made 3 more dives and saw another tuna in about the same spot. After the last great dive, we left along with Migration and the Catamaran At Last for Mazatlan around sunset. The wind and seas were totally calm, so we motored all night, arriving in Mazatlan at dawn as planned. We got a slip in Marina Mazatlan and were promptly invited to a pot luck barbecue on the dock with several other 2004 Ha ha vets, including, Chalet Mer, Effie, Jellybean, Tea Leaves, Savannah, At Last, and the big catamaran La Dolce Vita. The next week was regatta week in Mazatlan and we enjoyed meeting new and old friends in the club above the marina offices at the various events throuhout the week, including, tacos by local cooks, a huge tuna cook out and pot luck and the final night a caterer dinner with entertainment by the Carnival dancers of Mazatlan. all for only 250 pesos for the whole week. We hired Rick to fix the problems with our gen set and make a new mount for the alternator. We found him to be very efficient and reasonable. While awaiting the new parts to be made, we decided to take the ferry to La Paz to obtain additional copies of our ten year import permit (which customs erroneously kept in PV). The ferry was an interesting experience, We paid for a cabina, about the size of the old pullman compartments, with en suite head and shower. The bar was very nice, similar to an old cruise ship with nice ocean views all around. The ship leaves Mazatlan at 5;30 and arrives in La Paz the following morning. We went up on deck before sunset and enjoyed watching the booby birds dive for fish that apparently the ship stirs up. They fly along each side of the ship and when they spot a fish, they pull up into almost a loop and dive 40 to 50 feet into the water, sometimes getting the fish. We learned later that they die from starvation due to blindness after years of diving . Arriving in La Paz, we stayed at the Los Arcos Hotel on the malecon, and enjoyed getting reacquainted with one of our favorite Mexican cities. The guy who gave us our import permit in 2004 (a University of Arizona grad) remebered us and we got two certified copies in 15 minutes! A record in Mexico. We picked up some boat parts, including several fans. We got a suite on the ferry for the trip back as no cabinas were available. It came with a king sized bed, dvds and tv and a large bathroom. We enjoyed the rest of our stay in Mazatlan, and "watched" the Suns playoff games on the computer and sometimes on cable at a local sports bar. We visited one of the Caliente sports books for the first time and discovered we could watch the Diamondbacks and the Suns at the same time, along with several other games and horse races. Our friends Pinky and Danny of the Cal Dulce Sueno arrived the last night of our stay and joined us for dinner and game seven of the Suns Laker series at a local restaurant. We left early the next morning and arrived at Matanchen Bay after a 21 hour sail. Linda went to bed, while I rigged the flopper stopper. I must have tied a poor knot as it immediately sunk to the bottom. As we were only in 10 feet, I put on my wet suit and dove in. The visibility was so poor, I hit the face plate of my mask on the bottom. I searched for several minutes before finding it on the opposite side of the boat from where it dropped. We sailed to Chacala the next morning, staying a couple of days before leaving for Punta de Mita. On the sail in from Punta de Mita, we put up our recut spinnaker (now a gennaker) and we were able to do 3.5 knots in a 4 to 5 knot wind. Not bad for a 44,000 lb boat. We returned to our slip in Paradise Village and got back into the routine of working out at the spa 3 or 4 days a week. Linda does pilates and yoga for 3 hours and I do weights and ride my bike to Bucerias (about 12 miles) and then relax in the sauna, steam and jacuzzi. We tried severalrestaurants with our friends and attended the Altruism festival again, and discovered some new places to try. We flew home on June 1, bidding farewell to our friends Bob and Terry who have purchased a Hylas 52 on the east coast so they will be selling Shearwater and cruising Maine and the Caribean.