March and April are exciting months in Banderas Bay. Tens of boat are getting ready to ‘jump’ to the South Pacific. I’m not sure why we use the term jump because nobody is actually jumping anywhere. It is so exciting in Banderas Bay that we have been tempted to just load up at Costco, release the docklines, and head west.

Here are some of the actively updated blogs we are following as our friends make the crossing to the South Pacific.

SV Hydroquest

SV Starship (another young couple on an Islander 36)

SV Nyon

SV Bella Vita

Click here for the complete list. http://www.pacificpuddlejump.com/fleet.html

Results at http://banderasbayregatta.com/

Last minute race day fix

Day 3. The boat had broken gear and we were tired, bruised, and sunburned but excited to do it again. Karen and Stuart from SV Fantasia (thanks for the photos!) were repeat crew and Frank, Nile, Steve, and Dennis were all sailing with us for the first time. It was a short course and we started on a port tack which put us further upwind than our competition. We had plenty of rail meat on the windward side for the upwind leg and the leward side for the reaching legs.

We crossed the finish line wing on wing, had a beautiful sail, and WON again in our division! We are 3 for 3 this week!

Our race numbers were thrashed by day 3. We had to tie them to the boat with ribbon

Stuart keeping us ahead of the competition

Charging ahead

Frank, Lanea, Dennis, Nile

Conor trying not to get nervous about hitting Destiny as we cross the finish line wing on wing

Finish line!

Our big competitor, 40 Love, crossed the finish line close on our heels.

10 racers on our little Islander 36.

MOB (Man Overboard) drills before the race started to successfully rescue a hat.

25 knots of wind and broken gear on Moondance- a partially blown out block on the starboard side.

An accident lead to broken bones in the performance division (not our division).

Moondance was first over the line in our division.

2 days of racing

2 days of wins

1 more day left!

Thanks to Karen on SV Fantasia for these photos!

Ann Marie and her husband Chris took turns at the helm. They sail a sistership and now on their way to French Polynesia! http://blog.sv-starship.com

SV Shindig raced in another class. They are fellow CYC members.

Pre-race course check

Making our way to the windward mark

The stern of our biggest competitor, 40 Love. This is a sight we would soon forget.

Brian, Conor, Jonathan, Mark

Stuart, our tactian, is used to racing in cold British waters. He’s pretty excited to be eating burritos in Mexico during a race

Karen on SV Fantasia

Getting the rail meat on the windward side of the boat. Brian and Carey on SV Copernicus, Chris and Jonathan (SV Starship), Conor and Lanea.

The race committee boat is in sight.

Pre-Regatta Boat Costume Contest

The playing field

Rail Meat

It was a wet ride

Tricia took us over the start line

Will took us over the finish line

Moondance averaged 6 knots and peaked at 7.2 knots. Our tacks were quick, our gybes were smooth and we had the rail in the water for half the race. We won the first day of racing and here is to hoping we do just as well on day 2 and day 3. Thanks to our crew for a great day of racing!

“Is it wrong that we are taking the costume contest more seriously than the race?“

The one thing we knew that we could win was the costume parade on the first day of racing.

Well, as it turns out, we DID win the costume parade, then accidentally won the race on the first day. And then the second. And then the third! (See the Banderas Bay Regatta XX category on the Home Page for last year’s posts).

So naturally we are entered in the 2013 Banderas Bay Regatta to have another go at it this year. There are a lot of serious preparations to be made this year. Lots of costume planning, dip making, and beer buying to make this another successful race.

Stay tuned- the racing starts on Thursday next week!

As the sun begins to lower over the horizon, the color of the surrounding rock mountains change from golden yellow, to red, to purple, and finally to a hazy brown before slipping in to the black color speckled with twinkling lights that covers the sky for the remainder of the night.

Sitting on the foredeck we settle in for the night’s show.

Conor reserves his seat for the nightly wildlife show in our front… and back… and side yard

Flying fish run along the surface of the water in schools and for so long you question whether they truly are fish or small birds.

Manta rays glide through the water near the surface, with their fins raised as if they are waving hello. They seem to be watching us out of the corner of their eyes. When ready to feed they fling their bodies several feet out of the water and flap their fins while airborne in the cool evening air before their bodies hit the water again with a loud SLAP.

Pelicans jockey for the best position with varying levels of grace. To take off they flap their wings and jump on the water until they get enough momentum to lift in to the air. They circle overhead until they see their prey. Larger fish, tuna, chase bait fish down below. The bait fish jump out of the water to escape the larger fish. Pelicans see and hear the movement in the water and make their move, diving in to the water to catch a meal.

We are surrounded by pelicans, cormorants, boobies and gulls and they do not let us forget it at dusk. The gulls are the loudest. It appears as though the critics Statler and Waldorf from Jim Henson’s Muppets are dressed up as gulls and squabbling all around us.

A turtle pops his head above the water to take a breath. He eyes the boat warily and checks on us from time to time throughout the night. We know he is near because we can hear him take a gasping breath when he surfaces.

A pod of dolphins finds us in our anchorage. But they are not looking for us. They are feeding on the sting rays in the bay, of which there are plenty. They come in at dusk and again once night has fallen. You can hear them circling along the outskirts of the bay in search of food.

When we are lucky we hear whales passing by the anchorage. Sometimes their breathing sounds like the muffled call of a running train. Toot Toot.

Dusk at anchor is our favorite time of day.

The day started like any other, a beautiful sunrise, a cup of coffee, and a clean bathing suit fresh off the lifelines.  I took the bus out to La Cruz to meet up with friends for a day of surfing.  Of course this was the wrong place to meet them, but after catching up with other friends I ended up where I needed to be, way out at Punta Mita, for a surf session with SV Starship.

SV Starship is a sistership to Moondance and it was very cool to see how Chris and Ann Marie have set up their boat. (their blog http://blog.sv-starship.com/) They have very cool systems, and make a mean hotdog.  After lunch and boat talk we set out to surf the near by break La Lancha.

The waves were a little on the soft side, but we all seemed to catch a fair number of waves. Between the three of us, we each tried a few different board combinations.  The people in the line up were really nice and every one was kind of looking out for each other, cheering when people caught or almost caught a wave in the marshmallow conditions.

After surfing, SV Velella Velella invited us to a little bonfire on the beach with a few other boats in the anchorage.  It was fun to catch up and just relax on the beach after a long day of surfing.

I still had to grab a bus back to Nuevo Vallarta, so I left the bonfire around 8:30 and walked through the small town and shore side restaurants up the gentle slope to the freeway.  Once there I joined a crowd of very tired locals all ready to get home, and looking very nervous.

I wasn’t worried, I never have really thought that the buses followed much of a schedule and it usually was just a matter of hanging out till one came along.  As I was waiting I noticed that the crowd had dispersed and most were hopping into the back of pick up trucks, or on cell phones.  Uh-oh.  I thought maybe I could find a slightly better bus waiting spot and walked a little further up the road.  No people, and after waiting there for a while, still no bus.

I figured I might have to take a cab and did a loop through the town.  As I walked through the town the restaurants were closing down, but it looked like the bars might stay open and there were a few cab drivers playing cards, so I felt like if I had to take a cab I could.

Now to people who may not know the area a cab ride from Punta Mita to Nuevo Vallarta is a lot of money.  About as much as a big shopping trip to Wal-Mart or the Mega.  So I didn’t want to just hop in a cab when a bus might be coming up the road any moment.  I figured I’d give it until about ten o’clock and if a bus didn’t come, I’d bite the bullet and take a cab.

I took a different way up to the freeway, so I could see a little more of the road and waited patiently for a bus to come.  I started walking down the freeway towards the OXXO (a store like 7-11) trying not to be blinded by the bright light of the oncoming traffic and staying well off the freeway.

Suddenly I was in the air.

It is weird to be completely airborne with no warning.  My first thought was, “I am about to be seriously injured.” I tried to remember various body parts in Spanish.  I landed with a thud on dry soft ground in some sort of hole.  After being blinded by the lights of the traffic I could not see anything.  Even on my tippy toes I still couldn’t see out of this weird hole.  My eyes started to adjust and I realised I was in a drainage ditch. I climbed out of it, but not before stepping in something I could only hope was water.

Battered and bruised I made the executive decision that a cab ride to the shower back in Nuevo Vallarta was now the plan. 

I made my way slowly down to the row of restaurants, now they were completely closed and the cab stand empty.  Double Uh-oh!  With no cabs around, and the town shut down for the night I trudged back up to the freeway, back to the OXXO, and crossed my fingers for a bus.

Not two minutes later a bus slowly rolls up and lets off a few passengers.  I’m saved!  I confidently wave at the driver, who then waves me off.  What?  The bus slowly makes its way down town the driver gets out for a second then turns the bus back toward the freeway and parks it on the side of the road near a certain drainage ditch I became very familiar with.

Now I started feeling pretty good, it is not uncommon for drivers to stop in the middle of their route and have a snack, or take a break.  I mean the bus was there, and it would be going back to Puerto Vallarta. It was just a matter of time.  So I hunkered down and looked at the stars, looked at the moon, and enjoyed the night sky.  On thing true of any sailor, we know how to pass the long hours of the night.  It wasn’t till Orion slipped over the horizon that I realized this bus driver was taking a long break.  I walked over to the bus and careful to avoid any unseen pits, tried to see if the driver was still around.

A local walking along the freeway, asked me what I was doing and then went on to explain that the bus parks here for the night to save a trip in the morning.  That there were no more busses, and I should just ask some one for a ride, but be careful.

Just to remind you, I am in wet black board shorts and a black hooded sweatshirt with splotches of mud over both, and blood and mud on my legs and hands.  I don’t think I’d be much of a target.  But I thanked him for the words of warning none the less.

In a last-ditch effort I went to the St. Regis guard house and asked if they could call me a cab.  They tried but no one would pick up, and they said once the cab stand closes that’s it for cabs in Punta Mita.  They said I could take a St. Regis cab, but it would cost 100 dollars US.  I would rather sleep on the beach or get a hotel room, and take the bus in the morning than do that.  I have to say the guards were very nice and did not seem to mind at all that this dirty gringo was hanging out.

It was getting late and the wait staff was going home.  The St. Regis vans ferry the employees back to wherever they live.  One guard flagged a van down and made my case to the driver.  Every seat in the van was already taken by tired workers wanting to get home, and the driver was worried he might get in trouble.  So no dice.

After a few more attempts were made, I finally connected with Jerry.  He was seeing a movie in Nuevo Vallarta and lived near by.  He drove me the whole way and we had quite a good time talking mostly about food, then his desire to go to Paris and Cuba.  He was very proud to be working in the best reviewed restaurant in Mexico.  He said he was learning from this so he could open his own restaurant one day.  An Italian themed place that was a coffee bar in the morning and a dance club at night.  He could not have been a nicer guy and by the end of the trip we had made plans to go sailing.

I am always amazed at how easy it is to make new friends.  With just a little Spanish and a lot of finger pointing and laughing there is no shortage of things to talk about.  Maybe its the culture down here, maybe its the cruising atmosphere, but it seems so effortless to make connections with very different people.

Lessons learned:

1. If you are going to stay somewhere late, just commit to staying the night.
2. If you are walking anywhere in the dark, be careful!
3. If you need help, ask. People are friendly and probably will point you the right way.
4. If you are going to talk to people speak Spanish first. That is unusual among gringos and much appreciated.
5. Remember that you are really just 7 hours early for the next bus.