SV Moondance has a new article on the Women and Cruising website about dishwashing in salt water, too much wind, relationships and wildlife. Check it out!
http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2013/05/why-washing-dishes-in-saltwater-is-worth-it/
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 Starship (another young couple on an Islander 36)
Click here for the complete list. http://www.pacificpuddlejump.com/fleet.html
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.
Day 2
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.
You know you are in for an interesting race when half the crew is dressed in drag.
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!
Last year Moondance and her crew made it to Banderas Bay just in time to sign up for the annual Banderas Bay Regatta. We started to get nervous at the pre-race festivities when we realized that other captains flew their crew down to Puerto Vallarta to race. We had never raced Moondance and were newbies to the racing scene. (Click on the link below to see the Race Committee’s note about our participation last year.)
“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.
You’ve had quite the year. Here is to the next!
