OK, as you may have read in Brenda’s post tonight, Jeff is reminding us that our loved ones REALLY do want to know what is happening… so here we go. (sorry it’s been so long.)
We have been in the Puerto Vallarta area for coming up on two weeks in a marina known as Marina Rivera Nayarit. It is a newer marina, built in 2006 in a natural small bay.. on the shores of an small but authentic Mexican village. The marina has a nice website that makes it look pretty swanky.. but the rent here is reasonable.. about $20 a night.. which includes our water and electricity. Split between two couples.. reasonable. See more on the marina at http://www.marinarivieranayarit.com They have a map on the site of the marina.. we are on Dock 3, slip A4. Under the “media” tab there are great photos of the area…
There is a racing regatta happening this week… featuring big international racing yachts.. kinda America’s cup style; and a major boat show next week.. so there has been plenty to do and see. They are paving areas and setting up huge tents for exhibitors…
We also spend time hanging out with other cruisers, making new friends and learning “best practices” of a successful cruising lifestyle. The yacht club has nice showers and good food from a structure that looks down over the marina. A great place for morning coffee. We’ve been doing yoga a couple times a week, and started going to a Learning Spanish class that meets twice a week.
As I mentioned, we’ve been here about two weeks. When we first pulled into the dock, Jeff secured the dockline and patted Oblivion and said “there there, girl… sorry to tie you up like this.” Nancy’s response was “Maybe she needs a rest.”
The thing about cruising is that you have a destination in mind.. ie: the next harbor down the coastline. So you end up needing to go a certain direction. Gumperson’s law states that the wind will always come from the direction you want to go (thereby requiring motoring instead of sailing.) Therefore, for the last two months and hundreds of miles we’ve traveled, we’ve only sailed for… oh, maybe 10 hours. Back to the story: So Oblivion has been resting comfortably for a couple of weeks, until yesterday the boat told me she wanted to bust out of the marina and feel the perfect 18 kt wind in her sail. So Brenda and I took the boat out for a romp. This is a big bay we are in.. one of the biggest in the world. It’s about 15 miles to the other side. Since we had no destination in mind, we just set the sails for every sailboats favorite point of sail.. the close reach. That’s where the apparent wind is 60 to 70 degrees off the bow… and let her go. We hit hull speed with just the jib flying pretty… and we had the company of 25 racing boats to slash though the waves with. A whale even breached in the distance to say hello.
Jeff and Nancy had gone to PV for some time away (we are a bit hard to live with from time to time) but they are back and tomorrow we all head out on a field trip .. to Tequila. Might have to visit a distillery or two.. stand by for posts on that subject.. although you may have to wait awhile to read it here…
Do keep looking in the photo gallery.. many good shots show up there from time to time…
Thane
