Going Barefoot

2-22-13 – Punta Mita, Mexico

B hard at work on the dinghy wheel instal

I am proud to say that after almost three months of carrying my dinghy wheels around, they are finally installed!  It really wasn’t that difficult of a task and it makes me wonder why it didn’t happen sooner?   Now we have an amphibious vehicle that can function on both land and water.  While it’s really slow with the wheels down in the water and it is still a little bit of work to drag it up the beach, it’s a compromise like all things boat oriented.  It should be super nice for all of those beach landings up in the Sea of Cortez, from what I hear, although we are still down south in Banderas Bay.  Someday I will know if it was worth it.  Anyway, they are installed and our dinghy is that much more tricked out.  If nothing else they look cool and have that smell of fresh rubber, like when you get new tires on your car.

Little PK looking stylin' with her new wheels

Sue, John (Wizard) and Nancy (Shindig).  I guess you can
 count on this type of thing happening at a tequila tasting

The other day our friends on s/v Shindig, who incidental do have a super fast dinghy, came by to pick us up and give us a ride into the beach.  Half way there it occurred to me that I had not brought my flip flops, or any footwear for that matter.  It also occurred to me how that really wasn’t a big deal.  When’s the last time you could say you left the house and forgot your shoes!  Later that night we had a potluck / tequila tasting on Shindig, and no one brought shoes.  So it seems that we have reached a point in our Mexico cruising where footwear is completely optional, and I like it that way.  Or maybe everyone figured they might lose them after the tequila tasting.   I’m sure we will be back to real life soon enough with all the “no shirt, no shoes, no service” signs posted anywhere near a beach.  You never know when those unruly dirty bare feet could cause the next epidemic.

E on our way back to Punta Mita

We are back in Punta Mita, again.  I know it seems like we just go back and forth between La Cruz and Punta Mita.  Probably because that’s what we have been doing lately.  This time we have promised ourselves that we will carry on Northward from this point, in a couple of days, maybe, or next week, maybe, we’ll see how the surfing, paddling and socializing goes; it may be a little longer.  Right now we are trying to get excited about our Northbound, into the wind and waves upcoming trip to Mazatlan.  Hard to get excited about that when you compare it to margaritas on the beach, tequila tasting and surfing.  But like all good things, it’s time to move on, new things to see and do.

Autumn Wind in anchor mode.  L to R : Dinghy, paddle board,
water and gas, kayak, diesel, flopper stoppers off the boom

B Sailing to Punta Mita again

Busy Days

2-17-13 – La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

Can you spot the whale cruising the anchorage?

As the saying goes “time flies when you’re having fun”.   Where did the last week go?  It’s hard to believe that you can stay so busy and not have a job.  While we are back in La Cruz again; this time relaxing in the marina; in the last week we made the trek to Punta de Mita and back, and filled every day with something.

Elizabeth with our toys on the beach

At Punta de Mita Elizabeth’s new kayak got some use and we didn’t even launch the dinghy for two days.  It just seemed easier to paddle the kayak and paddle board in to shore each day than to launch the dink.  We visited with many friends on the beach each day; ending each day with a little beach fire compliments of the crew on s/v Heavy Metal.  I can sort of say that I’m a surfer now.  At least I caught a couple of waves on the paddle board and actually rode them in to shore standing up even!  I’m a surfer enough that Rob on s/v Shindig and I took a special trip in his dinghy to a break a little ways from the anchorage in Punta de Mita called La Lancha.  So I am actually seeking out waves now, not just accidentally finding them.  I guess that makes me a surfer in some way.  Lots of good food at Mita, between Oscar’s for fish tacos and Mita’s Pizza, an excellent pizza place.  It’s a BYOB kind of place; which incidentally, there should be way more of in this world.  BYOB is the only way to go.  Stop in, order your pizza, walk down the road a little to the tienda, buy a couple of cold beers, and by the time you get back your pizza is almost ready.  You get the good pizza and the cheap beer, win win. 

Yummy fish tacos

I turned 36 somewhere in there.  Not a bad place for a birthday.  We “chartered” a panga with the Shindig folks and went to the islands just South of Mita called the Tres Marietas.   Our panga picked us up at the boats and buzzed us out to the islands.  We did some snorkeling, had a beautiful island beach to ourselves and then buzzed back to the boats with a quick stop to check out some other surf spots; since you know I’m a surfer now.  After a light lunch on the boat we took some beach supplies in to shore and did some surfing and beach hanging out before happy hour margaritas and then Mita’s pizza for dinner.  I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday.

Pelicans don't look too happy with us

Rob, Nancy, me and Elizabeth on the panga

We had great sails both ways to and from La Cruz.  Back in La Cruz we’ve taken up residence for the last few days in the marina.  We took a day long tour to San Sebastian, an old mining town up at 4800 feet in the mountains.  Then the next day sailed on Shindig for a practice race prior to the Banderas Bay Regatta coming up soon.  Sailing on a boat 15’ bigger than ours is a treat.  I even got to drive for a little.  The food has been great once again.  Street Tacos (that’s actually the name of the restaurant,  aptly names as they setup tables on the side of the street each night), Red Chair tacos (I think this place may actually have a different name, but they are known for the red chairs they setup in the street for dinner each night),  Mahi Mahi in a lobster sauce for Valentine’s day, chicken fajitas.  The list goes on and on.  As you may be able to tell, it’s hard to get motivated to cook on the boat when there are so many great options just a short walk away.  As you may also have noticed, you eat in the street a lot around here.  Many of the little places set tables up in the street, sort of in the area where cars would parallel park each night and take them down at the end of the night.  I’m not exactly sure what the purpose of this is, if it’s to increase seating capacity or to indicate they are open?  Either way it works, helps us know who’s open (because that’s also always a little bit of a mystery, Red Chair opens at 7:00P until midnight, 5 days a week and Tacos on the street is open from 5:30P to 10:30P, Philo’s is open all the time but no one goes there until late, the little taco stand by the fish market is only open in the morning) and then you can tell what’s good by how many people are sitting there. 

View of La Cruz

Hacienda Jalisco on the way to San Sebastian

Hacienda Jalisco

The San Sebastian tour group

The girls paddle board gang, Elizabeth on the left

Our friends on Wizard out for a sail

Shindig taking some spray over the bow

I could get used to this

Nancy and Rob,  aka The Shindigers, relax while I sail

This is really why you race sailboats, right!

So we have had a busy week and now it’s time to do some boat chores and catch up on our “responsibilities” after 18 days at anchor.  I always feel guilty if I don’t use my marina time wisely.  But that’s for manana, now it’s time for some fajitas, or will it be tacos tonight?

Divebombing Pelicans

2-9-13 – La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

First of all; yes we are still in La Cruz at the anchorage.  You say it will never happen to you, but somehow it has happened to us.  We somehow find ourselves perpetually stuck in this place.  The anchor rode is about to deteriorate and break at any moment, the rudder is overgrown with new life forms and the diesel hasn’t been started in forever.  We have been anchored in the same place for almost 2 weeks now, I’m not really sure what we have been doing; but at the same time we have not mentally prepared ourselves for the trip north to the Sea of Cortez.  Everyone says it’s still cold and early for the season up there in the North, so what’s the rush we say (as everyone back in the states laughs at the idea of cold and Mexico in the same sentence)?  Eventually our minds will click into passage mode again and we will be off.  So we are here, doing our best to have fun and try new things, without falling into “retirement living” where by people seem content to do the same thing every day, every month and sometimes every year. 

The adventures of living on a boat:  The other day I almost lost the dinghy.  Each night we hoist the dinghy up out of the water so it doesn’t “disappear” overnight.  Each morning we drop it in the water and walk it around back, drop the little outboard onto it and then are ready for a trip to shore.  This morning we were heading in early to meet some friends, had showered the night before; that’s a big thing for us remember; and were dressed for a day of shopping in town.  I casually brought the dinghy - PK - around the back trying to weave the painter around the grill, radar tower and flag when oops; it slipped out of my hand.  PK just floated there, looking at me like a forlorn puppy, asking why I let him go, why don’t you pull  me in?  I tried to gather the painter with my foot stretched out as far as I could, then yelled for a boat hook, but it was too late.  It’s amazing how far away ten feet is when there’s water between you and the other thing.  Not wanting it to drift too far I quickly made the decision to go in after it, but I wasn’t about to get my clean clothes wet with salt water.  No time to change, they all came off and in I went to save our forlorn dinghy.  So much for showering the night before to get the salt off.  I took a quick rinse in the cockpit shower and off we went.  It wakes you up pretty quick!  Oh, the life on a boat.

Look honey, I saved our dinghy!

 It may be a sign from God thru his friends the pelicans that the bottom of our boat needs cleaned.  You would be amazed how fast stuff grows on the bottom of your boat in this warm, sort of clear water.  I haven’t decided if it’s the salad on our bottom for the fish to feast on, or the shade from the boat that they think protects them, but huge numbers of little, 6” or so long, fish congregate under the boat at all times the sun is up.  Cleaning the bottom the other day I was worried I would be engulfed by the hundreds of these things.  They hide right next to the boat in the shade and squirm around to always follow the shade, making little bubbling noises the whole time; like a pot of boiling fish.  The real fun comes when a friendly pelican flies overhead and spots these hundreds of little fish, tightly packed in a group right next to the boat and thinks he’s hungry.  Next thing you know there’s a 20 pound bird dive bombing your boat.  I do mean your boat, because most times they hit the boat at the same time as the water.  Down below the first time this happens you think someone has hit you with their dinghy, or a small depth charge has gone off, as the whole boat shudders for a second.  Sort of scary when everything you own is floating inside this little fiberglass hull.  After the second and third and now hundredth time you get used to it and just hope they don’t splash water thru your windows upon impact.  Yes they hit that hard and that close!  After they hurtle themselves as fast as they can into your boat; the pelicans just float there, shaking their head a little dazed, maybe two feet from you and then fly off to try again.  They seem sort of unhappy our boat got in the way of dinner.  In order to show this unhappiness they land on our dinghy, the bow, the spreaders or the radar and poop on the boat.  Pelicans eat whole fish and what they can’t digest let’s just say it ends up on our boat in a liquid form, not pretty.  Ah the life on a boat.

Dazed pelican after a dive bombing / boat collision

 Nothing earth shattering to report today, feel free to leave comments so I know someone is reading this stuff, and check the SPOT links for our current position.

How much fuel does a Yaris hold?

2-6-13 - La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

La Cruz still has a grip on us.  Not that it's a bad thing, we just haven't wandered too far in the last week.  It has been nice to just hang out in the anchorage and take advantage of the nice cruiser amenities at the La Cruz marina, which makes being on the hook much easier. 

Elizabeth has finally procured a water toy to match my stand-up paddle board.  We announced on the morning net that we were looking for an inflatable kayak and once the net was over we received a call from a guy in the anchorage with us, with the exact kayak we had been looking at and for a good price.  It seemed like fate, so we just bought it.  Like all good cruiser transactions, he let us take it back and try it out for a while before paying.  So now Elizabeth has a water toy and maybe we will not need to launch the dinghy when we are at certain anchorages.  We'll just paddle our toys into shore.  All we need to do now is figure out what needs to be disposed of to make room for it. 

Elizabeth's new water toy

 We watched the Super Bowl from the top floor of the La Cruz Yacht Club.  Probably the best place I have ever watched a Super Bowl from.  No offense to all those friends I've spent Super Bowl with in the past.  But it's hard to beat watching the Super Bowl, outside in 84 degree sunshine; looking over Banderas Bay and the La Cruz Anchorage with your boat sitting at anchor in the distance.  The game was almost secondary to the view and the good time talking with old friends.  The great thing is that with the all included drinks ticket we bought, that power outage wasn't so bad for us!

Not a bad place to watch the Super Bowl from

Elizabeth learned to make sushi the next day.  Somehow there wasn't enough to bring home, makes me suspicious.  I spent the time having a couple of tacos and buying fresh shrimp from the fish market.  I know, it's a hard life. 

Elizabeth making sushi

It's all the same

The last two days have been consumed with sharing a car with our friends on s/v Wizard, John and Sue.  We did the big box store tour yesterday with a quick stop for tequila tasting and lunch on the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta.  We stopped at Home Depot (yes, it's pretty much the same thing as in the states) except there is a guy in the parking lot who will wash your car while you are inside if you like; for a couple of pesos of course.  Then Zaragosa marine across from the cruise ship dock in Puerto Vallarta, which is essentially a large West Marine, complete with the high prices but lots of stuff.  Only difference here is that they sold wave runners and had HUGE three strand line probably for a shrimp boat or something. 

Gaby's for lunch in Puerto Vallarta

Then for a rest.  Lunch at Gaby's; as recommended by out tequila tasting guy.  The vendors on the Malecon (beach front walkway) see us gringos and salivate at the idea of selling us something on our 1 week vacation.  They lure you in with free tequila tasting; some of which is actually really good, especially once you know a little about tequila; then they either sell you tequila, timeshare presentations or give you recommendations to restaurants where they get a kick back.  We told our guy at the outset that we had already made it thru the gauntlet of Cabo so this was a walk in the park, and we had been in Mexico for a couple of months already so basically, cut the crap, we aren't just off the cruise ship.  He understood and was honest, we think, so John and Sue wound up buying a bottle of tequila and we went to the restaurant he recommended, because he told us for every ten people he refers, he gets a free dinner and he wanted to take his girl there.  Not to mention he gave us a free margarita each as well.  It ended up being a good restaurant.  Maybe the guy got a free date out of the deal.

John has found the meca of US overconsumption here in Mexico

On to Costco.  Yes, you saw that right.  They even have Costco in Mexico and your US membership works.  Complete with chicken bakes and pizza at the food court and a tire center as you leave the building and the 2-6 packs of bagels deal.  Costco is a little bit of a challenge when your freezer is 6" x 10" x 12".  It makes buying those 64 pack of frozen egg rolls a little more difficult.  Basically, we couldn't buy anything fresh as we would have nowhere to store it.  So we just bought some dry goods and debated the ten pack of toothpaste, but even that we didn't feel we had enough room to store on the boat.  And really, we only have a few months left.  The final, bigger than it really needs to be, store we stopped at was Mega.  Yes, even in Mexico they think that super big is better.  Mega is a super Wal-Mart, only better in my opinion.  Besides the usual stuff they also have banks, chiropractors, and other services there.  Just like Wal-Mart they also have an in house tortillaria; that's something different from the States.  We went in for one thing and came out with a cart load.  By the time we made it back to the marina we had filled our little Toyota Yaris to the brim.  That, along with the Mexican love of speed bumps and cobble streets, would explain the zip tied on hub caps.  It was a long day and the Mexican economy is better off now that we spent our money.

Budget rent a car's answer to bumpy roads

Mega, it's just big

Government approved diesel cans

In order to get maximum usage from the car we woke up early the next day to make a fuel run.  Fuel in Mexico is a government run business, so the price is the same everywhere; except at a marina where they can charge a marina fee.  The marina fee is logical, they do have to maintain a dock and even in Mexico probably deal with some environmental agency; but we are cheap and we had a car so why not go to the Pemex station direct.  We loaded our 6 - 5 gallon plus diesel cans and 2 - 5 gallon plus gas cans into the trunk of the Yaris and headed out.  In the States we would probably be considered terrorists and put on some list.  In Mexico no one even seemed to notice.  My diesel cans have a panga fisherman approved seal, of a plastic baggie twisted under the cap to keep it from spilling and no vent.  It works great but probably isn't quite up to specifications.  The little Yaris did us proud as we came home with 48 gallons of differing fuel stuffed into the trunk, 10 gallons of water and three adults in it.  Didn't even lose a hubcap.  Oh yea that's right they were zip tied on for a reason!  The funniest thing of the whole rental car operation is that between the four of us there at check out time,only one person even had any type of auto insurance to their name as everyone else had sold their cars and canceled their insurance.  Going on 7 months for me since my last car driving experience. 

View from the boat in La Cruz anchorage

Back to La Cruz

2-2-13 – La Cruz, Nayarit, MX

View from the cockpit at La Cruz

We are now back in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (or just La Cruz for obvious reasons)  on the North side of Banderas Bay.  Yelapa (on the South side of the bay) was a very interesting stop and worth the trip, the cost and some rolly nights at mooring.  After 18 days of pay to dock/moor; it is a glorious feeling to be back on the hook, spending zero dollars a day to moor the boat.  There are about 50 boats in the anchorage at this time.  Since we left La Cruz about a month ago, we can see a dramatic increase of the number of boats and the size of the anchorages footprint.  I guess cruising season is in full swing now and La Cruz is a good place to be if you’re a cruiser.  Besides a decent anchorage there is free access to a dock at the marine to tie up your dinghy, the great town of La Cruz with all of its cruiser amenities and easy access to the Mexico bus system.  Incidentally, besides packing 16 people in to a van the size of a VW Vanagon, the buses have been great, basically clean and very inexpensive way to get around.

On our wanderings for cheap chevice and cervezas we ran back into our old friends John and Sue on s/v Wizard who had just arrived at the marina after a long trip North.  Their trip North left them with some things to fix on the boat and the reminder that going North is nothing like going South.  A point we are already thinking about.  Oddly enough we have no plans right now.  It is a weird feeling to not have any definitive plans to leave, dates to be somewhere, etc.  I guess we’ll watch the Super Bowl on Sunday and see what happens. 

Elizabeth at stop #1 for street tacos.

In mentioning the buses here; we recently took a little day trip to the surfing/tourist/generally trendy town of Sayulita.  It is a two bus affair each way, but for a grand total of about $7.50 USD we made it there and back for two people; not bad.  Sayulita is definitely as described above.  Lots of surfers and lots of the clichéd general vibe that seems to go with that.  I thought it was still a cool little place and would like to spend more time there.  It seems there are more restaurants than a person could eat at in a year; and to top that off we had some of the greatest fried shrimp tacos ever right on the street.  First of all, all tacos served from a little stand with plastic chairs literally in the street seem to be good.  Then some of these little stands get a reputation for being even better than the average.  This one was excellent.  We were on a street taco sampling mission so this was stop two of the day and we were limited to one taco each but you could tell this was a place worth visiting again.  Instead of sitting at a restaurant overlooking the beach, we bought a couple of beers at a tienda and sat in the sand with the rest of the surfer, camping types to drink our beers.  A guy speaking good English came by to sell us some doughnuts and sold them as “the greatest hangover helper, bikini friendly doughnut experience you will ever have”  He hand made them and had caramel, plantain or 420chocolate.  All of them were $20 pesos each except the chocolate, which were $20 USD each.  We went with the caramel and it was everything he described.  The trip to Sayulita was fun, the little town was funky and a good place to hang out.  Mental note: Worth visiting again.

Campground on the beach at Sayulita

Saw lots of SUPs and surfboards here

One of many streets in Sayulita that look like this

Ready to hang out on the beach

Beach dog sharing our doughnut

Upon returning from our trip to Sayulita we found a big metal boat anchored conspicuously close to us in the anchorage.  The informal rule is that the guy there first has right of way.  We decided to stop and say hi, mention how much anchor rode we had out and just introduce ourselves so if we they got close to us later in the night we wouldn't be such strangers.  It was a little nudge from us to say “we think you are too close to us, but not close enough to make a big stink about it”  The boat was fairly incredible and the guy was from Denmark and somehow it came up that he had been to Alaska and this wouldn’t be his first time across the Pacific.  Back at the boat we Googled the boat and what do you know, his website says he’s logged over 53,000 miles in the last three years on his custom built 60 footer.  It sort of makes you feel silly when you imply to a guy he’s anchored too close and then find out he’s gone 53,000 miles.  I guess he probably knows how to anchor at this point!

Random restaurant in La Cruz

It’s morning net time, so it’s time to see what’s happening in the world of Banderas Bay, see what the weather will be like, who wants to trade stuff for coconuts and then listen to the “social net”.  Yes there is so much stuff happening around here that they have a separate net each morning to cover the social goings on around town.