I’ve been asked by several of you land lubbers what the heck we do out here each day. If you’ve read the blog and saw some of the videos, you probably have a good idea what we do when we are sailing or are at anchor in a new bay. But, what have we been doing in the marina here in La Cruz for the past two weeks???
So, I thought I would give you the run down of what we have been doing for the past few days. There really isn’t any typical day here since there isn’t much routine. But, this will give you some idea…
On Saturday, we were lucky to be invited to crew aboard Kenta Anae, our friends we met earlier this summer in the Sea, as they were about to race the final race in the Vallarta Cup Series put on by the Vallarta Yacht Club. Now, Mike & I may have done our share of sailing, but we have no race experience whatsoever! It’s a whole different ballgame! I mostly tried to stay out of the way and grind on the winch to sheet in the spinnaker whenever Merle gave the order. That, I could handle.
I was also the race photographer…
We were one of the only cruising/liveaboard boats in the race, so it we weren’t exactly pulling away from most of the raceboats. But, we did beat some boats and overall had a great time. It was so nice to be out on the water again! We even saw a whale pretty close to the boat. One crazy thing did happen though. Another boat had to pull out of the race in the middle because they discovered a dead body floating in the bay. Eek! Apparently a tourist at a nearby resort had gone missing and was presumed drowned. I’m glad his family got some closure, but I’m also glad we did not make the gruesome discovery!
After a celebratory tequila on Kenta Anae after the race, Mike & I had to get back to Adagio to do some studying. While we were in the States, we studied for and took the first Ham license exam (Technician level). But, to really do anything on the radio, you need the second level – General license. They were offering the exam at the Vallarta Yacht Club on Sunday morning, so we decided to go for it. Unfortunately, we had procrastinated a bit on the studying, and had to stay up late Saturday night trying to memorize everything. Unless you know a lot about circuits, oscillators, transceivers, how to solve for power when you have resistance and energy, etc…you have to study for this exam.
Sunday morning came early, and we took a van with a bunch of other folks from the marina over to the yacht club for our test. Thankfully, we both passed and now have our upgrade Ham license! After resting up (we stayed up way too late!), we met up with a group of about 15 people to head into Puerto Vallarta for dinner. Our friends on Kenta Anae wanted to introduce everyone to a great Cuban restaurant that they found in Puerto Vallarta Centro. We had to take two different buses to get there, and somehow we managed to all pile onto the same buses despite the large size of our group. The restaurant was great with live music and a dance floor. Unfortunately, Mike was starting not to feel so well, so we cut the evening short. But, we heard the band played until 3 am!
On Monday, Mike was down with a bug, so I took the opportunity to do some computer work and video editing. I promise there will be a new video up soon!
Tuesday was “I hate birds!” day. We realized that for the last couple of nights, one of the large frigate birds had decided that the top of the mast was an excellent place to hang out for the night. Our boat was literally covered in bird shit. The decks, the canvas, the dinghy, the lines on the mast pulpit, the scuba tanks…everything. And, on top of that, the bird broke off the wind indicator on the mast. Ugh! So, I got to work on my hands and knees scrubbing bird shit for hours in the sun. Mike was finally feeling himself by the afternoon and decided to climb to the top of the mast to replace the broken piece of the wind indicator (thank goodness we had a spare) and to put up some bird deterrent. He put up a bunch of bright colored zip ties sticking straight up that we hoped would keep the birds off.
Unfortunately, about 4 am that night, Mike & I both woke up to a noise. We both looked at each other and said “bird!” Sure enough, that damn bird was back and didn’t care about the zip ties. And what a mess he had made. Lucky for me, Mike was willing to get the hose and scrub brush out and let me stay in bed.
By Wednesday we were really getting serious about narrowing our to-do list so that we could finally depart the marina. Mike took off to run a bunch of errands and get some last minute parts as well as make a couple of returns to the marine shop in Puerto Vallarta. I stayed behind to work on polishing the stainless steel. I didn’t get the whole boat done, but there are only so many hours I can stand working in the sun and heat before I call it quits for the day.
So, that brings us to today. Mike needed to do some maintenance on the outboards, so I got tasked with finding the AutoZone to get us more refrigerant. I found the AutoZone, which was right next to the WalMart. I took the opportunity to pick up some last minute things at WalMart and was surprised to find lemons! Limes are easily available in Mexico, but this is the first time I’ve seen lemons since leaving California. This was also my first time negotiating the Puerto Vallarta bus system by myself, so I’m pretty proud of myself.
After my shopping excursion, I walked over to the fish market to pick up some shrimp for dinner. And, I decided to do a little work in the galley. My cilantro looked like it was on its last day, so I made it into some great cilantro pesto with some almonds, garlic, olive oil and salt. It should keep that way for some time. I also started a new batch of sprouts. I’m trying some different seeds this time, so I hope they turn out pretty yummy.
We made a plan to leave here on Saturday, weather permitting. We’re still debating whether to head to Punta de Mita or to Yelapa. I know Mike wants to try his hand at surfing, so I think we may end up at Punta de Mita for a couple of days.
We’ll keep you all posted of our whereabouts!
~katie
Loved the Day by Day post.