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La Cruz: Where the Kids Are

Dec 19th, 2011
by Sara.
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We have been in La Cruz in Banderas Bay for nearly four weeks now. We had planned to leave a week ago — no matter what — with the goal to be in Barra de Navidad for Christmas (naturally!). But then the kids began to gather. There were four other kid boats here when we arrived, more than we’d encountered in one spot this past six months of cruising. Now, five days before Christmas there are at least 10 boats with kids onboard with more on the way.

So, we’ve stayed here in La Cruz so the girls can savor some major kid-time. Which gives their parents time to mingle with other sailing parents and chat about the challenges and thrills of cruising with little people. And, ahem, enjoy a cold happy hour margarita while our young crews play tag in the grass. We’ve known that cruisers are a tight bunch and friendships form quickly, especially in a foreign place. But we’ve also found here that cruising parents are attracted to each other just as quickly as our kids are. Maybe it’s because we all know how to eat quickly and understand each others stories even though it’s only every fourth sentence that gets finished.

While Holly is the youngest of the bunch she doesn’t mind tagging along with her big sister one bit. Leah currently has two other girlfriends with birthdays within weeks of hers and is in heaven. We’ve recognized the importance of just staying still for a while and letting Leah nuture her friendships. For nearly five months it felt like we were constantly on the move and it’s been nice to stop here for a bit and nurture our own as well. And to finally have time to simply let the kids run with their friends and just be kids, with games of tag, sleepovers, playing in the water. It’s like a Christmas summer camp here and it’s marvelous.

The La Cruz Kids Club (yes, it's really an official club!) holds a bake/book/smoothie sale at the cruiser's swap meet

Leah and Frances hold a swap meet of their own out of dock box treasures

Time for a little preschool, kindergarten and second grade in the (air conditioned!) La Cruz marina lounge

The sailing kids of La Cruz decorated a tree for the marina lounge

La Cruz Kids Club heads to the grass to play "What time is it, Mr. Fox?"

 

Racing Out of Our Comfort Zone

Dec 4th, 2011
by Sara.
2 comments

“There’s cheap beer and tacos up at PV Sailing tonight!” announced our new friend and La Cruz dock neighbor Tami on Andiamo III one afternoon last week. Without thinking twice, we packed up the kids and headed over.

It turned out to be a meet and greet for cruisers and local sailing vendors and we enjoyed meeting all sorts of new folks. And while the beer was very cold and cheap and the tacos muy delicioso, the goal for the evening was to get boats to sign up for the Banderas Bay Blast, a four-day charity fun-race being held the following week.

As dusk fell, the girls were tired and had had enough of our yakking and we quietly snuck out with them. “It would sure be fun to do a race like that someday,” I said to Michael. “Hey…maybe we should do it now?”

“Let’s go for it!” he replied and I ran back inside to put our name down on the list of race boats.

One of our goals for this trip is to not pass on opportunities that lie outside our comfort zone, which we tend to want to do, as do most people I assume. There’s been a number of chances we could have taken in the past – both large and small – and few things are worse than regret at “what would have happened if we had…?” Whether it’s taking a job opportunity in Alaska, or sailing across an ocean, or just talking to someone we really want to meet, we are learning not to let these types of adventures pass us by.

Riding a panga in through the Punta Mita surf to the after-race moonlit beach dinner

Sailing in the Banderas Bay Blast was not to be one of them. Believe it or not, it was the very first time I have ever raced a boat and Michael’s first since he was a kid. We were a little nervous at what to expect as we motored Wondertime up to the start line but with the help of our crew (the Del Vientos, who we originally met in Olympia when they drove through in their car on their way to their boat in Mexico and who our girls are over the moon to have now reunited with in La Cruz) we soon had the sails up and were across the starting line right on time. With a bow full of giggling girls, we tacked back and forth across sunny and warm Banderas Bay all afternoon, making our way to Punta Mita and the finish.

We certainly weren’t the first to cross the finish line, and it’s entirely possible we were the last in our class, but we didn’t care. It was an awesome challenge sailing upwind in very light air (yes, we can point higher than the big cats!) and as we and our crew took a panga ride to shore through the Punta Mita surf for dinner on the beach we were all grinning ear to ear.

The following day was the final leg, a downwind spinnaker run to Paradise Village (this one with just the Wondertime crew aboard). Once again, our sailing skills and patience were challenged as we struggled to keep the boat moving at a decent pace in the 5-8 knots of wind from astern. In the end, we folded that race as we were moving 1.5 knots still 6 miles from the finish with the time limit looming. No matter, we were hardly bummed at getting to our free slip at Paradise, enjoying a scrumptious dinner at the Puerto Vallarta Yacht Club and taking a dip in the huge pool.

While the two free slips and three parties had enticed us at the beginning to sign up for the Blast, it really was the racing that we’ll remember. I dare say that our sailing skills have improved a touch with the added factor of competition thrown in. I mean, we gybed our cruising spinnaker in three minutes flat! While Michael and I have sailed together as a team for years, it was an entirely new experience to try to do things quickly – which is what you do in a race it seems but not too often when sailing a slow cruising boat southward — and remain calm at the same time. And definitely not least, we also had an amazing day of taking our new friends out sailing.

As always happens when we don’t let an opportunity pass by, we gain much more than we ever think we will.

Click here for Latitude 38’s coverage of the Blast (with photos of the Wondertime girls tossing water ballons at the Poobah and Wondertime at the start line!)

Photo by Gato Go

Sweet life in San Francisco

Sep 21st, 2011
by Sara.
2 comments

I gripped the clear plastic frosty cup in one hand and with the other held the green straw steady so I could take a sweet long pull on my drink. My eyes nearly rolled back in my head as the icy taste hit my tongue. We had held out for nearly three days after arriving in Sausalito but we couldn’t resist that green sign with the mermaid and the “free wifi” sign on the door any longer. Before we knew what was happening the four of us were sitting in Starbucks, the girls slurping down organic vanilla milks, Michael with a java chip frappacino and myself deliriously inhaling a caramel frappacino, my first in nearly three months.

Will that be an ice-cream cone or margarita? California has something for everyone!

Since we had arrived in Sausalito late on a Friday evening, the customs agents didn’t arrive until nearly noon the next day to clear us in. [Note to anyone sailing directly to San Francisco from Canada, or any other foreign port: do go directly to Oakland as the customs agents suggested we do, it is the fastest way to check in.] After the agents had left the boat once the five-minute check-in process was completed, our amazing crewmember Garth hightailed it to the airport to catch his afternoon flight home in time and we stayed onboard the boat for yet another hour or two just wondering what to do next. Finally we put on our shoes and walked ashore to meander down the Sausalito streets.

The land swayed underneath our feet as we made our way through the Saturday throngs of tourists. It was dizzying in other ways: it felt like we were suddenly weaving our way through millions and millions of people after not bumping elbows with a single soul for months in Canada. Cars, buses, bikes, planes, ferries hurtled by; we were overwhelmed by the huge variety of sights and sounds around us after seeing only sea, trees and rocks for so long. One thing was for sure, we were hungry for a non-home cooked meal and made our way to our favorite hamburger joint, waited in line for about a half hour and walked across the street to the park with our bag of huge, juicy handmade cheeseburgers and fries. Paradise.

We quickly adjusted though and after a day or two were dancing with joy at all the easy access to, well, everything here. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not really the cheeseburgers, cheap delicious beer, amazing Mexican food, Starbucks, Targets, West Marines, Trader Joes (oh hallelujah!), fresh juicy produce, rich dark coffee, mail deliveries, sunshine, free anchorages, free hot showers, or copious wifi that’s got us loving life here. It’s the people, of course. Our days have been jam-packed with visiting friends both new and old. We’ve met up with fellow boats from the Northwest also on their way south, a number of close family and friends that live in the area, a huge handful of friends that we cruised with nine years ago that make their home in the Bay again, and of course, new friends.

Leah & Ruby

A few days after arriving in SF we rolled out the genoa and scooted eastward across the bay to Emeryville where our kindred spirits on Convivia have been living on and readying their Cal 43 for cruising, now only days away from their own departure date. We’d only “met” online up to this point but minutes after we pulled into our borrowed slip on their dock their daughter Ruby, 7, and Leah were already skipping down the dock holding hands and making plans for their slumber party that night. We talked into the afternoon, then talked over dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, then tucked all four kids, Leah, Ruby, Miles and Holly, into bunks on Convivia while we parents sipped Tucker’s famous margaritas and talked and laughed late into the night.

The people here are the sweetest part of this city for sure.

Countdown to cruising: 1 day to go

Jun 29th, 2011
by Sara.
5 comments

That’s it. Our final full day in town is done. Last items have been put into our 5’x5′ storage unit, trip to Trader Joes complete (I had no idea you could even haul $400 worth of food in one of those tiny carts! Must be all the chocolate I stocked up on). We also picked up a netbook to use for navigation so our main laptop won’t have to carry all the computing duties. Leah and I got haircuts, we visited some treasured friends in our old neighborhood, made one last trip to West Marine, hauled home a 15 lb. bag of cat food (that should last our 8 lb. cat a while at least), ran through the car wash, unloaded the car one last time, delivered our dear old Subaru to her new owner, visited with some dock neighbors, tucked our exhausted girls into bed, and I headed out for one final Mom’s Night Out at our favorite pub.

I came home to this:

I’ll get on it in the morning.

Countdown to cruising: 3 days to go

Jun 26th, 2011
by Sara.
3 comments

We spent today not doing a lick of work, but rather saying see-you-later to many family and friends who stopped by our dock to say hello and tour our little home. It was a good day for sure.

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