11/15/02 Current Position: Punta de Mita.

Overall it took three days to cross from Cabo San Lucas to Punta de Mita. All of the books say that during this time of year we could expect northwestern winds and a great downwind sail neither of which ever happened. The last day at sea the wind actually switched to the east and we sailed to weather for the first time since leaving Seattle. Oh well, I'd rather sail to weather than motor, especially since we had limited diesel. We dropped anchor around 2:00 am on the morning of the 13th. Minus the navigation hazards (which were minimal) I really enjoy arriving new places at night. There isn't much like climbing into the cockpit in the morning and getting your first glimpse of the new terrain. Here that glimpse was nothing short of amazing. Punta de Mita is situated at the northern tip of Banderas Bay. Which is teeming with marine life, everything from Humpback whales to poisonous sea snakes. The town itself is small and placed on a hill above the beach. To the east and the north are jagged jungle covered mountains. There is a Four Seasons Hotel and an 18 hole golf course to the west of the town taking up the best real estate in the area. It is by far one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

Unfortunately, our first priority wasn't exploring the area. We needed an outboard engine and decided that it had to be a new one. Outboard motors are the most unreliable, finicky, little beasts and we were tired of constantly trying to convince ours that its job was to run. You would be amazed at how much pain and anguish such a small simple device can inflict. Steinbeck noted during their trip into the Sea of Cortez that their outboard "was not only a living thing but a mean, irritable, contemptible, vengeful, mischievous, hateful living thing" and furthermore "When and if these ghoulish little motors learn to reproduce themselves the human species is doomed." I second his sentiments and maintain a cautious love-hate relationship with the beasts.

The bus system here is amazing. They come and go every 7 minutes at great speeds. We located a bus to Puerto Vallarta and set off in search of a new engine. The buses and drivers are truly one of a kind. Most have a colorful fringe lining the top of the windshield, a cool name painted on the front like El Sheriff or El Bandito, and all have a picture of Christ or the Virgin Mary tacked to the dashboard. If you're lucky the driver has installed a massive sound system over which he blasts miscellaneous Mexican ballads. Puerto Vallarta is roughly 20 miles from Punta de Mita. Anxious to see the countryside, I rush aboard the bus to ensure that I can secure a window seat. As I board the bus it becomes obvious that everyone aboard has already seen the sites because they have all chosen aisle seats. I settle into my seat, open the window, and get my camera ready. Immediately, I was amazed by the driver's ability to take this 50 ft bus down a small windy road, much in the same manner you might drive a Porsche. Also it becomes painfully obvious that an aisle seat is preferred as passing tree branches make their way in my open window.

Once in Puerto Vallarta we were able to quickly locate and purchase a new outboard for less than it would have cost us in the states. PV is a huge town, and they have every possible service including a Sam's Club and Wal-Mart. This is where we will re-supply before heading south.

With the new beast in hand we climbed back on the bus and zipped back to our boat. The last couple of days have been spent exploring the town and surfing. In the town we have found some of the nicest people and the best food. My personal favorite so far is called Teresa's — it essentially is the front porch of a family's home and is run by three sisters. They make the best enchiladas, burritos, and tacos. Typically, a huge meal costs around 30 pesos, roughly 3 dollars US. The surf has been just as good as the town. So far we've surfed Farro's and La Lancha, both clean hip- to head-high point breaks. In the two days we've been here we've meet tons of people. There are a lot of ex-pats here, all of whom have been great and shown a huge interest in our trip. The locals have been just as friendl. One of the locals, Sergio, showed up at our boat this morning in his Panga to take us fishing. In summary, life is good right now. We have a new outboard, Tramonto, and ourselves are in great shape — there really is not much more that we could ask for. A big thanks to everyone back home who offered to help us with our outboard crisis — we truly appreciate it.

Hasta Luego

(Jeff)

Greetings from Punta de Mita near Puerto Vallarta! We arrived here on the 13th after transiting the bottom of the Sea of Cortez straight from Cabo San Lucas, where we stayed for only a few days. The trip from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo was fairly easy with our arrival in Cabo taking place at around 3:30 am. Anchoring in the dark was a tad interesting due to the large number of sailboats already in the harbor, but we managed to avoid hitting anyone and dropped he hook in about 50 feet of water for the night. The sleep was welcome, but we had many things to get accomplished in town so our day started bright and earl with only a few hours of precious zzzzz's.

Cabo is an interesting town, albeit catered heavily to the vacationing tourist and a very large contingency of sports fishing vessels. Boats of all sizes could be found in the marina and at first light of the morning, hundreds of fishing boats could be seen leaving the harbor looking much like bees leaving the hive. We came to find out that there was a very high profile fishing tournament taking place where the winners could net over $100,000 USD. Suffice to say, these fisherman meant business. During the tournament, side bets and daily wagers could be made raising the stakes to a potential of over $400,000 should one boat get all the biggest fish. The sweet irony was that by the time the winner paid for the boat, crew, Mexican taxes, tips, US taxes and the like, the winner would only see about $30,000 of the original purse. All things considered, not bad for catching a fish. While we didn't see the winning fish, we did hear that the first day's contender weighed in at a heavy duty 287lbs and was one huge tuna. On an interesting side note, the boats apparently go out and troll for 'bait' before attempting to reel in the big ones. While this doesn't sound unusual, the bait can be 10-30lb fish which they reel in and keep alive! Hooks are sewn into the fish's mouth and they are set free to land the big ones.

Our first order of business upon arrival was to try to take care of immigration and officially check into the country. We had heard through the grapevine that this can be a daunting challenge, and many cruisers opt to hire an agent to assist with the process. Since this costs money, and we are somewhat prudent in that regard, we opted to take on the challenge. The unfortunate part of the check-in process in the necessity of locating and visiting about five different places, each of which were on opposite sides of the town. While we had loose directions to the first place, it became quickly apparent that the directions we were being given by locals were conflicting and pretty much rendered us momentarily lost. Fortunately we were able to pin down a general vicinity and set out on a bus to find it. One reason for some of the confusion in directions, is that the office had recently moved to the outskirts of town and few people knew where it actually was. We found the building, had our papers stamped and headed off to the next location. All in all, it took roughly five hours and a few cervezas (beers) to complete the whole process, but we had the satisfaction of doing it ourselves.

The town of Cabo is very oriented to the vacationing tourist and as such, there are several American stores (McDonalds, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, Hard Rock) on the main drag. However, behind the main street lay the true essence of Cabo. We repeatedly ventured away from the glitz and found some small taco stands and stores which were less visited by the masses. This is where more of the true Mexican culture exists, and where you can stretch your dollar a little more. While we didn't need too much in the way of supplies, we did need to make a few repairs from the voyage down the Baja peninsula.

For some strange reason, I was cursed with "break-itis." This is a little-known disease whereby everything that is touched breaks. The list of broken items was long during this last leg of the journey and I had several projects to be completed during the next few days at anchor. Thank goodness for being a bit on the handy side. I must admit that I broke one of the cardinal rules of the handyman code of ethics, and ran out of duct tape! This is a sin that no good handyman would ever forgive me for and I paid the price.

One item that broke during the last passage was the shaft of the tiller pilot, which helps us steer electronically in light wind conditions. Of course no part ever breaks during daylight hours and this was no exception, falling ill at around 9:00pm. Since the tiller pilot is a very handy item, I made a concerted effort to patch it up as best possible but without duct tape, I was forced to think on my feet and use whatever I could find to get the job done. My fix turned out to be a new beast that was nicknamed Frankenstein since it contained a few wrenches, pipe clamps, several assorted odds and ends and half a roll of electrical tape. try as I might, the electrical tape proved to be problematic and caused several hours of angst throughout the passage, always needing further repair during the wee hours of the morning. Trust me, there is no substitute for a good roll of duct tape.

In Cabo, some fellow cruisers joined us to visit a famous establishment called Squid Roe which is probably the most famous nightclub in all of Mexico. As one can imagine, it is packed to the gills with people and music blaring at top volume. Just imagine a long, narrow warehouse building with a catwalk style second floor and no roof. There were so many people inside that it was necessary at times to push your way into the crowd just to get to the bar or the dance floor.

The following day was the last event of the Baja Ha Ha; the awards ceremony. Due to our incredibly speedy second leg, we knew that we had a chance to come in second, but didn't expect to win. Well when the ribbon was passed out, Tramonto had captured first place in the Agave division (small slow boats) and we were passed the coveted lime green winner's shirt. Aside from fleeting momentary notoriety, there is little else to be had of winning the race but it was great fun and we met some terrific people along the way. With this chapter of our journey closed, it was time to make preparations for the trip to the mainland.

Sundays in Mexico are truly a day of rest with few services being open. Last minute items proved difficult to find as was diesel. We had seen people filling up earlier in the morning, however upon arrival at the fuel dock, we were told that they had run out and would not get any more until Monday. Being a little low on Diesel only meant that we would have to sail much of he way to the mainland instead of turning on the motor when the wind grew light. This proved to be a bit frustrating over the next few days, but we managed it well and pulled into Punta de Mita on November 13th.

Punta Mita as it is called locally, is the Northern most part of Banderas Bay which is home to the large town of Puerta Vallarta (PV). Our anchorage is approximately 18 miles as a crow flies from PV and lies in front of a wonderfully remote and small fishing village. Compared to the anchorages of the Baja Ha Ha, it was nice to be one of only two or three boats in the entire anchorage. The town itself is very much true Mexican culture but there has been a recent influx from a nearby Four Seasons resort and golf club. Aside from some commercialism on the beach, it is charming and quiet and the people are fantastically helpful and nice. We spent some time roaming through the town, meeting local residents and chatting with some expatriates who now call this place home.

Our first order of business was to locate an outboard motor, so we decided to find our way into Puerto Vallarta by bus. the bus we boarded was creatively decked out with the customary Virgin Mary on the dash, blaring Mexican music and a driver who swore he was Mario Andretti (the famous race car driver). Within moments after leaving the town, the driver accelerated the bus to amazing speeds and proceeded to take hairpin corners at 50+ miles per hour. I was literally hanging onto the seat railing to keep from being tossed to the other side of the bus, but these drivers know the roads and aren't afraid to get you there quickly. At one point Marc was nearly clipped by tree branches banging through the window at 60 miles per hour, so he scooted politely to the adjacent seat. It was a truly priceless experience and well worth of the $1.80 fare for the entertainment value alone.

While in PV we located an appropriate motor and took some time to tour the city which was recently hit very hard by hurricane Kenna. Much of the main downtown boulevard was torn up by the forces of the pounding waves and surf and efforts were underway to try to reconstruct them. Overall the cit wasn't terribly damaged on the surface, but there were certainly areas that were harder hit than others. Our stay was brief and we'll certainly have more time to spend exploring during the next two weeks that we're here. We boarded the bus once again for another rocket ride, and headed back to Punta de Mita.

Amongst our travels around town we were referred to a little restaurant which was in the back of someone's home. It is called Theresa's and is run by four sisters who all work the restaurant after about 5:00pm. There are only six tables, but the food was quite good and very inexpensive. Both Marc and I were a bit shocked when our check for $6.30 arrived after having stuffed our gullets with food and two Sprites. We've been told of another place or two which we'll have to find in the days to come.

The nightlife in this town consists of a few palapas on the beach that try to make a living, but after the sun sets, there isn't much foot traffic around. Up in town we discovered a quaint local bar which we visited and had a great time. The only other people in the bar were laughing and chatting about the American guy dancing and invited us over to chat with them. It turned out that one of them was a local fisherman who offered to come get us in the morning to go fishing. We spent a couple hours and a couple of rounds chatting but decided to call it a night after the locals decided to take a trip to the nearby town of La Cruz for more excitement. The little voice of reason was clanging loudly in our heads knowing how people drive around here, and that all busses stopped running after 8:00pm, so we decided against going with them and headed back to the boat. When morning came we were fully expecting that the fisherman had forgotten about us but a panga boat arrived promptly at the agreed upon time and off we went.

We came to find out that the locals who ventured off to La Cruz had spent several hours there and were a little worse for the wear the next morning. From the looks of them in the boat, there were pretty hung over which made us feel good about our decision from the previous night.

The fishing adventure was great and we got a few tips and tricks from them. It turns out that these fellows go out and catch fish first thing in the morning for the restaurant where one of them works. He is a cook there and catches the fish for fresh ceviche dishes and the local catch of the day. We ended up hooking about seven or eight relatively small mackerel and one bonita in the hour and a half that we were out there.

Surf Report: Now that we have a brand spanking new outboard, we've tried surfing for the last two mornings and had some successes. The first spot we tried was right near Punta de Mita and was marginal in my opinion. The waves were a bit tough for me to get on a shorter board, but Marc seemed to have no problems on the long board. The downside of this location was a few sketch rocks which had to be carefully avoided.

The second location we tried this morning was called La Lancha on the opposite side of town about a 3/4 mile away by dinghy. It was a great break with lots of fun rides and relatively few hazards to worry about. We surfed until our arms nearly dropped off from paddling, and limped back out to the dinghy which was anchored way too far away. Suffice to say, my ribs are killing me from paddling on a hard board, but we're raring and eager to give it another go tomorrow.

As I sit here staring at a cloudless sky I realized that I've forgotten to describe the weather. One word: HOT! The temp has been averaging about 95 degrees and 75% humidity. Swimming isn't much relief since the water temp is about 82 degrees, but it's better than sweating constantly. When the wind isn't blowing, there's no relief from the punishing heat and you just sit around and stew in our own juices. Given that this area is a bit of a jungle, you'd think there'd be more trees, but, alas, shade is rarely found. I know, I know, shut up about the steamy weather since it's winter back in the States and I'd be luck to see temps above 45 degrees.

For what it's worth, I saw an amazing sunset this evening that just had to be savored. There are moments when you wish you could put the world on pause and soak up the greatness of the moment, so whenever you get the opportunity, take a few minutes to enjoy.

Cheers!

Take a look at the slideshow of the Baja Ha Ha!