The Voyage of Padma

I’ve been a little tardy updating this thing. I suppose in some ways this is good, as it indicates what a great time we’ve been having. We haven’t even reached the Sea of Cortez yet, but we love what we’ve seen of Pacific Mexico so far. When I left you last, we were still in Barra de Navidad. After a really nasty weather spell, we managed to pull our anchor out of the mud to make our way around Cabo Corrientes and into Banderas Bay. We took our time getting here and stopped at several small anchorages along the way.

About that weather, we saw 50 knots in the anchorage, but our anchor held beautifully. Can’t say the same for other boats, and thankfully we were upwind and didn’t have to fend anyone off. Boats anchored in La Cruz were beached and some took damage. They had even more wind than us, at 70 knots. You can read about it here: Latitude 38 . There’s been a lot of unusual weather on this coast this season with several frontal trofs coming through. We were told that we’d be lucky to get wind at all here, but that has not been the case, especially with this being an El Nino year. In fact, coming around Cabo Corrientes – one of those notorious capes where one has to double the speed of the stated gradient wind and the height of the waves reported on the grib files – we had a southerly wind of about 15 knots and a leisurely sail all the way around, which is unheard of this time of the year.

At the moment, we are moored at the Marina Nayarit Riviera (La Cruz) and are enjoying a bit of the marina life. When we got here a few weeks ago, there was a construction frenzy going on. People were working day and night to finish the marina for the upcoming MexORC Race, which as it turned out is a pretty big deal. The race is biannual and it features five different yacht classes, including the big and expensive Maxi yachts. In addition, the president of the Mexico came to open the races and then returned at the end of the week to also close the race. Wow, who has ever heard of a head of state appearing twice at one event?

The security, as you can imagine, was something to be experienced. I didn’t take any pics of the security, although I really wanted to. The marines stationed on our dock were packing some serious heat, as were the riot squad, the Policia Federales, and the Mexican Army all stationed and alert in this tiny village.

To get away from the boat for a while, Chris and I went to see Avatar one afternoon– what a great date, by the way. Afterwards we ended up having a drink in Vallarta Marina, where we just happened to strike up a conversation with these guys from Guadalajara. One is a chef (a ‘cordon bleu’ trained chef, nonetheless) at a very popular artsy restaurant in P.V. (He doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to be his apprentice next year and the other is an Architect, who also just happened to have a boat entered in the MexORC. This led to Chris being invited as crew for part of the week. I could have gone too, but you know? I’m not really that keen on racing anymore. I used to be, but now I’m…meh.

Anyway, Manuel (the architect) had just procured a sponsor the week before the event, after his boat had been on the hard for three years. His boat, a 37-foot Capri, needs new sails and a bit of work, but he was just happy to get it into the water and into a race.

How did the race go? Well, Chris says that the Mexicans swear much better than we do.

Capri 37

The Crew

El Capitan, Manuel

El Presidente watching the racers.

We especially enjoyed the closing banquette: gourmet food, free flowing drinks, an orchestra and fireworks, all set out on the end of the pier. Also, Manuel’s wife, F. is on the Mexican Women’s sailing team, on a 37 Capri as well. They were being filmed for a reality television series here in Mexico, so there was much posturing in front of the rolling cameras (Jeez I hope I’m not in those shots!), especially after they won third place in their division which beat out several men’s teams.  Chris says that Manuel’s boat pulled ahead of the women at the start line, but then things fell apart going downwind. Excuses. Las Mujeres de Marineras de Mexico is a team to be reckoned with.

Awesome party.