Month: August 2010

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Life on the Docks

As I said, Tiffany and I spent a lot of time working on the docks in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Paradise Village in Puerto Vallarta getting involved in the local cruising community and looking for ships looking for crew. The La Cruz marina was an interesting place to be. First off, the marina was still undergoing construction so that meant we had some unusual ships to maneuver around while sailing.

They also had a major boat show while we were there that the president of Mexico attended. I didn’t get any footage of the “El Presidente” mostly because I also didn’t get any pictures of the military snipers hanging out on the rooftops of all the buildings or the multiple hummers that drove around pointing their .50 cal machine guns at my head for no apparent reason. Let’s simply leave it at I didn’t want to give them any additional motivation to point their high powered weapons at me for longer than they already were. I did get some footage of how the Mexican government throws a party:

The weather over the months we were there was unusual, to put it mildly. Hurricane force winds, “weather bombs” (what the heck is that supposed to even mean!?) hot rain, freezing sunny days, tornados ripping through the bay…it keeps you on your toes.

Aside from when the weather was trying to kill by ripping your ship apart it was actually quite pleasant.

– Greg

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A Few Months in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico

So like I said, La Cruz was the first place where Tiffany and I got to really spend some time, meet some people and just live a little bit outside the US, which was a major goal of this trip in the first place. My previous assessment of La Cruz as a town in transition from small village to tourist mecca was pretty accurate and I’m really glad I got here and got to know people before the transition was complete. La Cruz is still the kind of place where, as long as you engage people, you will find your name remembered, your favorite dinner served to you a few minutes after you sit down and bar tenders who remember your favorite drink. There is a strong, close knit, gringo community that comprises the owners of the bars, some musicians and a bunch of people with interesting stories. Add to this mix the cruisers we came down the coast with and you can easily see why some people end up “swallowing the hook” here and don’t ever sail out of the Banderas Bay.

Living in La Cruz did present one major challenge for me though:

Now walking on dirt roads in 3rd world countries in your sandals may sound like fun, but by avoiding the dangers of the sidewalk, I opened myself up to a different hazard

Needless to say, after two infections, the local doctor and I were on good terms and I was very grateful that Mexico has massively cheap medications.

Children’s fundraisers, British pubs (with awesome fish and chips), salsa lessons, Irish pubs…a good time with some good people is never very hard to find in La Cruz, Here is what our evenings typically looked like:

As for eating, well, with Mexican pricing on all the food and a ton of variety, we basically ate every meal out. The dining scene was almost as interesting and varied as the nightlife

And for those of you following along my church explorations, I found a very neat Catholic church near Puerto Vallarta that had a very different take on crucifix we typically see at the front of most Catholic Churches.

Seemed like the carving was more focused on the risen Jesus than the crucified Jesus. I liked it, defiantly gave a different feel to the church.

– Greg

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Back in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico

Our second stay in La Cruz was one of the more special highlights of our trip so far. The reason for this is that due to a variety of circumstances it worked out that actually got to live in La Cruz for about 2 months. We rented a room, got to make some new friends, reconnected with our old sailing buddies, rode zip lines, saw whales, starred in movies and found out what happens when those of us used to navigating on the ocean attempt to find their way on land.

I also managed to find two new wines of the world for you: the first is Montevina, which was quite good and became my favorite while staying at Philo’s bar. It got to the point where I didn’t even have to ask, they just brought me a glass when I sat down. It’s good to be known 😉

And the second wine is another L.A. CETTO. This time the white. The red back in Mazatlan was much better.

While beating the bushes and dragging myself around the local bars of La Cruz for the sole purpose of the arduous task of finding local wines to report to you, I also managed to meet and make some new cruising friends. Several interesting conversations about this particular brand of travel lifestyle resulted, including some you may not have thought of. Especially since several of you all have decided to off and get yourselves hitched while I’m gone, here is a good travel trip for all the married (or soon to be married) ladies out there:

Of note, some of you may have noticed that sometimes I don’t have my wedding band on in the videos and that I don’t wear a wrist watch. No, this is not because Tiffany is currently travelling in Florida. It’s an old habit from my Coast Guard training where I was told dock lines grab rings and watches and use them as leverage to pull off your assorted limbs. This is one of the many reasons I use a pocket watch. (that and I don’t get a watch tan like Tiffany has).

Speaking of my lovely and long absent wife, after about two months separation there has been some contention among the local community whether or not she exists or is simply a convenient alibi for me to avoid having to pick up on women down in Mexico. Well, for all of those who doubted, I am happy to report that Tiffany is finally back from her travels in the Caribbean…with an unusual skin condition…

After looking around a bit, we decided to rent a room, get to know the area and possibly find a ship headed west towards the South Pacific that could use some crew. We picked a picturesque little bar / hotel and started exploring.

Keep following for the results of our explorations!

– Greg

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Tiffany and the STCW

So remember we mentioned that Tiffany was off to Fort Lauderdale for a week of training? Well, that training was for the STCW 95, a requirement for any mariner that wants to work on a boat outside of the US, or larger than 100 tons. Now, previously I was only traveling from US port to US port, but now since that has obviously changed, I needed to upgrade my USCG 100 Ton Master to include this endorsement. The STCW is basically a week long course that teaches basic first aid, CPR, firefighting and how to not die immediately on a ship that has problems. You do remember of course that Greg and I are former Coast Guard officers… Yes, we have done all of this before and are trained well beyond the basic level of this course. The challenge is that the Coast Guard didn’t give us the fancy little piece of paper that says we’re good to go. So… Here I am in Ft. Lauderdale.

With some online research, I managed to find a great school that was holding this course during a time frame that fit our schedule. The Maritime Professional Training facility and their instructors were great. Here are a few clips from my classes:

Those awesome, stylish gumby survival suits are the same things that Greg and I had to shimmy into on our first shipboard experiences – the main difference between that time and this one was on our ships they made us jump over the side while wearing the suit! Lots of fun 🙂

So, the great thing about this class was that it wasn’t all just sitting around and listening to a lecture. We got to do stuff! Cool stuff most people don’t get to do! Of course, before they throw you into a firefighting situation, they want you to test out your gear. They gave us SCBAs (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) for our training. We used these same getups on our ships, so it was nice and familiar to me.

And we got to fight real fires!

All in all it was a fun week for me.

Well, aside from the fact that Florida was freezing cold the entire time! Seriously, there was frost and everything!

~ Tiffany

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Mazatlan, MX – 3rd

Mazatlan, MX

With the help of Mary-Ann on s/v OLD MOON we found another Mexican wine.

For my last entry on Mazatlan, I’ll focus on our transportation options. Yes, I realize that the topic of transportation would not typically be notable. Here it is.

Getting around presents some interesting alternatives. There are a lot of options for taxis but all of them are a little short on the safety department.

You could take the bus but be warned, you aren’t getting anywhere quickly on the Mazatlan bus system.

You’ll be happy to know that we made it to the local English speaking church on time (they have English speaking churches here…it’s a tourist city). The other transportation option is to rent a car; however, be forewarned that mode of transportation comes with its own inherent additional risks in this town thanks to the unique layout of the curbside parking. Gotta wonder what someone was thinking when they planned this out:

How about horses? Horses are safe, reliable, even fun and in Mexico apparently they are bilingual…

Ultimately though, it is the call of the sea that eventually reaches all of us. Well, all of us that sail on boats at least. I found a ride with Jake on s/v MALOOSE on an overnight transit down to San Blas. For those of you who have been keeping up with this blog, you will know of my long standing battle with Tiffany over the existence of the “supposed” green flash. This battle came to head under a beautiful sunset leaving the port.

Naturally, Tiffany was in another country when this happened.

– Greg

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Dominique, FVI

Dominique, FVI

I got a report from Tiffany who is dealing with the many challenges of teaching a sailing class on a luxury sailing yacht in the middle of the French Caribbean.

Sailing teaching supplies are in short supply. Fortunately, Tiffany knows how to improvise.

Also, class disruptions are frequent. Some are welcome, for example, dolphins dancing and leaping around the boat in crystal clear water is always a good time.

Other distractions are well, not so welcome. Remember kids, this is a French colony we’re talking about here. (And it wasn’t the cute ones who were naked! It was the dirty old men! ~ Tiffany)

So naked men are just prancing around my wife while she gets paid to work in a tropical paradise and I’m 500 miles away. Yeah, great. Just great.

Despite the distractions, the upside is that the field trips through tropical rivers seem pretty interesting

…and the immigration procedures are, to say the least, apparently a touch more relaxed than what we Americans are accustomed to from our Customs officials.

That’s probably because the local government is attempting to rebuild after a mild natural disturbance caused a slight population decrease a few years back.

I asked Tiffany the question that was on your mind. Well, on my mind at least. “Honey, after the guy in prison survived a night of being encased in his cell by a tidal wave of molten lava…after he survived who knows how long in his cell without food and water before rescue crews made it to this remote little island, and somehow managed to find him…after all that, did they put him back in prison or was he considered ‘rehabilitated’?”

She said the brochure didn’t say. How do you not include a detail like that?

Anyway, so my wife is surrounded by naked prancing men and the land might just decide to explode and randomly kill everyone without notice. Neat place.

– Greg

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Mazatlan, MX – 2

Mazatlan, MX

So I thought I was doing OK with the fishing thing…then I met this guy,

Yeah, my biggest fish so far is about 15 lbs. My first question to Marcus was “So what do you do with it!?” Being as Mexican Airlines has a weight limit of about 50 lbs, they might charge a slight overage for a 500 lbs fish and that’s a lot of fish to eat in a week. Marcus’ answer is that the sport fishing guides allow him to take as much as he can eat, then they donate the remainder to a local orphanage. So everyone wins, except for the fish. He pretty much lost when he upchucked his lungs. Which, interesting side note, is apparently normal for them when they are suffocating or so I’m told.

On less disgusting note, we went out for a little Mexican baseball. We stopped for some tacos on the way and John showed us an example of cruiser technology at its finest.

Now as for the baseball game. Look, baseball is baseball. People throw balls, people hit balls, bases are stolen, you know the drill. What makes baseball interesting (at least to me) is what goes on around the games and in Mexico, a lot goes on around the games.

Does the local dodge dealership need their own cheerleaders? Really?
The highlight of the evening though were the fans. The drunk fans. The drunk, very spirited, extremely supportive of the home team, CANADIAN fans.

Notice that guy in the back wearing the blue polo? We started cheering “fear the deer” a few minutes before the video and he called out to us

“en espanol!”

To which I replied

“but then it won’t rhyme!”

He nodded sagely as if this argument made any form of legitimate sense…or maybe he just had no idea what I said. Either way, between guacamole hot dogs, the Pacifico girls, and drunk Canadians, good times were had by all.

– Greg

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Mazatlan, MX

Mazatlan, MX

Having arrived in San Carlos, Tiffany and I left the ship and headed off to new adventures. This time is a bit different because Tiffany is heading to Florida and eventually the French Caribbean to teach a sailing class. Yes, people really pay people like Tiffany to do such things…never heard about this at career day huh?

(Greg got to do some awesome stuff while I was away, I’m sorry that I missed it! Although, I must say I would not have given up my trip either… Hmm, can I be in two places at once the next time? My one and only trip to Mazatlan was on the Coast Guard Cutter MUNRO back in 2001 as a cadet, and that was only for about 2 days. ~ Tiff)

So that leaves me with a month of time on my hands and all of Mexico to cause trouble in! I decided to head back down to La Cruz because that is where a lot of boats are getting ready for the Pacific crossing so perhaps we’ll find a boat to work on.

On my way down though, I needed to make a stop off in Mazatlan to see our friends on FLY AWEIGH and offload supplies. Evidently, Allan & Alison have a mild addiction to rice milk, raw walnuts and ginger candies, and asked us to pick some up from Trader Joe’s when we were in the States.

As thanks for schlepping their groceries half way across the country, they offered me the option to hang around with them for a few days. So now I have a month of time, all of Mexico in which to cause trouble AND a means of escape from local authorities…this is going well…

We started our visit with what I can only say was a truly tourist experience.

Speaking of tourist experiences, here is a popular one in Mazatlan I wish I had missed out on:

We got together with a bunch of other cruisers for a wine tasting where I discovered that John and Mary-Ann of s/v OLD MOON apparently have knowledge of Mexican wine! So I present to you our next “wine of the world”

And yes, yes I said “we decanted in a blender.” We’re on a ship. Sometimes you have to improvise and hey, now you don’t have to buy a decanter to have aerated wine at your own home!

After a few bottles of our blender wine we got into a debate on whether or not beer could be used as a life saving device. Don’t ask me how, we just did. As a former Coast Guard Officer I lent my expertise to the conversation but no one was satisfied until we established incontrovertible evidence through rigorous scientific experimentation.

At the end of our evening Rod, the guy I met in San Diego playing a ukulele, decided to entertain us with a little diddy called “the yacht club song.” Which, if you’re a sailor, you’ll either find extremely funny or highly offensive.

– Greg

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Ensenada, MX

Ensenada, MX

Just in case you were confused as to exactly in which country the port town of Ensenada is located, the local government has provided the below useful guide for your convenience.

A quick overnight transit has us back into Mexico and, oh yeah, remember how Tiffany is the captain this time around? Well, guess what being captain means…Spanish paperwork! Luckily Ben was on hand to lend some help with his amazingly portable Spanish/English dictionary. Bring your magnifying g glass.

After checking into the country and grabbing the rest of the crew’s celebratory first Mexican meal, we pulled out again and beat feet for the heat of the south as fast as possible. On our trip down the coast we encountered some new sea creatures and some old friends decided to drop by as well.

Once we had our sails set and were running comfortably Ben decided not only to step up to the plate of high seas fishing and deliver the goods, but to also do so with a striking sense of local culturally appropriate style and a little help from yours truly.

I think I’m starting to get the hang of this fishing thing. Still don’t know why anyone would want to take a whole weekend just to stick a hook in the water but the occasional excitement followed by free fresh sushi is always a plus. I am even beginning to develop my own preferences with fish handling – which led to an interesting conversation onboard.

Look, the way I see it, the fish is gonna die anyway, so why not make it quick? How about you, where do you stand? Are you the bash & slit type or do your prefer your food to strangulate to death? Kinda puts that sushi restaurant you were thinking about eating at for dinner in a different light huh?

The seas started to kick up again our second day underway which provided me an excellent opportunity to show you yet another little aspect of the sailing lifestyle: the galley strap. You may not have thought about this but just because the entire ship is leaning over several degrees and it’s impossible to stand up in the galley to cook doesn’t mean people are willing to wait for their food. This strap is one of sailing chef’s best friends.

Imagine a world where you actually have to have a plan to be able to use your kitchen when the entire world has fallen off its axis, because it often does. That is the world in which I choose to reside.

-Greg

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