Sun Baby crew for the Banderas Bay Regatta

Triumphant Sun Baby crew!

Ray, Donna, Ken, Ian, Lar, Me, Chicgaila and Rocket!

Third place in the race and second in the parade! Pretty darn good! Turtles rule!

Videos of whales and La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

This is the place we have been in and out of since December 24th, La Cruz de Huanacaxle in the state of Nayarit.

 

A typical sail in Bandera Bay in January was complete with tacking for whales. You usually tack to get somewhere or arrive in the shortest route. We tacked to stay away from whales! They get up to 80,000 tons. 

Banderas Bay Regatta Racing

Some photos of the races.
This is Vamanos, a 45 foot super cat that darts around like the Roadrunner passing Wiley Coyote.

They flew a hull as they crossed the start line. The crew are obviously professionals. Anyone else would tip the thing over as it is so fast and loaded up.

Closer up of the beauty:

I thought that was SV Moontide next to us but I see now it is S/V RotKat. They are a fast boat too.

SV Moontide above is a 47 foot Lagoon. They usually started behind us but gradually would come up and pass us. No substitute for longer waterline!

Meet SV Cat to Fold. This boat is a great concept and sails fast too. The boat collapses as the two hulls come together and then it can be trailered. Brian sailed fast, finishing higher each day.

All in all we had a great group of people and boats in our Cruising Cat Class.

Below is the "Performance Monohull" start followed by the SV Destiny, previously owned by Howard Hughes, who sailed in the Cruising Monohull class.

Larry's favorite list has been altered again.

Favorite things from our cruising year:
1) Banderas Bay Regatta
2) Barra de Navidad
3) San Juanico on the Sea of Cortez

Let's see if our journey north can top any of these.











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Banderas Bay Regatta Racing--Start your heart out

Below we are participating in the "Start your heart out" day.  It is an opportunity to get out and practice starts and practice with your crew the day before the three race days.

This is us and the boat we almost bought (Formerly Traumantana, now La Ballona Too) at a start. We are ahead! Good job Larry! La Ballona Too is really fast and had good crew as we did. They placed first in all races.

Here are some other photos of starts..not sure which day....

Here we are in front! Woohoo!

Now I know which day this is above...the second race. A little accidental barging went on....but all came out unscathed. We ended up giving room to avoid collision(s), lost our wind, momentum and position. All too hairy for me.

Banderas Bay Regatta 2013-part 1

Well we have completed the Banderas Bay Regatta. It was a lot of preparation, a lot of racing and a lot of fun. We took third overall in the Cruising Cat Division.

The Vallarta Yacht Club did a spectacular job putting together five nights of food and entertainment--not to mention racing.

The first night was a Welcome Party with Aztec dancers. This video shows a number of costumed people.

This guy looked like he was going to eat us. Really. See the close up here.

 We had a practice start day and practice race on the first day.

Second day was the parade and the first race.

Per the Facebook page of Banderas Bay Regatta 2013, we won second place behind the sushi chefs. but at the Awards Ceremony they gave the second place trophy to another Lagoon in our class that did not dress up. Not sure what the truth really is but I think we were second! Here is first place.


The parade was really fun once I had an idea. The theme was Finding Nemo.

Defending Champions--Moon Dance--Nice young kids out sailing the world! They were hilarious.


Here we are below. Our Crew is Ray and Chicgaila Wood from S/V Sea Note and Ray's brother Ken and wife Donna from Canada.

The title of one of our photos on Facebook says:
"2nd Place Sun Baby and the turtles." Woohoo!

Banderas Bay Regatta parade. Yes, that is me with the hula hoop!

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle sunset

What a treat the other night! These are real colors. No photo filter used.

We are now in Paradise Village and getting ready for the big regatta. I sure hope I can get good photos of us in the parade and in the race. We race again with the boat we almost bought (Now called La Ballona Too owned by the Machado family--could not be nicer folks). She is so fast she almost beat, or did beat Kiapa, the 52 foot M and M you have seen here before.

Are you on the edge of your seats?

Our new pets

This crab has been living on the end of our swim step for over a month. He hung on for the 93 mile passage north back to Puerto Vallarta.  As soon as we anchored I checked on him. He bailed to search for food below but was back when I checked an hour later.  What should we name him? UPDATE, ONLY ENTRY WINS! TIFFANY AT DR. YAMADA'S OFFICE SUGGESTED 'GULLIVER'. Brilliant! This Gulliver travels!

This little guy is the size of half my pinky fingernail. They seem to come up on us or our equipment after we clean the bottom.  hmmmmmm. This is new to this area and did not happen in Baja over the summer.

We are in La Cruz waiting for the race to begin on the 19th.  Doing chores, cleaning the boat and enjoying the surroundings.

Happy 52nd anniversary Mom and Dad!