Banderas Bay Blast

On December 11, 12 and 13 we participated in the Banderas Bay Blast. It’a a three-day regatta that raises money for school supplies for children in the area. During the first day, we raced on a triangular course near where we are staying in La Cruz. The crew was Dax, who has been crew since Mazatlan, and Alan and Jan from Kemo Sabe. The winds were light. We were three minutes late to the start. And we never made it to the second mark of the course. When the wind hit zero knots, we retired from the race. Only five boats finished that day but we had lots of fun back in the marina with the other racers.

The second day, we were joined by Jeff and Jules from El Gato, along with our Day One crew. The winds were light at first but picked up to 19 knots as we raced close-hauled from La Cruz to Punta de Mita. We picked the wrong strategy for getting to the finish line and finished last among the boats that actually kept sailing. But we had a fun day and the dinner that night was fun in Punta de Mita.

The next day, after watching little school children do some traditional dancing, we headed off to the finish in Nueva Vallarta. This was mostly a downwind leg and Dax and I did it ourselves, with the help of a spinnaker borrowed from Kemo Sabe. We actually left before our official start time and were near the finish line when the fast boats blasted past us to finish. It was fun to have a front-row seat for the action. That night we stayed in Paradise Village Marina and had dinner at the Vallarta Yacht Club as the last gathering of the regatta. The next day we returned to La Cruz to start getting some work done on the boat.  Thank you Jules for these pictures. More coming soon from Jan.