Coming for a ride on Music.

Vessel Name: Music
Vessel Make/Model: Island Packet 40
Hailing Port: Vancouver B.C.
Crew: Bill and Jane Bourlet
About: Bill is the sailor here whilst Jane keeps the home fires burning.
Extra: Bill is recently retired and is setting off to sail the world. Well to Mexico anyway. Then we will see.
27 November 2016 | La Cruz de Huannacaxtle
27 November 2016 | Day 4
27 November 2016 | Day 3
27 November 2016 | Day 2
27 November 2016 | Leaving Cabo San Lucas
14 November 2016 | Cabo Awards time.
14 November 2016
14 November 2016 | Cabo San Lucas.
14 November 2016
14 November 2016
14 November 2016 | Bahia Santa Maria
14 November 2016
14 November 2016 | Sailing day
14 November 2016 | Turtle Bay Mexico
01 November 2016 | Heading to Turtle Bay
01 November 2016 | On the Way to Turtle Bay
31 October 2016 | San Diego Ca
23 October 2016 | San Diego.
22 October 2016 | Santa Barbra channel off L.A.
21 October 2016 | San Francisco.
Recent Blog Posts
27 November 2016 | La Cruz de Huannacaxtle

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 5

We wake to a beautiful morning. The Palm Trees ashore, wave their welcome to us as we settle at anchor.

27 November 2016 | Day 4

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 4

Day 3

27 November 2016 | Day 3

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 3

Day 3

27 November 2016 | Day 2

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 2

Day 2

27 November 2016 | Leaving Cabo San Lucas

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 1

Cabo San Lucas to Puerto Vallarta.

14 November 2016 | Cabo Awards time.

Day 14

We explore the docks and areas around. These docks are huge. We walk miles. Found a Starbucks in town.

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 5

27 November 2016 | La Cruz de Huannacaxtle
We wake to a beautiful morning. The Palm Trees ashore, wave their welcome to us as we settle at anchor.
So much nicer than the Baja peninsula.
It looks and smells very tropical; we can sense the humidity in the air.
We motor into harbour to the fuel dock and are met with a fine looking young Mexican girl who is just so charming.
She helps us fuel up and I get a good feeling about this place.
So far I like it.

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 4

27 November 2016 | Day 4
Day 3

Wonderful sunrise. It's so good to be alive.
Dolphins come to play around the boat again. Dozens of them.
I think they like the contact.
They play in the bow wave and just seem to jump for joy.
Their company thrills us.
I'm happy.

After breakfast we put on the water maker.
I don't want any Mexican water in my water tanks so I make some whilst still at sea.
Not that it's bad water it's just I don't trust it. Even the major hotels have their own water filtration plants.
It's different bacteria in the water and it may bother our 'oh so sensitive' tummies.
Don't want that now do we?
Not a breath of air out here.
A little swell left from yesterday's wind but otherwise just us and the odd fishing boat out here.
You wonder how the ships in the old days ever moved around at all.
No wind. No go.
I realize we are now in the ITZ zone. It stretching right up here from Panama at times.
That's what we used to call the Doldrums.

We aim for Banderols bay.
Puerto Vallarta is at one end with the sandy beaches but what we want is the marina in the fishing village of La Crux.
That's The Cross in translation.
We see on the chart plotter that there is an un charted Rock called Pinta Mita close to the shore. Just where we want to come in so to be safe we decide to come in the other end of the bay.
Coming in at night as we are, safety is of paramount importance.
Especially after losing a boat in the Ha Ha.
We don't want to go the same way. Up on a reef at night.
As we approach the bay we realise that the course we have chosen is still between an island and a reef.
What if the charts aren't all that accurate?
They say you shouldn't trust Mexican charts and here we are heading between two rocks.
Hmm. Maybe not a good idea.

We think about and decide to re route right round them completely.
Just to be sure.
Well that adds another hour or more to our journey. At least we are on the motor so no worry about sails plan.
But after an hour we start to question our decision.
It would have much quicker to have taken a chance on the uncharted rock.
Still we are committed and its the safe route.
Finally we round the end of the last reef. Still in 300 feet of water and turn to the marina.
We joke about selecting the cruise ship route and one passed us.
Oh boy are we safety first!
At last we reach the anchorage area and are able to chose a good location to anchor.
We drop the hook and after setting it we wait to see if it holds.
It seems to.
We set the anchor alarm watch and the clock alarm for an hour.
I have an anchor alarm on my I phone called Drag Queen.
I set it to warn me if we move more that 100 feet from the starting point.
I can usually tell if if we are moving but it's nice to know.
Ahh.
Relax and sleep at last.
Even though only for an hour at a time.

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 3

27 November 2016 | Day 3
Day 3

Wonderful sunrise. It's so good to be alive.
Dolphins come to play around the boat again. Dozens of them.
I think they like the contact.
They play in the bow wave and just seem to jump for joy.
Their company thrills us.
I'm happy.

After breakfast we put on the water maker.
I don't want any Mexican water in my water tanks so I make some whilst still at sea.
Not that it's bad water it's just I don't trust it. Even the major hotels have their own water filtration plants.
It's different bacteria in the water and it may bother our 'oh so sensitive' tummies.
Don't want that now do we?
Not a breath of air out here.
A little swell left from yesterday's wind but otherwise just us and the odd fishing boat out here.
You wonder how the ships in the old days ever moved around at all.
No wind. No go.
I realize we are now in the ITZ zone. It stretching right up here from Panama at times.
That's what we used to call the Doldrums.

We aim for Banderols bay.
Puerto Vallarta is at one end with the sandy beaches but what we want is the marina in the fishing village of La Crux.
That's The Cross in translation.
We see on the chart plotter that there is an un charted Rock called Pinta Mita close to the shore. Just where we want to come in so to be safe we decide to come in the other end of the bay.
Coming in at night as we are, safety is of paramount importance.
Especially after losing a boat in the Ha Ha.
We don't want to go the same way. Up on a reef at night.
As we approach the bay we realise that the course we have chosen is still between an island and a reef.
What if the charts aren't all that accurate?
They say you shouldn't trust Mexican charts and here we are heading between two rocks.
Hmm. Maybe not a good idea.

We think about and decide to re route right round them completely.
Just to be sure.
Well that adds another hour or more to our journey. At least we are on the motor so no worry about sails plan.
But after an hour we start to question our decision.
It would have much quicker to have taken a chance on the uncharted rock.
Still we are committed and its the safe route.
Finally we round the end of the last reef. Still in 300 feet of water and turn to the marina.
We joke about selecting the cruise ship route and one passed us.
Oh boy are we safety first!
At last we reach the anchorage area and are able to chose a good location to anchor.
We drop the hook and after setting it we wait to see if it holds.
It seems to.
We set the anchor alarm watch and the clock alarm for an hour.
I have an anchor alarm on my I phone called Drag Queen.
I set it to warn me if we move more that 100 feet from the starting point.
I can usually tell if if we are moving but it's nice to know.
Ahh.
Relax and sleep at last.
Even though only for an hour at a time.

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 2

27 November 2016 | Day 2
Day 2

4 hours of sleep and my turn comes around quickly.
By 8 am we put the motor on again. Wind had died down steadily during the night and now we were down to a knot or two.
The auto helm won't stay engaged at such slow speeds.

Lovely warm morning.
By noon a light wind came up. I thought lets put up the spinnaker.
So I did. On my own.
I have crew with me but it was my opportunity to test myself.
It worked just fine till about 4 pm when the wind died again.
So Mr Smelly the diesel came to our aid.
We are over half way to P V now but it's so calm.

Bruce still felling a bit sea sick so we have a light supper again.
This cruising life style really suits me. Light eating should help keep the weight down.

Cabo to Puerto Vallarta Day 1

27 November 2016 | Leaving Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas to Puerto Vallarta.
Day 1

We left Cabo in a rather leisurely fashion around noon.
It wasn't that we didn't get up, its just there was a lot of things to do.
Like a grocery shop and inflating the newly patched dingy. It needed a 24 hour drying time for the glue patch.
We had a puncture which we fixed but then a gallon of water in one pontoon was noticed.
A local Mexican fellow said he could remove one end and drain out the water.
I took him up on his offer.
A real pier pirate if ever there was one. Let's hope Alls well.
We put it back in the davits and went to check out.
The Port Captain was difficult. Limited English and he couldn't understand why we came in with three on board and were leaving with only two.
We lost our female crew in Cabo. As intended and a definite improvement to the workings of the boat.
I truly have no idea if the Port Captain got it right and had us leaving with 2 or 3 crew.
I understand his point of view.
If we came in with three crew and left with three crew it's easier on his paper work.
He just kept insisting that we must be leaving with three crew.
Well. We are not.
Sorry about that Mexico.
She will be leaving later via the airport.
O. K. ?
We set sail for P. V. After 5 days without sails up we were so happy to be on our way again.
We soon had the big Genoa up and were slicing through the water at a lovely 5 to 6 knots.
Gulping down the miles felt good.
No motor on and loving the warm breeze.
Now Im beginning to feel like a blue water cruiser.
And happy about it.
There's four or five boats with us on the same path but soon we don't see any of them. We scatter promising to meet again at the other end.
The big Cat out front at 8 to 10 knots. Us in the middle as usual and others behind at 4 or 5 knots.
We have supper and watch the sun go down again.
What a wonderful day.
Just Bruce and I now, so we agree on 4 hour shifts.

Day 14

14 November 2016 | Cabo Awards time.
We explore the docks and areas around. These docks are huge. We walk miles. Found a Starbucks in town.
Back to the boat for a snooze. One of the crew isn't so well Picked up a virus thats been doing the rounds. Thinks he got it in Santa Maria. Sure hope I don't get it.
Awards ceremony tonight.
We came in third in our division. Out of 13. Not bad for a cruising boat and given our sail problems I think we did well.
I congratulate our crew. We are all on a high. A natural high.
Highlight of the night was the helpers award. Who was most help on the trip down? It went to the boat that towed another sail boat for the entire third leg. They had both engine and sail problems.
They tied a plastic line between them to indicate they were towing as they walked up on stage to collect their award. Howls of laughter.
What fun.
Funniest moment was the snoring contest imitations.

We say good bye to our lady crew. Now I'm down to one crew member. Thats OK. We can manage.

Oh why did I spend so many years at work when I could have been sailing. Well I guess I didn't have the money.
And we had responsibilities.
I wouldn't want to be without our kids.
All Im missing now is my darling.
I sure wish she was with me and I really look forward to seeing her soon.

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