Back in Nuevo Vallarta and glad to be here!
31 March 2011
Dave
It's been a while since we posted anything because we weren't here! We flew to San Diego from Puerto Vallarta on March 16. It was an easy flight and only about 1/3 full. Our return flight, today 3/29 was even lighter! It really brings it home that I am fortunate to be able to do this. When we got back to the boat everything was as we left it. There was no real reason for concern, but you can't help but to be. Our dock is not heavily populated and mostly by Australians getting their boats ready to head across the Pacific on the "Puddle Jump." It seems that several of them all unassociated with each other have coincidentally purchased boats here in Mexico, brought them to this marina and are readying them for the crossing.
Our trip home was enjoyable but busy. We took what we could carry with us of the 'stuff' onboard that we have found we are not using then brought back at least as much new 'stuff' or even more! I had kept a "West Marine" list going over the months and was able to get just about everything we needed. Thanks again to Jack, Buddy and John at our Oceanside West Marine for your efforts. I had also ordered additional LED replacement bulbs online that they didn't carry. We had taken a few with us and they worked so well I am replacing all the old incandescent and halogen bulbs with these new "Sensibulbs" LED lights. If you have a boat and need low energy light that's the ticket. They are very bright yet cool and use 1/10 the power. I can't wait to get them installed and get to an anchorage were we can really utilize them. We had so much stuff from West Marine and Trader Joes
that we were concerned that we'd get zapped by Mexican Customs. Fortunately we got the 'green light' and walked right on through. I was a little nervous!
Coincidentally Mike from So Inclined and Lee and Cathy on Sirocco and ourselves had all booked our off boat travels with overlapping days at home. This was a good time to travel, after the Bandaras Bay Race Week and just in time for taxes! Reality sucks. Needless to say we all got together up at OYC on the Friday night we were all in town and Carleen took that picture of us all up at the bar. Gee, just like in Mexico! It was fun to be together at the club and to see many of our friends there together. Mike had the shortest trip with just one week, we stayed two and Lee and Cathy will be away three weeks with other side travel.
As I said it was busy; with family and friends to visit, specific items to be located and purchased, taxes, a dead battery in the car, which it also needed a smog check and registration that reality came rushing back! It was a strange feeling knowing that we were there only for a short time and would be returning to the boat to begin the final leg of this journey. As my friend Tim said to me: once you get home it feels like you never left. He was right. We were back into the same routine and motion, but it was a strange feeling after living aboard these past four months. We were in a very familiar yet different environment, and now that we are home, back on the boat, it seems like we never left! We both commented that it felt odd to be flying from San Diego to go home vs. to San Diego. You get the picture.
We are on the boat after finishing some projects this afternoon and a walk out of the marina area to find a new place for dinner since we have not yet been to the store. It was nice to work on the boat again, especially in nice, warm, weather! Tomorrow we hope to finish up some of our projects and pull out of here to go up to La Cruz for a few days; just in time for Tacos on the Street! We will do our provisioning up there before heading out on our next leg. That should be up to Bahia Jaltemba, then Chacala and hopefully out to Isla Isabel on the way to Mazatlan, but we shall see since as we know, these things are subject to change!