End of the Season - Paradise Village Marina
04 May 2017 | Nuevo Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit Mexico
Pat Sunny
Today is Thursday May 4th, 2017.
Lots of things have changed since I lasted posted to the blog. Melodie and I moved to Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta which is half way between La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta. We changed our plan to summer the boat in Mazatlán. Starshine will stay in Paradise Village for the summer of 2017. This area has never had a direct hurricane hit. The dock we will be on is down an estuary so it should be well protected. Plus we have been enjoying the hot tub and pool. It is especially nice at the yacht club as it’s like our own private pool and hot tub since very few people use it.
We’ve been busy making Starshine ready to fend for herself. We have contracted with a local to look after her while we are gone, but we do our best to make her ready before we leave. We’ve done all the usual end of season maintenance. This year we decided to actually wash the sails, rather than just rinse them with fresh water. Wow! That was a chore. But we were glad we did it as the head sails were kind of dirty, especially at the tops of the sails. We got them all dried and have them folded away in their sail bags. They will be stowed inside the boat.
We’ve been trying to eat through the food we’ve purchased this season. That has led to some eclectic meals. We found that we’d eaten out quite a bit this season. It’s so cheap to eat out down here we figure we’d enjoy it while we could.
Our plans this summer are to tour the western US by truck camper. We’ve made a down payment on a big Dodge dually pickup and will travel to Dallas to pick her up next week. It’s a 2007 Dodge 3500 4x4 5.9 turbo diesel with dual rear wheels. We haven’t found the camper yet, but we have a short list to look at once we arrive back in AZ.
Speaking of AZ, we leave the boat on Sunday May 7 and take a red eye bus to Guaymas (near San Carlos) were the Acura is parked. We arrive at noon on Monday, then we’ll drive to AZ. Catch a plane to Dallas and go pick up the truck (assuming it looks the same in person and the test drive is satisfactory). Then we drive back to AZ and get the Acura. Then our search for the truck camper (sits in the truck bed, doesn’t have its own wheels) begins in earnest.
It is very quiet in the marina these days, most of the boaters have gone north. The morning radio net has up to 60+ check ins during the season, but now there are around 20. This morning only 5 boats checked in from our marina. Our friends on Wind Dancer have contracted with Mustad Marine to deliver Wind Dancer north to San Diego. I’m looking forward to having dinner with them tonight and to say hello to my friend Arnstein. Arnstein is the guy I sailed with in the fall from here to St John USVI via the Panama Canal.
This will probably be the last blog post this season. We expect to be in the SF Bay Area in June for some medical appointments. Then our schedule is very open. We are hoping to attend the BACC Snakes to the Lake again in the fall (no dates on that yet).
Hope everything is good wherever you are.