Janet and I have been BUSY! We've gotten behind with the blog because of really bad internet service and being busy, busy! We arrived in Banderas Bay on 19 January and tied up at Paradise Village Marina after visiting Mazatlan, San Blas, and Chacala. Since leaving La Paz, getting enough internet service to allow us to upload pictures and data has been challenging. Verizon's version of unlimited data craps out at 500MB of data which is nothing for a modern phone.

Highlights!
Paradise Village Resort and Marina are first class. The marina has great docks and superb services. Pumpout and potable water at the pier was a real treat. We enjoyed great local and resort restaurants and shows. The airport and PV downtown were easy taxi rides.
Ellen (John's sister) visited for a week and we toured Puerto Vallarta, snorkeled at the islands near the entrance to Banderas Bay, and took in whale watching. We also enjoyed the luxury of Paradise Village resort. Great marina with top notch services.
The crew is friendly and hard working. In-slip pumpout and potable water at each slip, the crew will pick up oils/paints, etc and dispose of them. Grocery and chandler stores are near by. We really enjoyed the lap pool, shows, and restaurants.
We shifted to La Cruz Shipyard for a haulout and bottom paint job. We scheduled a short yard period starting 5 Feb. We had a short list of mechanical items (new propeller shaft seal, new thruster propeller, remount two aft overboard discharges. The shipyard crew quickly did a great job with our mechanical and hull work. They stripped Tango to the hull fiberglass removing something like 10 coats of paint. They then put on coats of gelcoat, barrier coat primer/paint, and bottom paint. Unfortunately something is very wrong with the black bottom coat. It streaked into our boot topping when Tango was put in the slings for refloating. We now see one small area where a coat of paint has lifted off. The shipyard has agreed to haul, check, and fix this of course, but, it is a BIG PITA. So... 8 days in the yard plus a redo that is not yet defined :(
As part of our final preparations for the Pacific crossing we have been working through our sails, standing, and running rigging. The new (Mar 2018) mainsail was not delivered as expected (furling lines in the wrong places, weak hand sewing for the "cars" that ride up the mast, and several other items. Quantum Sails (San Fran) is not on our list of good places to work with. That said, Ullman Sails here in Puerto Vallarta has been great. They fixed items we knew about and found several other areas of concern and worked with us for fixing the mainsail. It is back and was mounted properly. Janet rebuilt the sailpack (yard mounted sailbag). It had a lot of UV damage and needed to be longer. Working with her Sailrite MONSTER sewing machine she constructed new parts that we put together in our one room "apartments. We have a longer/better sailpack. In addition, we completed a detailed rig check and are working a few items. Unfortunately we found that the boom gooseneck (attaches the boom to the mast) needed a big rebuild. The mounting pin was badly worn and bent. The mount bushings were shot. It took about 1/2 hour to remove the newly repaired mainsail and get 6 of 8 gooseneck screws out. Then there were the 2 stubbornly stuck screws. The short version of the work on these 2 screws is Hank (boat neighbor) and John spending 4-1/2 hours using their combined experience to sneak the last two screws out without breaking the screws or getting into a "drill-her-out" mode. Old man power won the day. Thank you Hank for the help! The gooseneck should be repaired and installed next week including a rebuild of the boom furling sheaves and sheave brakes which was needed. We also found that the furling foil for the staysail (inner jib) was bent and needs to be replaced. No idea when then happened but is wasn't the famous Gulf of Mexico storm, trip, 3-hour-cruise. Must have been during one of the freek wind shifts that occasionally occured in SF Bay. We are also installing a "Dutchman" boom brake rather than port and starboard preventers and the parts should be delivered next week.

Like I said... busy/busy.

Marinas for Banderas Bay. So far our favorite is Paradise Village Marina. It is WAY CHEAPER than where we currently moor, and way better. We are currently at Marina de La Cruz pending the "rehaul" thing for paint. The piers are in moderately bad shape with loose cleats, weak electrical power, and rotten wood sections for the floating concrete pier sections. Potable water has to be delivered via bottles (or we head out and make water while sailing). The pumpout pier is available but requires moving the boat. The showers/toilets are pretty run down and there is no self-do laundry here. Tango and her boat neighbors are at war with ants that crawl up the lines and power cord. Those who know Janet understand the importance of this! All that said, the town of La Cruz is pretty delightful. Fun markets and places to eat and get COLD drinks that make you smile. Once we finish with the shipyard we will probably anchor out while exploring the Bay before returning to Paradise Village Marina for final provisioning and preparations.