A Good Thumping
27 February 2011 | Tenacatita to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle 120 miles
Penny with Fred's comment

PENNY’S TWO CENTS: Hello Friends! Just a bit of news from your traveling buddies.
I’ll start by saying that when we bought our first Airstream my hope was to have long, smooth circular trips thereby never having to go through the painful experience of learning to back up the trailer.
With that said, I harbored similar thoughts of being onboard a sailboat, always traveling in the same direction as the wind, that generally being South.
Yesterday, Feb. 21 we started out on our return trip. . North. The iron clad rule among cruisers is one thing and one thing only – ONLY go when the weather is good! Fred pulled reports from everywhere and all reports were that it was good to go – small weather window closing at the end of the week. So we pulled anchor at 1600, headed out of Tenacatita and immediately hit windy turbulent conditions which proceeded to worsen as the night went on. Waves were hitting us from every direction – some were sliced evenly in half by Tapatai’s bow which resulted in an even distribution of water inside both the left and right sides of the cockpit of the boat. Others were direct hits on the bow with buckets of sea water coursing over the bow and over the dodger into the cockpit. We have a slight leak in our large hatch cover which is directly in the center of the boat. This normally causes slight inconveniences when in San Diego, but had huge consequences in the open ocean. Tapatai is a big, sturdy, heavy boat but many of the waves were direct hits that brought the front of the boat up and then 35,000 pounds straight down on the water.
The sky was dark with no moon rising until almost 10pm so you couldn’t tell what was coming at you. Then when the moon did come up it was terrifying to watch huge waves coming straight at you! Tapatai would buck up in front while rolling side to side at the same time like a gyroscope. We normally don’t have to button up too much but I can tell you that everything in every cupboard and locker was screaming.
We finally entered Banderas Bay, rounding Cabo Corrientes at about 10am. Fred now sleeping – we shared watches but when my nerves were shot he came to my rescue and he spent most of the night sitting in the companionway. Just finished mopping up with the last of the dry towels and put on my wet long sleeved shirt. Wow, what a scary night!
Further Notes Later in the Day: We're in La Cruz de la Huanacaxtle - and in a marina - yippee! There's a "NET" every morning on the VHF radio and everyone shares info. One guy said that "only real cruisers" anchor out - implying that those in the marina were such creepy wimps. I don't care! The boat is all squared away with no damage to anything - Tapatai is a champ! Fred is sleeping - again - he is a champ too! This is such a great little town, terrific restaurants and for some reason musician's love to come here so there is live music every night. Just 3 miles south is another little town called Bucerias, equally as "cute", and then just a bit north is Sayulita, further north is Punta Mita, and just 16 miles south is Puerto Vallarta. Hey, something for everyone!
PS: Just so I don’t sound like a wimp about the trip North, the following email came from my friend Ross just after we arrived here in La Cruz:
”Buenos Noches Compadres..
Thanks for the La Cruz update. We probably won't leave here for another 2-3 weeks. The big 90 ft. sailboat called Locura which is here on A dock left yesterday even after I talked to the owner about some shitty weather and made it as far as Chamela and turned around. They got their ass handed to them. 35 kts. on the nose with 8 ft. seas and about a seven second interval. Their forward hatch hadn't been dogged properly and blew open and flooded the whole forward area. They almost lost their dinghy and lost their refrigeration compressor. It was a major domino effect. This was a 90 FT. SAILBOAT! Lesson learned: Do not screw with Mother Nature...
Cheers, Ross”
Fred's Comment: The picture was just before the s--t hit the fan!