Les vagaries de le vent

So, like I said in Counting Down, I figured we’d be dancing a little bit, all around 1st of March, about when we plan to push away. But turns out, it’s crazier yet than that.

On Tuesday, Bill and I ventured into la Cruz, a sweet but dusty town just north of here, to get ready for another important boat project – this one involving “servicing the winches” and requiring, believe it or not, a particular tube of goop called winch grease. While we’re there, might as well load up at the fish market and chow down on some excellent ceviche at the oyster house next door. We’re no sooner there, the place starts filling up with yatchies- meaning a lot of middle-age white guys – that’s not completely fair, but there’s a look – and it turns out that we’ve stumbled into a seminar for the “puddle jumpers“ – sailors like us who are heading across the big pond. The presenter at this particular seminar is a meteorologist who makes his living helping sailors plan their routes on long crossings. He starts by apologizing that he has nothing but bad news, bad news about really unusual macro weather patterns up north that will hold us back for three weeks from the optimal weather to leave the dock. Not only will we lack the wind to push off the way we’d like, it’s also sucking the fun out of the trade winds. We take him seriously, because he sounds very knowledgeable, but we also notice that he mentions at one point it will be cloudy on Thursday, a rare event down here in sunny Puerto Vallarta.

So, we wait it out until today and pay attention, and much to our chagrin – but in a way confirmation is good – it was indeed cloudy today in sunny PV. Along with some other inquiries, we are now pretty sure that we will delay our departure by at least 10 days.

OK, c’est la vie. It’s not a race after all.

Crewman Shawn Brayman was partly thrilled to delay his trip down here, so he could spend a few more precious days with his beloved Nancy, daughter Devan, and son-in-law Nick.

Also meant he could wait for delivery of a few precious items that we were hoping he could bring – like, for example, a new satellite communication system that is 40 times faster than the one we’ve been counting on. Yes, 40 times faster, a very big deal!

Anyway, it’s beautiful here. Bill is enjoying the volleyball. And we are enjoying the company of many lovely people who we’ve met here at the resort. Shout out to Jim and Carol and Niko and Gerry and Grace – and many others. It’s an awfully good place to launch from.

As an added bonus, we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming visitors from home, fellow members of Alexandra Yacht Club. Mark and Joyce were here on Monday. And Greg, Beatrice and Lamont on Wednesday. So lovely to have friends come visit!

For my part, I continue to have technical challenges, shutting down my law business and launching my new sailing life. Major shout out to Helber Paula, my tech guy who rescues me as I bang into all the roadblocks along the way.