May in Nueva Vallarta

             

Great sunset cocktails.

Great beach weather.

                   Birds hatching!    

         Palapas being re-thatched.

Each day gets hotter and more humid.  Next year we will plan on being  in the Sea of Cortez by April.  Meanwhile we've been enjoying meeting members of the Vallarta Yacht Club and volunteering for the Laser Worlds Chamionships.  

Vallarta Yacht Club has been hosting the Championships for 7 weeks, what a commitment!  After the Women's Radial Class in April Al and I decided to volunteer.  Al has been on the pin boat for the past 2 1/2 weeks and I've been shore manager.  Sounds more important than it was but its daily check in and launching  114 Men's  Lasers standards from 44 countries.   This past week 96 Laser Masters Standards from 14 counties. The ramp is very narrow, only room to launch two boats at a time.  Three parking lots funnel into that ramp.  So it takes some organizing to get 114 boats in the water and off sailing in 18 mins.   The club provided about six boat boys to help with the dollies, which the exhausted sailors loved coming back up the ramp in the afternoon.  It took many members and staff working every day to make things work smoothly.    Amazing.  Great races, many compliments to race management and only one complaint.  Judges wanted bigger faster ribs.

           Tags of boats on the water.

             Men's Standard Champions

                Friends from all nations

         Francisco's on the water team

There have been lots of ceremonies and social gathering with great food and fabulous music.  Some fabulous guitar playing and singing provided by one of the Argentinian competitors.  It turns out he put himself through medical school singing in bars in London.  What a great group of Masters, great and grand masters in the last group of Standard rigged Lasers.

                 Team AUS

        Jeff, Linda, Beatrice, Francisco

We've had fun getting to know VYC members, officers from the international Laser class and Francisco from the Mexican Sailing Federation who was the Race Officer, my "boss" and a delight to work with. 

           Liz      Jeanie      Me       Al

As new members of Vallarta Yacht Club.  Looks like we fit in well.

Ok, Back to work less than a week to get the boat put away for the summer.  Flying home on Thurs.

Marsue's Visit

April 20-29, 2016

       

My sister Marsue and her husband Alan arrived from ME after weeks of below freezing weather. The recent daytime warming up there caused the logging roads to become muddy and Alan was able to take some time off from trucking.

Arrived in time to drop their bags on Chez Nous change into bathing suits and  order a late lunch at the beach Palapa.  Relaxing and watching all the Lasers sail back into the harbor at Puerto Nuevo.

The women's division of Laser World were just finishing up so we went to the awards presentations where Paige Riely got 2nd place after leading the

competition for the qualifying rounds.

Kayaking was the first thing after coffee on thurs. morning.

The iguana and birds are all out sunning.

Thurs night movies at La Cruz marina were still happening and we wanted to share the collectivo adventure of getting there plus "Tacos on the Street", so off we went.   We arrived very early with most of the town closed up we found "Anna Bananas" to be open, cool and shady.  Just locals this time of year so the owner had time to join us for a few beers and recited the poem he had written for a deceased friend which explained why he had so many Crown Royal bags hung over the bar.

An early morning dinghy trip through the Mangrove channels.

Magnificent Frigate, Great Egret, Pelicans 

Then back to the beach.

Sat.  We set off for a two day sail in the Bay...first stop and over night anchorage was Punta de Mita on the north west tip of the Bay.

Not much wind on Sunday morning motor sailing across the bay to the south side and Yelapa.  A panga met us coming in and helped us pick up a mooring in the center of the field.  Nice.  We had a terrific day on the beach and did a little hiking over to the town.  

 

Yes a Palapa in Yelapa is better than a condo in Redondo but you can have the rock and roll sleepless night we had on the mooring... Should have had a stern tie.   We were back at Paradise village on Monday afternoon pushed into the entrance by a little swell for added excitement.

The next few days we hung out here at the Village.   With three pools , beach palapas, kayaks and an air conditioned living room (the mall), boat and awesome company it couldn't have been better.

"Dame de Pic". Boys won !

                            Daisy 

That is Marsue and Alan to the right in the water.

Had to have one dinner at the Fajita Republic where a teen girl feel off the dock into the Croc zone water and all the waiters ran to her rescue.  

          Wednesday we went to :

Just an amazing place .  Great hiking trails through natural settings.  Vanilla everywhere plus the excellent food.

              Quail eggs in my salad.

      Vanilla plant.

A walk on the Malecon on the way home for art appreciation and silliness. 

A couple more days to enjoy the warm Vallarta sun.