January ‘95

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

January 1, 1995 – Sunday

Happy times and wonderful anchorages ahead!
We pulled up to the dinghy dock to take on water again. While John was away from the boat, a panga full of kids dumped a huge spray on us and the inside was almost swimming with water. Norm came down with the police and hopefully nothing like that will happen again.
I can’t remember the last time I was that mad.
We stayed on board tonight.

*If I remember correctly, this photo was taken not long before the boat got doused. It definitely dampened the mood - pun intended. I don’t visually remember how bad it was, but I think they came from the side which would’ve sent water into the cockpit and Mom and Dad’s hatch over their bed. I remember being quite confused and I think a little hurt, not understanding why someone would do that - now, being older and hearing it was a panga full of kids - it makes sense. 🤷‍♀️

January 2, Monday

Talked to Steve in Lakeside via SSB, but was not clear enough to do a phone patch. I’ve got he head cold that’s been going around and I’m totally out of it.

January 3, Tuesday

We had dinner at McDonald’s in town with Steve & Sherry, Norm & Jan, and Tim & Sarah from Nixie.

January 4, Wednesday

Pulled up to the dinghy dock, filled the fuel tanks with 172 liters at N$229 pesos. Fuel and water tanks are full. Jan and Norm came over for dinner and we watched Captain Ron.
We stayed at the dock tonight. The Onan generator quit again.

January 5, Thursday

John made contact with Mac in Tucson and he wants us to ship 2 more of the Huichol masks. We left the estuary – along with Valiant Lady at 11am and went back to Matanchen Bay.
The crew of Absolute – Dan, Garth and Joanne came over for dinner. We went in to land and called Danielle and Peggy – they are both flying out the 16th for a week. The tickets are only $181 each.
This a.m. I had talked to Steve in Lakeside for quite a while – at that time, they had 14” of snow. When I talked to Peg at 7:00pm, it was still snowing. Lakeside had 2 feet and Show Low 16 inches.

January 6, Friday

Samie went in to town with the crew of Absolute to a performance at a school. I stayed here with John to work on the generator. We can’t fix the generator until we get a solenoid shipped down to P.V.

 *I remember this performance; I remember watching the beautiful dress patterns and colors swirling and turning, so beautiful and bright. I remember it being outside the school, and I remember it being quite like this.

*I’m nearly certain this was taken after the dances - I remember being silly with Garth and Joanne when we took this photo of me posing as Cousin It from Adams Family. 🙃

January 7, Saturday

John and Steve “jerry-jugged” water and filled the tanks.
We all dinghied in to town (except Sherry, she’s not feeling well), did some last-minute stuff, said our goodbyes to Jan and Norm.
I called Mom and Dad – Michael has been staying there since Wednesday night and he’s headed back up the mountain tomorrow. Mom has got Peg’s airplane ticket, so we’re all set!

January 8, Sunday

Happy Birthday #19, Danielle!

When we got here to San Blas on December 5th, we only planned to stay about 3 or 4 days – now, 5 weeks later, we are under sail again – feels great. We weighed anchor at 11 am, along with Valiant Lady and Absolute. What a beautiful day – only 3 to 4 knots of wind – so we motor-sailed down to Chacala, which is 2-3 miles south of San Blas. It was 5 hours from weighing anchor to setting anchor – we were all set at 4pm. This is a beautiful, “picture perfect” anchorage. We had caught a 35” yellow tail tuna and a good size Bonita on the way, so Absolute and Valiant Lady came over for dinner.

January 9, Monday

What a way to start the “work week”! A beautiful anchorage all around. John scrubbed the barnacles from the bottom of the boat, which took about an hour. Samie swam beside the boat for ½ an hour or so. We went ashore and checked out the beach and little village. After playing in the surf we had dinner, along with Valiant Lady’s Steve and Sherry and Absolute’s Dan, Garth and Joanna. At the palapa where we were eating there was a guy traveling from Minnesota who had been to Snowflake, Arizona – small world.
Chacala sure was a pretty anchorage.

January 10, Tuesday

We weighed anchor at 8:00 am – headed for Punta de Mita. We had a beautiful motor sail, taking about 8 hours. On the way we saw 3 different sets of humpback whales a short distance off. We rounded the point with plenty of time to make La Cruz anchorage, where we had the hook all set by 4:30 pm. Valiant Lady and Absolute stopped and anchored at Jalotembra to go snorkeling – but it was not good so they headed on down here. Valiant Lady stopping at Punta de Mita and Absolute here in La Cruz.
🐞

January 11, Wednesday

This is a crowded spot – with 32 boats. John left at 9:00 am to take a bus into P.V.
Samie and I did 2 lessons in school. John got back at 3:30 – no part for the generator at DHL yet. He found a slip at the Marina Vallarta – so we are going in tomorrow. We had yellow tail tuna on Valiant Lady.

January 12, Thursday

We left La Cruz at 8 am and were in the slip at Marina Vallarta at noon. Garth and Joanne helped us get in and I did laundry, what a treat!

January 13, Friday

I called Mom last night, the girl’s flight changed to the 15th at 1:20 pm. It was a major wash down on the boat. John did the check-in bit. He also took Samie swimming. Nice place.

*I have been trying to track down a specific pool where I always remember Dad taking me; the sides and bottom were scenic with beautiful, tiny royal blue tiles and mosaics throughout. I remember some sort of pass-through you could take underwater and I remember mosaics of turtles and maybe a dolphin or mermaid. I loved swimming there, and have always wanted to design my future bathroom with those tiles and recreate that magical feeling I always loved in that pool.

January 14, Saturday

We hit the store for fresh supplies – nice shopping area. We bought a new 10hp Mariner for n$753.00 or $1,436.00.

 *This dinghy motor was the BEST! It got us up to some great, fun speeds and really helped us get around over the years. I loved tooling around in the dinghy, especially once we got the Mariner. For me this was like getting to go joy-ride in the car at a young age.

January 15, Sunday

Did some this and that’s around this morning – picked the girls up at the airport at 1:20 pm. It was a 2.5 hour flight – so good to have them here!! Today they just looked around the marina and stayed on the boat.

January 16, Monday

We all headed into town – old- town – took the bus – did some shopping and lots of looking. Peggy and Danielle had their whole head of hair braided in the corn-rows and Samie had the top front done. They did this on a bench on the boardwalk on the beach (about 2 hours). Looks great. Garth and Joanne came by the boat tonight.

January 17, Tuesday

Stayed aboard (kids went swimming) until 5:00 pm and then went into town with Garth and Joanne – Steve and Sherry met us later. Samie had a babysitter, Amy from Princess Erika – what a treat for me – we hit several bars along the boardwalk, had dinner and danced a few. Fun time. Got home at 1:00 am.

January 18, Wednesday

Got the boat ready and left the marina at 2:00 pm for a sail. We sailed out to Punta de Mita, 10 knots most of the way, but picked up to 22 knots. We anchored just before sunset.

January 19, Thursday

We sailed mid-morning over to Los Tres Marietas Islands, anchored and took the dinghy to a small beach and surf. We sailed back to La Cruz and anchored here tonight. Peggy was quite sick all day.

January 20, Friday

Happy B-day Janell.

We weighed anchor and set sail heading for Los Arcos. Half way, middle of the bay, John hooked a sail fish. I stopped the motor and brought in the jib and kept the boat headed in the right direction, while John untangled the line. It took 30 to 40 minutes to bring him up to the boat. We drowned him with rum and hooked him with the halyard to haul him on board. Bringing on a sail fish is not an easy task- but we did it! We came back into the slip- he measured 8’5” about 90 to 100lbs. A restaurant filleted him and BBQ’d him for us and Valiant Lady and Nixie at 15 pesos a plate, which included rice. Very good fish!
Absolute left today for Chamela.

January 21, Saturday

We all went to the beach so Danielle could parasail- but no wind- so we went to the shopping center and John and Danielle went back to the beach and she got to parasail- she loved it! We had dinner and took the bus into old town to get all this film developed. We all got some great photos and wonderful memories.

*This was quite the day out, and it sounds like we didn’t plan to be out that long, which finally explains to me some of the grumpier faces in the group photos, lol! There’s one I took of everyone where I specifically remember taking far too long to take the photo - always the perfectionist!
After seeing Danielle’s aerial photo of the marina entrance, of course I HAD to look up a current satellite photo to see the differences now. Her perspective would have been from roughly where “Google” is in the satellite photo. You can see there is an entire hotel and pool now where that empty lot was.

January 22, Sunday

We all just puttered around the boat, had breakfast at one of the boardwalk cafés. The girls had to catch the plane at 2:20 pm. BUMMER. I called Mom at 8:00, they (Peg and Danielle) had left her house at 7 pm for Show Low.

January 23, Monday

Back to school. Cleaning and getting back in to our routine. Had pizza out with Steve and Sherry.

January 24, Tuesday

Arnie and Janice on Renegade came in last night – we haven’t seen them since San Diego, so we spent the afternoon and evening with them. We were gonna leave today – but there was 10 to 20 knots of wind in the harbor and reports of 35 with gusts of 50 and 60 in the bay – so we stayed put.

January 25, Wednesday

Took it easy getting ready to pull out – left the break water at 12:30 pm. The boat Princess Erika is traveling with us.
I talked to Goon this a.m. - she has been staying at Angie’s since she got back ‘cause Dan and Melissa were in St. George. She will register in Snowflake today.
We left the marina and harbor for about an hour with no wind, then it kicked in at 15 to 20 knots. We dropped the mizzen to round the point – where 2 currents meet, it can get hairy at times. We rolled from side to side in the currents. Then, just as we made it around and the sun was set and darkness was creeping in – low and behold, the wind does its usual and blows 25 to 30 knots – all night – out of the North. We were doing 9.6 knots – a record. In our efforts to lower the main (it was already reefed) and haul in the jib, we do our usual 360°! Although, this time it was only part of trying to bring the nose into the wind -which I never could fully do. Those were some STRONG winds and high swells – which lasted all night. Neither of us got any real sleep, only little cat-naps and Samie even slept in the cockpit. This was the first time we had stuff flying through the air. The radar reflector was even blown from the spreader. It was dangling from its small line along the side of the boat in the water. John made a daring rescue.

*I labeled the mizzen, main and jib for those who aren’t aware. The Wandrin’ Star is a ketch, which means she has two masts, which are what we raise our sails with. The sails are bundled and secured on the boom while not being used. The jib is at the very front of the ship, and we sometimes call it the roller-furling, because the sail is wound around itself and rolled ‘open’ and ‘closed’. The jib was my favorite, probably because it was the prettiest. Also, it was the easiest to put up and take down and one of our most used.

January 26, Thursday

It was still dark when we reached the mouth of Chamela. The 20-hour trip only took 15, we were scooting along at 6+ knots most of the way. Surfing down the waves. So, we by-passed it and sailed on 15 miles to Careyes, which, on the cover of the charts looks beautiful. NOT. What a disappointment. Oh well – on to Tenacatita, another 15 miles. Since the sun came out, we have had basically no wind and much calmer seas. Right out of Careyes we hooked a BIG something. I slowed the boat and tried to reel it in – but it was still taking the line out. Turned this one over to John. After 15 minutes, he gets it in close enough to see – WOW – a mako shark. He doesn’t want to lose his $25 lure, so he brings him in close enough, holds the line under the lure, I cut the line and saved the lure – John ties him to the rail, wishing we knew how to kill him (good eat’en). John says he weighed more than the sailfish; probably 5 feet long. I got some good pictures over the rail. John was trying to hold him out of the water to kill him and he broke away. Oh well – he was beautiful – but all those teeth, awesome! I liked that better than the sailfish!
We made it to Tenacatita and were anchored next to Absolute at 2pm or so.
What a long day – not the best sail we’ve had.
We were all crashed by 8:30pm.
🐞

January 27, Friday

Back to normal – finally in an anchorage and not a marina. It’s beautiful here and hot. The water is clear. John got a Bob Ski in P.V. from someone, he patched a small hole and is pulling Samie behind the dink. She loved it – looks pretty fun. We also pulled Garth on his surf board. Cool. Joanne and I took turns with Samie on the Bob Ski. Later, we all went over to the beach and had Garth’s B-day (24) cake with several yachties. Today was – other than school and cleaning the bottom of the boat – was a fun water day – the water is clean and clear; warm and nice swimming.

January 28, Saturday

Samie and I did 1.5 lessons in school, which is too much for one day. Around 1pm we, in our dink, along with Princess Erika in their dink, went up the river to the other beach. Had some drinks under a palapa. Nice day. Samie swam by the boat for a while.

January 29, Sunday

The generator died again – it was the resistor again, which is what happened in October while Samie and I were in Az. John and Dan from Absolute wrapped the broken spot with some copper and it works again.
Cooled down the fridge and filled the water tank.
Joanne and Garth came over again. Oh – we went in to the little town across the bay – this 10HP dink motor sure is nice.

January 30, Monday

John and Daryl, Amy and Kara from Princess Erika tried snorkeling around the rocks, but it was too surgey and murky. Samie spent the afternoon in the water with Kara and later they watched Free Willy over here. The generator died again – same thing.

January 31, Tuesday

Absolute left today- we may not see them again; they are headed for Florida.
John got the generator running again – for half an hour.