Adventures

I created this blog back in 2010 with the hopes that you, my friend, would follow me as I (figuratively) sailed around the world. Now I hope to keep you entertained with silly anecdotes, whimsical stories, cutting analysis and random thoughts on the world, while traveling hither and thither. P.S. All material on this blog, words and photos alike, are copyrighted by me. Copyright 2022. If you decide that this material is worth re-publishing, please give me credit and lots and lots of money.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

ABANDON SHIP

Let's hope we never have to, but one has to prepare for the worst.

Today Mom, Dad and I attended the first seminar put on by the Pacific Puddle Jump group, a group that (attempts to) prepare cruisers for the passage to and cruising the South Pacific. Hopefully future seminars will be more fun, like "provisioning for a 30 day passage" and "rigging and sails" (yeah!), but this one was heavy. Titled "A Whale of a Close Encounter- Surviving a Sudden Sinking during the 2009 Ha-Ha", the seminar was given by a woman whose boat sank off Baja after hitting a whale. Although she had a great sense of humor about the whole episode, was informative, and the story had a happy ending, it was gnarly. Here is a link to the article if you are interested: http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2009-10-29&dayid=344

The moral of the story: be prepared. Shit goes down in the ocean, regardless of how safe or cautious one tries to be. We have to accept the fact that anything could happen out in that big ocean. And so, while I intend to surf and hang out with the locals at Punta de Mita for the next two months, we will also be doing lots of day sails. On these day sails we will practice putting up storm sails, heaving-to, man overboard drills, and fun activities like that. We will also test survival gear: life raft, EPIRB, the ditch bag, and so on. Everybody hopes never to use these things, however, if we ever have to use them, 1. we need to know how to use them, and 2. we need to know that they work. Yikes.

On a lighter note, we are now staying in the marina at Paradise Village Resort. This place is kind of ridiculous... more like a Gringolandia compound than Mexico. Huge pools with water slides and waterfalls where they play "tequila volleyball" every day at 2:00, spas and saunas, a gym (no gracias), Starbucks, Subway, etc., etc. This is my backyard for the next...well... we are not sure how long we will be here. I want to go back out to Punta de Mita to surf and kick it with my amigos there, as well as visit a few other places in Banderas Bay, but I can't lie, life is pretty luxurious here. The waves on the beach have potential- this morning I went out to check the surf and perfectly peeling, barreling waves were coming through- but they were about 6-18 inches. Triple over toes, I like to call it. Like I said, potential.

Bueno amigos, it has been exactly one month since we left San Diego. I thank you all for the comments, emails, and messages you send me, as it proves that you have not forgotten about us yet. Send more! I love them.


4 comments:

  1. Keep up the blog and we won't ever forget you. Hopefully you won't forget the armchair sailors back home. We hang on your every word!

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  2. triple over toes! i like that one.

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  3. JUST found your blog! I caught my Mom reading it; I had no idea. Now I have to catch up. I wish I were at the Punta with you. All my love to you, stay positive out there on the high seas!

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  4. Yet- you chica loca..
    Exactly (what your friend Mary said), Doubt we'll ever forget you guys out there. Glad you guys took time to prepare for the unexpected/unwanted situation.

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