Back to Brightnest

 

“No tank. Looks like pushing back another week will be a good idea.” A typical WhatsApp text regarding our water tank project.

    There are boat projects, and there are grueling, tear-the-boat-apart boat projects. Replacing a freshwater tank is one of the latter. When we flew back to Puerto Vallarta from St. Croix, eager to stand up Brightnest for our second sailing season, we promptly checked into an AirBnB because the boat was uninhabitable. The saloon sole (floor) had been taken up to remove the old freshwater tank as a part of our tank replacement project. Since the old 170 gallon aluminum tank was too big to fit through the companionway, it had been cut into pieces inside the saloon to be removed. 

    Not that we were doing the hard work. We’d been managing the project from St. Croix, trying not to fret too much about one delay after another, regularly getting WhatsApp messages like "No tank. Looks like pushing back another week will be a good idea" when the new tanks didn't arrive because of COVID-related supply chain problems.  Similar messages came in daily as our return flight date approached. 

    Even though we weren’t working on the tank project, now that we were back in PV, there was plenty of boat work for us to do. (Notably, undoing all the work we’d done 5 months before to put her up for the season!)  Acknowledging Parkinson's Law, that the work would expand to fit the time allotted, our goal was to squeeze the work into 3 weeks and get out of the marina by Nov. 4th. That would put us a little ahead of the main wave of cruisers coming back to their boats in Nov.

Sometimes I think a large part of cruising is taking things out of one storage place on the boat, scattering them around the boat, and then storing them back into the same place. Like we’ve devolved into mentally troubled, OCD squirrels or something. Sailors reading this will understand what I'm saying - to get anything done there is a lot of unpacking and repacking to do!

    Gradually, the work got done. The old aluminum tank was replaced with two connected 80 gallon stainless steel tanks. The saloon sole (floor) was reinstalled and re-varnished. We unpickled the watermaker, rerigged the sails, and completed myriad repairs and improvements. We had also brought the Starlink equipment we had delivered to St. Croix. We set up the dish and tested the internet connection - blazing fast - and knew that this could be a game changer as we sailed through different countries this season. We felt well-focused to be right on track for our 3-week goal of being ready to set sail again.

Our two, spankin-new stainless steel interconnected water tanks.

John W. did a great job of reinstalling and varnishing the sole (floor).

Saying Farewell

    Since we’d chosen to “home base” out of Paradise Village Marina for the season, we’d spent a decent amount of time there and felt a surprisingly strong connection to our “cruising home” port. We very much enjoyed the amenities such as the crocodile pool (for Mike) and the lap pool (for Jen), and the always accessible beach palapas to lounge at for a consistent breeze and two-for-one happy hour pina coladas after a hot afternoon’s boat work. Also, my old Peace Corps buddy Miguel and his family lived in Puerto Vallarta, giving us a local friend network to augment the cruisers we’d befriended at the marina. In our first season, we had two 21-day stays at Paradise Village, partially because that’s where we left the boat when traveling to visit family. We’d also hosted Jen’s sister Tiffany and her fiancé Jeff for a week-long visit. Combining those stays with the three-week stay to stand up Brightnest at the beginning of this season, we’d spent two and a half months in Paradise Village in the last year. We set aside time to say goodbye to Miguel, Nadia, and their family with a seafood lunch at one of their favorite spots. We also said goodbye to all the helpful marina staff and our fellow cruisers. As in life in general, but especially with cruising, you often don’t know if you’ll ever cross paths again.

Nadia, Miguel, me, and Jen.

Ever helpful PV staff - Ana and Gina.

    Day of the Dead Celebrations marked our last days in the Puerto Vallarta area, and we took advantage to do some last strolls along the Malecon to see the holiday sights.

24m high and recognized by Guinness Book World Records as the World's Largest Day of the Dead Catrina.  Go Puerto Vallarta!  Look at how stoked this guy is!

Just thought this was probably my coolest Day of the Dead sailing pic.

The Beatles are beloved everywhere.

 

Warm-up sail to Tenacatita and Barra de Navidad

    We felt great energy as we left Paradise Village marina on Nov. 4. After a short stay across Banderas Bay anchored at La Cruz, we sailed south to round Cabo Corrientes. We considered this first stretch a nice warm-up sail. The farthest south we sailed last year was to Tenacatita and Barra de Navidad, which would be our first two stops of the season.  

Jen at a restaurant in Colima, near Barra.

Is it just me, or is there something squirrely about that woman's hair?   Ever-quirky Barra de Navidad.

View from our favorite, go-to WIFI spot in Barra, the Hotel Bogavante.  They also regularly host live music.

    From Barra, we were looking at one hell of a sailing season. Our idea was to sail down the rest of the Pacific Coast of Mexico to Chiapas, then stage for a passage to Costa Rica. We’d cruise the coast to Panama, then transit the Panama Canal. Once we were out on the Caribbean side, we’d sail to Cartagena, Colombia, then north to Santa Marta, where we would stage for a passage north to the Dominican Republic. From there we’d beat eastward until we reached St. Croix. Piece of cake.

P.S. Brown Pelican and Great Egret, in repose.