Cabo to Puerto Vallarta

We found Cabo way too busy for our liking but enjoyed the locals and the cuisine......







This was the finish of the 2008 Baja HaHa , "We cheated death again" rally. Several parties and an awards ceremony (by the way, we came in 3rd in our division)

I turned 60 in Cabo, which Rosie shared with several of our cruising friends.... this turned out to be a great evening aboard Eager Dreamer with new friends.












After 5 nights on the hook outside the Cabo Marina, it was time to pick up and continue our journey south. We initially headed NE from Cabo to Los Frailes (a spectacular place for snorkling) but into a strong headwind.... after a few hours of motoring and pounding north along the coast, we decided a broad reach across the Gulf of California to Mazatlan would be much more comfortable, so we and two other boats (Andanzas and Suebee) altered course accordingly. Twenty-six hours later (and with another nice Dorado in the cooler) we arrived at the Mazatlan Marina.













After 2 days, we headed south again for Puerto Vallarta... without reservations at Paradise Marina (the best location) we opted for Marina Neuvo Vallarta, near where the kids will stay when they join us next month. As our mission is to "eat our way down Mexico" we found a great family run restaurant near the marina...homemade bread, for homemade french toast!!

After two nights, we relocated up Bandaras Bay a few miles at Marina Riviera Nayarit, a new marina adjacent to the village of La Cruz..... more great food and fun locals...

If you have been following our blog you may have the impression that this trek was problem free... days filled with blue skies, warm water, light winds and fresh fish. We thought it would be informative to give you a flavor of some of the things that really happened aboard Eager Dreamer along the way... "The Rest of the Story" so to speak.

First off, our autopilot "cashed it in" coming down the coast to Monterey, CA (new control head was needed), shortly after that our voltage regulator took vacation (new regulator shipped to Santa Barbara)........ and then our hydraulic system (the electric clutch specifically) fried in Turtle Bay which was our 1st anchorage on the Baja HaHa. What this means is... no more bow thruster and, even more painful, the anchor and chain had to be hauled in manually (by the way, we are finding marinas more to our liking right now!!!). We are still working on the fix for hydraulics here in La Cruz. And then (if that wasn't enough)...Enroute to Cabo from Bahia Santa Maria (second party stop on the HaHa) I was adjusting the mizzen when a large swell launched me into the corner of a hatch, cracking a few ribs. That made the rest of the trip to Cabo.....somewhat painful! We are not done yet though... while in Cabo, Eager Dreamer drug anchor and headed out to sea without us. We were busy "eating our way through Cabo" at a local restaurant when we heard about "a boat dragging". We chased down a panga to get us back out in the anchorage....... but low and behold, ED was already tied up at the fuel dock. Lucky for us, a fellow HaHa cruiser (Jennifer, aboard Ekotopia) and two crew off "Serious Star" chased Eager Dreamer down, AND...MANUALLY lifted the anchor and brought the boat to the fuel dock. There is still more... in Mazatlan, we entered the marina through a narrow jetty at a pretty low tide (most of these entrances have to be continually dredged or they fill with sand). The NW winds were creating a pretty good surf inside the jetty..... as we entered and watched the depthsounder go from 11 feet.... to 4 feet and then"bang" were were aground in the entry. Luckily for us the surf was 3 to 4 feet and we just waited as the waves rolled under and then gave ED full power..... in a couple if minutes we were off... and no damage to the hull. OK, now we really thought we were home free. However, the shore power at the marina dock had apparantly been wired improperly (switched polarity) .. when I plugged us in, I immediately fried something in our inverter. No shore power...... I have since bypassed the inverter so we can plug into shore power but we are still working on that inverter repair here as well.......The Good News,,,A few emails and radio calls here in La Cruz got us contected with both a marine electrican and a hydraulics specialist.... they have been great and we expect all systems to be "good to go" soon....

We are not complaining mind you..... we have had several laughs about these events and the entire 3-month trip south has been a wonderful experience!!!!! Cruisers we met along the way have been just great and our own crew that joined us on different legs (Jim and Arne to San Francisco and Ricardo to PV) were just fantastic and added alot to our trip... thanks guys!!!!

We are simply saying that we verified the fact that "s##% happens", no matter where you are or what you are doing!! These events really tested the saying ......... "the difference between an ordeal and an adventure...is attitude!! We loved the adventure!!

We hope you are all doing well and we do look forward to hearing from you. We will be in the PV area through December and will have the kids all here for the holidays...... great fun still ahead !!

Until our next update........ (Today's weather: Sunny/90 degrees/water temperature 82)