January 16, 1998-Life On The Hard

Wings gets a new bottom in Puerto Vallarta.




At 9:00 am on a beautiful sunny morning I was standing on Wings' afterdeck, 20 ft above the hard pavement of the Opequimar boatyard, watching boat traffic in the Marina Vallarta channel 50 yards off our stern. Robbie Swan, at the helm of Saga, waved at me and yelled, "See you in the South Pacific Fred" as he and Michelle headed out to sea.

Saga was leaving ahead of us by at least a month or two but we figured we'd see them again somewhere out there. I waved my arm over my head and wished them good luck as I remembered years of racing and cruising on Saga with our good friends Joann and Pat. Now Saga has new owners and I enjoyed thinking of the adventures ahead of them as I watched them move slowly along the channel.

The narrow waterway going into Marina Vallarta is a busy place, and also one where you might meet almost anyone, if you are willing to wait a little while.

During our stay in the boatyard we have seen dozens of boats and yachts enter or depart from here past our stern, and each day we watch the multitude of Pangas, Sports fishermen, tour boats, and charters which all work the tourist business, come and go.

Of our own friends, in addition to Saga, we have seen
Far Niente ,
Stone Soup,
Saganatt,
Scot Free,
and High Roler just this week.

We have seen dingy's of all sorts and mega yachts so huge they hardly fit in the channel.

One of the best times of the day for watching the activity is at 4:00 PM when the working fleet all comes in. The tourists are all sunburned, Pina Colada' d out and exhausted after their day on Banderas Bay, and they trudge happily off to thier hotels while the crews sing their ballads, stack chairs, and wash up the boats.

Today three guys from the boatyard paddled over to a charter fishing boat in a dingy with no oars and came back with a 7' Sailfish and two big Billfish which they cleaned on the float just behind us. There were a couple dozen Pelicans waiting nearby for scraps.

I’ve hired a fellow to sand our boat and he and his sons, who are also working on the the two boats next to me, are hardworking and freindly. His name is Heliodoro, but he goes by Lolo and I know two of his sons, Richard and Orturo. They always greet me with huge cries of "Fredereeeko" and I reply with "Heliodurrrro, Reeecardo, Orturrrro" each day. We share barrels, hoses and electrical cords as we work on the boats. Richard and Orturo live in Pittillal, a town near here with cheap apartments, and they call it "Pity City". I used to say "Que Pasa" to them but they are cool young dudes and they use the more modern "Que Onda".

We are staying in a cheap hotel in old town and last night we stopped at the Roxy night club on the way home and stayed until 1:30 AM. There is a band of young Mexicans playing there that we really enjoy. We met the singer last year and he was talking of the difficulty of getting the club owners to allow them to do their own compositions. I guess it is still rather difficult since they played only covers last night, mostly rock standards by Santana, Beck, Robin Trower and the Stones, but the young Indian playing lead guitar is so good we didn't care what songs they played.

The owner of the club plays with the band too, a pretty good guitar himself, but he looks sort of out of place with his Maynard G Crebes goatee and his Greek fisherman's cap. The other musicians all are young Mexicans with long dark hair and sort of grunge clothing.

We listened to them and danced a lot too and went back to the Hotel pretty tired. This morning we arrived at the boat to work at 10:30 AM. but so what, we don't have a schedule, do we?

bottom paint

We've taken all the old off, the first time we've ever done that since we had Wings, fixed the rudder, smoothed the whole bottom, repaired some old leaky IOR bumps, and now we are getting ready to paint. Plus we are working on the propshaft a little.

At the end of this haul-out Wings' bottom will never before have been so smooth, her keel never so fair, or her paint never so perfect as they will be this time. Plus we'll have a epoxy barrier coat for the first time, new rudder bearings, new stern tube packing and fittings, and of course new zincs. We should be back in the water by the 30th and then we need to spend a few days cleaning the yard dirt off of everything. If anyone has ever wondered what people who are cruising do with all their free time, this should satisfy their curiosity. By the second week of Feb. we'll be sailing south and we will write to you from Acapulco.

Looking Young







Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Puerto Vallarta

January 13, 1998-On The Road Again

Brian George steers on a nice beam reach leaving Mazatlan
wingssail-Fredrick Roswold

It took an hour for the bus to get out of Guadalajara and another 15 minutes to get free of the city smog, but finally Judy and I were rolling down the highway through beautiful Mexican countryside on the way back to Mazatlan.

Judy had spent nearly a month in San Diego with Margie while I stayed in Mazatlan and sewed sails and did boat projects, and then traveled to Guadalajara for Christmas with my father. On Christmas Day Judy flew in to Guadalajara and we had a nice reunion, but we were ready to head back to the boat to resume a more normal life for us, together, on board Wings.

Nina, Columbus'Speedster

Bryan George joined the boat in Mazatlan on January 2, 1998 and Wings set sail for Puerto Vallarta on the afternoon of January 4, with the pole on the head stay, a full kite, and 18kts of wonderful warm Pacific breeze. Glorious sailing and our friends on the brigantine Spirit of Chemanus saw us off with square sails set. Our last view of Mazatlan was the Faro lighthouse behind us and Spirit of Chemanus hull down on the northwestern horizon. As the sun got low in the sky Wings was speeding along at 8.5 knots. Beautiful!

We made stops at Isla Isabela (lots of birds close enough to touch, but we were blown out of the anchorage at 05:00), Jalotembra, (nice town but rolly anchorage) and Tres Marietas, (rugged and beautiful, excellent snorkeling, but also rough anchoring) and sailed into the harbor at Puerto Vallarta at 5:00 pm on Jan 9.

It was a fun sail down the coast but we were ready for a quiet night tied up to a dock. We enjoyed Bryan's company greatly and his contribution to the watch schedule. We also like being back in Puerto Vallarta, after nearly one year, and boy it this town booming. We hear the population is up and we see that there is building everywhere.

Now Wings is dry docked and we start a major project on the rudder and bottom. We have a hotel room in the old part of town, extremely cheap but clean, and this is looking like a long haul (pun). But boat maintenance is part of living aboard, so we have to do it. We are looking forward already to completing the work and spending a couple of months cruising Mexico's gold coast between here and Acapulco.

That’s all for now, we'll write again soon.
Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, Puerto Vallarta