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