October 15, 2022-Summer work report

wingssail images judy jensen
Working on the Mercury

Here we are, the middle of October. Summer is almost gone and what have we done in the last four and a half months?

Well, summer is for boat work, air conditioners, and long siestas.

That’s what we’ve been doing.

After the work on the dingy that I mentioned in last post, and the winch work, and the hydraulics work, we worked inside. We replaced Mr. Faucet in our galley. Yes another new faucet. Mr. Faucet was leaking. Boy do I hate that job. It’s hours laying on my back under the sink and numerous getting up and back down, plus skinned knuckles, etc, I hate it, but we got it done, Judy and I, and it looks nice and does not leak.

We also finally got our Mexican License plates, the Chrysler has gone native.

Then the dingy motor, our old 15 HP Mercury 2-stroke. It had a few problems and needed some maintenance and TLC. We kept it in the shop forward and worked it over. New wires, new kill switch, fixed up accelerator pump, new lower unit lube, and a good clean up and touch up with new black paint, it looks and runs good now. Not sure how long it will last but at least now we got it purring.

Moving on, a couple more car projects intervened. Lost brakes one day. That was scary. But it was just a blown brake line (replaced), and a transverse rear suspension link got loose (fixed) and a power steering pump belt went out (replaced). We had a dent in the left front fender where I pulled out in front of a truck (also fixed). Not sure what will go out next but I know it will be something.

Rain: Boy has it rained this summer. We’ve been collecting water with our shade awing water collection system and it has worked really well. We use 100 gallons a week and we’ve gone 12 weeks without filling our tanks other than rain water. That’s 1200 gallons we’ve collected (and consumed). The rain has also flooded the town, but that’s normal.

wingssail images fredrick roswold
Judy

Work outs: Judy and I have kept up our three times a week routine at the gym and it is showing. We both feel healthier and are doing well in the gym. I’ve even lost weight. Judy’s time for the mile on the treadmill is coming down and she is really giving the weight machines hell. I think she’s about to break some of them. On the treadmill her mile is consistently under 17 mins and on the stair-stepper she’s heading for a 14:00 mile.

I’ve been working hard on the rowing machine (as well as other machines) and I’ve really made some progress. Since 2004 I’ve been trying to get my time for 3000 meters under 12:30. (I’ve had the same type of machine since 2004, isn’t that cool?) Now, this summer I finally beat 12:30. Then I beat 12:00 with a time of 11:48. Since then I’ve gone faster every week and my latest best time is 11:08. That is unbelievable for me and I don’t know if I can ever beat that. But I’d like to get under 11:00. Can I? (one problem is that the timing device quit on Monday, so I’m stuck).

wingssail images judy jensen
Pork Kebabs

Cooking: We usually eat at home and Judy always prepares great meals. This summer she decided to document her cooking. She has been photographing her results every night and she has a blog post with all of the results. They are as good as they look. I’ve got one photo here but Judy is posting a month’s worth are here>> Thirty Days of Meals

Next up we’ve got a haul out coming and a new paint job for the hull, plus some instrument upgrades and new rudder bearing. It will be busy. We’ll try to keep you in the loop.

Click here for more photos.

Click here for Judy's cooking photos

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mexico

Friday, December 21, 2018

December 19, 2018-Old Friends Show up In La Cruz

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Asenvari

Sixteen years ago Wings anchored in beautiful anchorage in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. It was called Asenvari, on the island of Maewo.

There we met a beautiful family whose boat Noason was anchored in the Bay, Gene Mim-Mack, Robbie Springs, and their daughter Allison.

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Gene Mim-Mack and Robbie Springs and their daughter Allison, 2002

They were completing a wonderful project on Asenvari and I wrote a story about it, here.

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Asenvari

This year Gene, Allison and Robbie, on a different Noason, showed up in La Cruz and we were happy to be reunited with them. They are still a beautiful boating family.

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Gene Mim-Mack and Robbie Springs and their daughter Allison, 2018

A lot of water has passed under their keels since 2002, much of it on land, and if you meet them I'm sure they will enthrall you with their story.

Meanwhile,

Click here to read the original story.

Click here for more images from Asenvari.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle

Sunday, July 01, 2018

July 1, 2018-Return to La Cruz

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Sailing Into La Cruz

After 79 days in the Sea of Cortez Wings returns to La Cruz, in Banderas Bay on the Mexican mainland coast.

Most of our sailing days on this cruise were upwind days, tacking against contrary winds which were usually coming from exactly the way we wanted to go. Upwind or not we enjoyed it; Wings is great upwind and the weather was nice on those sailing days, cool and clear. The Sea of Cortez, especially on the Baja side during Springtime, is refreshing and rarely too hot. But coming back to La Cruz we left the clear, cool, dry, weather of the Baja and returned to the heat and humidity of Banderas Bay. In Baja, on the day we left, we could see land 48 miles away from us. In Banderas Bay land is lost in haze only 12 miles distant. But La Cruz is home to us now and we are happy to be returning, heat or no heat, haze or no haze.

And the wind was at last behind us. Coming into Banderas Bay we caught the afternoon thermal and we set the kite, our old and scraggly Eddie Fracker kite from 1990, but it still works. In 16 knots of wind, dead downwind, we marveled at the nice sailing conditions which we love in this place and the lush green jungle covering the land, and, yes, even the heat.

Welcome home Wings

We have not yet finished editing the photos, we'll catch up with that later.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle, Mexico

Thursday, March 17, 2016

March 17, 2016-Season Finisher: Banderas Bay Regatta

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Working the Beach in BBR

The racing season is over in Banderas Bay and we’ve done very well. We sailed in three regattas and won two of them and got second in the third which was Banderas Bay Regatta, last weekend. There were also several Wednesday night beer can races this season of which we won several.

Even though we didn’t win that last race we are thrilled with the season. Since last year we’ve made gains in several areas including crew work, tactics, starts, sail shape, and even our efforts to improve the rating situation has helped.

The Banderas Bay Regatta was interesting. We sailed hard but the competition was tough and the courses didn’t suit us. However, after two days the fleet was totally scrambled. There were five boats which were tied for first place, all with 7 points. Wings was one of them.

It came down to the last day. Whoever won that final race would take the regatta. A friend was talking to us before the race and he said, “Well, when you are up against really good competition it makes you better, you have to up your game.”

I despaired. I wondered what I could do to “up our game”. Our starts had been perfect, our tactics had been flawless, and our boat speed was already the best it had ever been. What else could we do? We had no more rabbits to pull out of the hat.

There was one chance. Maybe the race committee would set Course 7. Part of Course 7 went up the La Cruz shoreline, which is a tricky little place, and we were masters of it. If they set Course 7, and if we could stay close until we got there, maybe we could pull out the win.

Well, they set course 7. We had a chance.

But things don’t always go as planned. After getting the course I wanted we blew the start of the race. We blew it bad. Worst start all year. Then the radio got switched off and we missed the announcement of the bearing to the first mark, consequently went the wrong way and wound up over-standing. When we got to the La Cruz coast we were in fifth place.

But there was still that beat up the coast. It’s only 1.7 miles but we knew how to make the most of it and we did. The four boats ahead were clueless; when they tacked out in search of better breeze I just thought, “YES!” Outside there was a lovely wind, and the four boats ahead found that wind and heeled over and accelerated. They didn’t notice that the tide was strongly against them.

They didn’t notice the lifted breeze in on the shore. They didn’t realize that even though they were going fast they were falling back.

We stayed inside, close to the shore, and worked our magic. Our wind was lighter and came in fits and puffs. There were nerve wracking lulls. Sometimes we just barely coasted ahead to the next little puff. Often we seemed just yards off the rocks and the surf, but we moved. We knew when we had to tack and when we could hold on a little longer. We worked the beach. The other four boats romped outside in the nice breeze which had lured them there, and they got screwed. When they finally tacked back towards the mark they had a bad course, well below the mark. We got one last puff which took us speeding in on a big lift. We rounded the mark in second, close behind the first boat. We had passed three boats and closed up with the fourth boat in that short 1.7 mile leg. Fantastic, what a comeback!

Now we just had a spinnaker run to the finish and it was a drag race. The crew was excellent and we closed in more on the first boat. The wind shifted on that run and we changed spinnakers, a tricky move, but we did it and it helped even more.

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Racing to the Finish

At the finish we checked our time and saw that we had corrected out over the first boat. That was good, but one boat behind us had maintained their position and they, in turn, corrected out over us. The difference was a little over a minute. They won. Winning the race also won them the first place in the regatta. We got a second place in the race and second for the regatta.

So that was the way we ended up, a good race and a great season. We drank three bottles of Champagne on the way home.

Click here for more photos.

You can also see more photos of the Banderas Bay Regatta on John Pounder's web site.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

May 25, 2015-Sailing Days: Even the Clean Up is Fun

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Nice Sailing Day

It was another one of those wonderful sailing afternoons in Bandaras Bay which we see on most clear days: light breeze out of the west starting about 11:00 AM, building to around 20 knots by mid-afternoon, then shifting to the NW and tapering off before dark. We've started to hear from people who live here year 'round that the wind changes in the summer. The afternoon thermal winds we see every day will go away when the rainy season starts.

This could be one of the last great sailing days of the year.

So we grabbed a couple of neighbors, Leslie and Ian from the yacht Fandango, and we just went out and set sail. We sailed to windward for a couple of hours, did a couple of tacks. Then turned back and set the chute. The sailing was excellent.

We sat on deck and had some cold drinks and talked about life and sailing and whatever else came up.

Three wonderful hours on the water; pretty simple.

OK, we dropped the spinnaker into the water on the takedown, and had trouble with the jib takedown too, but nothing major (I guess we need more practice).

When we got to the dock the cold beers came out and we all sat around in the afterglow of a good sail.

Strangely, it might seem, one of the most satisfying times for me other than the eight knot broad reach we had coming home under spinnaker was the clean up. The two hours we spend putting the boat away after we get back are part of the deal, a good part from my way of thinking.

Ian and Leslie wanted to help and offered repeatedly, but Judy I and like to keep this part for ourselves. It is a ritual for us; we do it do it slowly, together, just plugging away at our own pace, coiling sheets, folding sails, and generally tidying up. It is a ritual which we've done together for many years and we wouldn't miss it for anything. Besides, we didn't invite Ian and Leslie on board to put them to work. So we declined their offers, tipped up the last of our beers, and got up to tackle the job.

By the time all the lines were hanging on their hooks below, and the sails were folded and in the forepeak and I had finished hosing off the boat the air conditioner was purring and the cool cabin was inviting. I looked over the boat with its white deck glistening and clean in the late afternoon light and I felt a joyous exhaustion. I knew that I'd done something which was important today, and that included the clean up as well as the sailing. It felt really good.

Click here for more photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle

Kite Boarding Fiesta Del Viento May 23, 2015

We also got another chance at the kiteboarders at the Fiesta Del Viento in Bucerias. It was a big deal, well over 100 boards out for the Long Distance Race. We shot the start but there was no way for us to keep up with them and see the finish, even with our dingy going flat out.

Free Style

Click here for more Kite Board Photos.

Sunday, March 01, 2015

March 1, 2015-Adventures in Paradise-Fish Market

La Cruz Fish Market

Most places we've been have had fish markets where the catches of the local fishermen are sold. Wherever there is ocean there are fishermen, and there are fish, and you find the fish in the markets.

But mostly there aren't many fish. There are lots of fishermen, everywhere, but the seas are fished out pretty much world-wide. In Asia, for instance, so few fish are caught that the fish markets are just a wet table in the public market between the veggies and the fresh chickens. Not much, not big, and not looking too wholesome. The Caribbean is about the same; not much in the way of fish or fish markets.

So we were really surprised at the fish markets in Mexico, and La Cruz in particular.

The La Cruz fish market is big, clean, and filled with fresh fish and low prices. The stall pictured above is one of six. We love it.

Not only can you get whole fish, fillets, steaks and all sorts of shellfish, but it is really cheap.

We like Yellow-fin Tuna or Mahi Mahi, and a couple of big streaks from either variety, about a pound of cleaned fish, costs around $8-$10.

Big Tuna

What also surprised us were the huge sizes of fish being landed here. For example check out this tub of Yellow-Fin. The tub is two feet tall and six feet long, so you can see the tuna are about 4-5 feet long, and they are as big around as a basketball. The fisherman said the one underneath (you can just see his tail), was twice as big. He said if I want tuna, just call him.

This isn't the only good fish market we've found; Gizo, in the Solomon Islands is pretty good, and also the market in Kota Kinabalu, in Borneo.

But the fish market at La Cruz is the best we've seen.

Click here for more photos

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

January 13, 2015-Liveaboards, not Cruisers

jl digital imagesWings sailing off Nuevo Vallarta

It's been a month since we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. This has been a month of transition for us. We've transitioned from cruisers to liveaboards. We've found a permanent marina berth in La Cruz Huanacaxtle, a delightful, laid back, Mexican town near Puerto Vallarta, which we love. We've moved a lot of cruising equipment off the boat. We've got our car here, which we planned all along. We're making friends, and we've started local sailing. There is a low key racing program and we've lined a crew and have already done two races. We didn't win, but we have time to get better.

So we plan to live here, on Wings, do local sailing, and not do any more long distance cruising.

Pretty major change for us after 18 years of cruising.

I don't know what kind of interesting stories we'll be able to write about this new life, but we'll try.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Puerto Vallarta

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

December 9, 2014-Vallarta

Just a quick note to keep our followers up to date:

We sailed for Barra de Navidad on Dec 3, spent a night anchored in Melaque after a quick reunion in Barra with Gene and Sue and our sister Serendipity 43 Peregrine and then on to Puerto Vallarta, arriving in Nuevo Vallarta on Dec. 7 and moved to La Cruz on Dec 8, 2014. We had another two great sailing legs. The last section up the coast to Cabo Corrientes was amazing; 20kts of wind on the nose and some healthy waves but it was wonderful sailing and Wings went to weather like the thoroughbred she is. We wound up doing two sail changes as the wind lightened again as we crossed Banderas Bay at dawn. It's great to be back in Puerto Vallarta after sixteen years.

In La Cruz we've run into some old friends and the new marina, Riviera Nayarit, is truly luxurious.

Tomorrow we fly out to return to Huatulco to fetch the car.

Sorry, no photos yet.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Banderas Bay

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