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| Maluhea on the Beach |
A
few days ago, I was some looking around for some content to put into this
post. We have been in Puerto Vallarta
for about a month doing interesting, but somewhat mundane shore
activities. Then a call came over the
radio that Maluhea, a 37’ Pacific Seacraft, had gone on the rocks at Punta Mita. After a half day delay before the boat’s
skipper asked for help, a group of nine of us went from the marina at La Cruz
at 5 in the evening to where the boat was situated. He could hardly have picked a worse place to
land! Punta Mita is a very, very private,
secure residential development and they prohibit any access over their
property. As a result, we chartered a
local panga to drop us off 1.4 miles from where the boat was ashore. After clambering for an hour over the rocky
beach in the dark, we arrived to find the boat way up on the beach but mostly
intact. We ran lines from the boat to
the land to secure the boat against the high tide and removed the fuel
aboard
.
With these tasks done it was now
11 at night and time to return home. We
walked through some very private property to a guard shack where we were
informed that we could under no circumstances go further in their
development. We were strongly encouraged
to return via the beach ¾ mile the other direction to the town of Punta Mita,
which we did. It was quite a night! Subsequently the volunteer boat rescue team has
removed more material off the boat in preparation for the eventual patching of
the hole in the boat’s side and sliding of the boat back to the sea and to a
haul out facility.
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| The Lovely Church in Mascota |
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| On the Road to Ron's Ranch |
Other
than this adventure, the rest of our time has been rather benign and
pleasant. One boater who elected to
remain in the Puerta Vallarta area bought a “ranch” 50 miles to the east of
Puerto Vallarta, in the mountains above Mascota. He offered to have people come visit, which
we did. Ron and his wife live at 7,300’
and in a decidedly different environment than on the beach.
In addition, the local village next to his
ranch was having a fiesta, and all of this made seeing the inland side of
Mexico most interesting.
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| Can you Guess who is heading for the Airplane and who is staying in Puerto Vallarta? |
The
other major event for us was a visit to Puerto Vallarta by our sons Kevin and
Andy accompanied with Christian, Lorraine and Clark in the week before Christmas. They all stayed in the Vallarta Marriott
hotel soaking up its resplendent facilities including a vast swimming pool, two
tennis courts and a really pretty beach. Thank you all for coming!
We
suppose that the other event to report was our 48th anniversary
dinner. Our sailing friends, Steve and Peggy Leonard, are here and joined us
for a really nice meal topped off with banana flambé, and serenaded by the
restaurant’s local musician.
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| Lynne and Clark |
As for
the rescue of Maluhea, I will say that it has had a chastening effect on Roger. In the future when
Lynne says to stay a bit further offshore as we round points of land or get
near islands, she will have much less resistance. This week we pick up our permanent residence
permits. We do not plan to move to
Mexico, but these permits make it easier to come and go. From Puerto Vallarta we intend to sail south toward
Manzanillo for 4-6 weeks and then do a U turn and head north to the Sea of
Cortez for March-May. We will send
future posts to let you know how the adventure continues!
Roger, Lynne, and Salty
You
can reach us at 206-755-4193 or email rdwerner47@gmail.com
