December 28

Puerto Vallarta in the pouring rain. Humm not quite what I imagined. Apparently it rains 2 days a year and this is it.  We were like wet rats sailing from Punta Mita – we kept calling on the radio but Neuvo Vallarta Marina was full and we had already contacted Puerto Vallarta Marina so it was looking grim. It is too rough to anchor off of Puerto Vallarta so it was either back track to La Cruz or Punta Mita. We decided to go in to Puerto Vallarta and beg and if not we would anchor at a spot indicated in Charlie’s Charts – the authority book. We came in and thru the pouring rain could not see where Charlie meant, we couldn’t find the Port Captain and we were getting pretty grumpy. The water was running off my nose and I suggested we just take any old spot that was free till we got our act together and figured out what to do. We took a spot clearly meant for a huge luxury yacht. Now doing this in a Marina is very very NO-NO but we were feeling desperate.   

Jordan set off in a dry set of clothes to see if he could talk to the Port Captain. I nervously cleaned the boat inside which was slightly scummy. More on boat house cleaning later. Jordan returned triumphant – we had the last space in Puerto Vallarta .  Wow! The bad news was we had to move now and the rain complied by increasing the intensity of the downpour. In addition, we had to switch all the fenders and docking lines to the port side with alacrity. Doing this is no big deal – doing this quickly is a big deal. Jordan spun a circle while I huffed and puffed all the lines and fenders to the other side and we pulled into our slip. We were exhausted but grateful. We plugged in our power cord in and made plans.  

Boat cleaning is constant and unrelenting.  I never cleaned my house this much. Everything is so much smaller on a boat and basically you are leaving in a small studio apartment. It seems to be dirtier because it is concentrated in one area. I have a 4 year old who is a bit absent minded about putting toys away and a husband who is busy doing everything else on the boat. We do have fairly high standards for a ship shape boat and things must be clean and tidy or we get grumpy. I have seen other boats who have a more relaxed attitude and I was a bit scared to sit down. The bathrooms are constant – I can clean them everyday. The kitchen (depending on use) needs lots of work. Cooking leaves the kitchen walls and saloon ceiling a bit sticky so I have to wipe them down. I wipe and wipe and wipe. I am trying to get into a rhythm. Every time I have some time I try to do a little something so it doesn’t build up. I am just talking about the inside of the boat – the outside is my responsibility too.   

I hauled the pounds and pounds of dirty laundry to the laundry. Thank god for laundry services. I find the thing we have the most of is dirty towels! We need to learn to ration it more carefully.

Equipment problems: Water Maker overheats. Genset still cranky. Stanchion on the bow pulpit has a sheared off screw – needs to drilled out and replace.