A Thrilling Tack to Puerto Vallarta
 Randy LaRoche - The Republic
| | Land's End at the tip of Baja, California, Mexico, the end of leg three of the Puerto Vallarta Race Series. | |
The finish, as happens in many sailboat races, was excruciatingly slow.
The wind had died at around 5 a.m., but race rules allowed us to motor except for the last mile. Good thing, or we'd still be floating 12 or so miles back. We crossed the finish line at 7:02 a.m. at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 1,200 nautical miles from our start 10 days before in Marina del Rey, Calif.
The Puerto Vallarta Race Series is held every other year by the Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey. The format includes four races, or legs, with parties and trophy presentations after each leg. Each boat is required to log its motoring hours and take a penalty, so when and how long you motor is part of your strategy.
I was fortunate to crew on the Felicita, a 40-foot J-120 sailboat owned and captained by Perry Peters. Other crew members were Joe Warren, Tom Zimmerman and Mike Barton. We are all from the Phoenix area, except for Mike, a Coast Guard-registered captain from Northern California.
The race consisted of three legs down the Baja California coast to Cabo San Lucas, then one leg across the Gulf of California to Puerto Vallarta. Leg one took us to Turtle Bay, our longest leg. On the way to the anchorage, we traded local fisherman a six-pack of soda for seven live lobsters. Hard to beat fresh-lobster omelets in a remote Baja anchorage.
As we motored to the start of leg two, a shorter jaunt to Magdalena Bay, we were escorted by a pod of gray whales in their annual migration south. We saw many gray and humpback whales, numerous dolphins, tuna, flying fish and squid, and countless shore and sea birds. It's hard to pick a highlight from the trip, especially after earning a second-place trophy for leg two, but spotting sea life along the way is at the top of the list
After another idyllic stop in Mag Bay, including fresh shrimp right off the boat for the going rate of a six-pack of soda, we ventured out for leg three, a short jaunt to Cabo San Lucas. This time we had slips at a new marina in San Jose del Cabo.
One leg remained, about 300 miles across open water to Puerto Vallarta. The forecast was a little ominous, 20- to 25-knot winds and 8- to 10-foot seas. Our boat performed admirably, and our safety precautions gave us a great sense of security. The Del Rey Yacht Club required a long list of safety equipment, including life rafts, life jackets with tethers and strobe lights for night sailing, emergency-locator beacons and multiple radios for twice-daily check-ins.
We crawled across the finish line feeling we'd had the trip of a lifetime. For four of us 50-somethings, it was - at least until the next adventure. |
Vallarta Weddings
Travel & Outdoors | May 2009 
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