PUERTO VALLARTA

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta on our anniversary. We had a good dinner Peter joined us from Waltzing Metillda. The restaurant had parrots that you could pick up and hold they were so friendly. We stayed in La Cruz anchored in the bay for a few days. Carl was referred to a guy to fix the auto pilot that had an office in Nuevo Vallarta. So we rented a slip at Marina Nuevo Vallarta.

The marina was nothing great and wasn’t really pretty, but the people that lived on the docks were totally special! The price was cheap so we stayed there while they looked at our auto pilot. Like we said before it’s not the place but the people that make the place, a place that you will never forget. This was that kind of a place. Most of the boats on the docks were there for years, and had no intention of leaving soon. These were real cruisers that arrived here decided that this was a real paradise and just stayed here for years. Bob and Tikka took us in under their wings right off. They introduced us to their friends, took us to Taco Saturday, to a BBQ on Sunday and took us to the local hang-out for live music and pool, they were great people and they had a car!

The city is huge and really spread out. We loved Old Town the best. Tons of shopping, sand figures on the beach and a bar on every corner. I got to shop and Carl got his beer, can’t ask for much more than that.

It was really nice to be at a marina for awhile so we could clean the boat with fresh water, do laundry and just chill. Carl had two different guys look at auto. Neither one fixed it! So we head out steering again, a little up-set but we will get over it. Once we set the sails and the wind blew through our hair, we surly couldn’t complain. Life is good. (It’s good to be us!) Now we are heading to Mazatlan to meet up with Bill and Martha (Shadow.) Royce and Pam (R-Dreams) are going to buddy boat with us all the way to San Carlos. They don’t mind letting us stop at night to rest. They understand what it’s like not to have auto pilot, they also had to sail 600 miles without one. Bill just keeps on truckin saying we will see you there. Not half as much fun for us without auto! Maybe someone in the USA can make him work again like the guy that finally fixed our generator.