Mexico Trip

 I just got back from a fantastic trip in Mexico, where Wes and I went out to Isla Isabella, then surfed for a few days, and then sailed around Bandaras Bay and visited Puerto Vallarta.  I saw lots of old friends on their boats during the trip and tried out my new D7000 camera.  The previous post is a video of the island, and I used the new camera a lot on that.
Wes has a Tayana 37 Ketch, which is a rare boat, being that it is a Ketch and not a Cutter.  (the difference is in the number of masts)  It is a cruising boat and designed for any weather, but Wes is a very careful sailor and is working his way up slowly to going out in that weather.
Mexico was merciful on us and we had nice conditions the whole time.
Here are some pictures of his boat.

 Night watches are rough on me, but they also are nice, because you get so much more out of a 24 hour period, just because you are up more.  The sunrise comes like a blessing after a long watch of watching the stars slowly move.

 We practiced Celestial Navigation on route to the island and I was very happy with the results.  Wes hadn't used a Sextant before this, and was shooting sun sights quite professionally and then we found noon.  We made a few mistakes and didn't get the angles just right or calibrate the sextant, so we were off by 45 miles of lattitude, but our longitude was 15 miles off the GPS reading.  Also, we didn't have an almanac, so we could have been closer if we had better data to work with.  Instead, we used the little approximate almanac in the sextant case.  Not as good.

 Isla Isabella has a few little islets off the side, we anchored near them.  Apparently there are seven craters from the volcano, and they all make crazy walls and things all over.  The islets are an old wall.

 After we got back in the bay we got to see a nice sunrise, shining over a friend's boat. 

 Here is a picture of me being tied to the tiller.  That's what happens if you don't have a wind vane as good as LaFawnda. 

 Rob (above) had his birthday, and we went into Puerto Vallarta to celebrate.  We ended up going to Senor Frogs, a place for the cruise boat peoples, and I'd never been inside, but in we went.  They made us a great dessert with flames. 

 And more flowers.  I love the blooming things in the sunshine down there.  Now that I'm back in the cold I have to wait for springtime again.