Liebling on the move-sort of

We are at anchor in LaCruz (about 14 miles north of Puerta Vallarta). We left Long Beach, California on the 15th of November and headed south. After stopping for a night at Dana Point, we headed to Oceanside Yacht Club and stayed there 2 nights. We had a wonderful visit with my niece Sandy Johnson who I haven’t seen in years. It was just like old times being able see her and her daughter was most enjoyable. We love Oceanside YC as they are very kind to let us stay for free (they give us reciprocal morage) and are very friendly and hospitable. The following day we left for San Diego and spent the night there at the police dock. There is an anchorage named La Playa just inside San Diego Bay where we can stay for free on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. It is a pretty bay between San Diego Yacht Club and Southwester Yacht Club. At this anchorage the little sailboats race all around the anchored boats which act as obstacles while they race there course. What fun!! We ended up staying in San Diego longer than we would have stayed as our friend Merle from Puerto Vallarta flew up to San Diego to get supplies for his future trip across to French Polynesia. Of course as things go supplies were slow to come in and we ended up staying in San Diego an extra few days. Merle sailed to Puerto Vallarta with his supplies on board. We finally left San Diego on the 24th and headed south to Ensenada Mexico. We checked into Mexico and did some last minute shopping in Ensenada. We got to visit with our friends from the NW, Chuck and Jan, what a treat. We left Ensenada on the evening of the 25th of November. Our friend Merle is an avid sailor and racer so having him on board was a real treat as he was trimming sails making the boat go faster with the available wind. Plus he was a wonderful help for the night watches. We put up our spinnaker and sailed downwind with it for hours at a time. This was new to us as being in the NW we have only had our spinnaker up for maybe 30-45 minutes at a time. We even had our two head sails up one to port and one to starboard of the forestay for hours as well. We did not stop until we got to Cabo San Lucas and that was only for 20 minutes to get fuel which as it turned out we didn’t need. We made it from Ensenada to La Cruz, Puerto Vallarta in 6 and a half day. This is unbelievable at it normally would have stopped and rested three or four times taking about 2 weeks. Other cruisers that we have talked to can’t believe it. I have to say though that it was really hard on me and I do not wish to do it again. We are now waiting for parts in La Cruz for our variable pitch propeller and for our anchor lifting motor as they are both having problems. I think that it will be 5 or 6 days before we can get out of here and head south to Barra de Navidad. We are scheduled to be in Zihuatanejo on the 30th of December to pick up Jims sister, we will see. This delay is not good as now we will have to rush past our favorite anchorages to get to Zihwat. Our plans are still to go as far south in Mexico as Puerto Madero (Puerto Chiapas) and decide whether we will keep going south or come back north. The adventure continues……..