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3/12/2006 6:45:00 PM
Tenacatita Bay
A favorite cruisers hangout on the way south to Zihuatanejo

Balance of the 3 Fs

It has been way too long since we wrote but I attribute our lack of writing to the problem of balancing the 3 Fs .... fixing, fun and friends/family.

OK . it is my turn for a change to apologize . its been way too long since we wrote but I attribute our lack of writing to the problem of balancing the 3 'F's . fixing, fun and friends & family . am I glad Niki is the math teacher in the house / boat . that is actually 4 'F's but let's lump friends and family together into one and that makes 3.

So why didn't we write . because we had too much of each 'F' and balancing the 3 has been tough at times leaving us feeling we don't give each enough of it. So here we go:

1 - FIXING

Being in a marina for a long time seems to bring on a lot of the last 'F' . fixing on the boat, actually too much because we had more time in the marina than we bargained for but more on that later in this report. Sometime in January we decided that we were NOT as originally planned leaving for the Marquesas from Puerto Vallarta but from further South . most likely Zihuatanejo. That meant that all the remaining work and fixing that required parts or outside help needed to be done while we stayed in PV. Here is a shortlist of the items we tackled . changed all our batteries, varnished the boat sole (floor inside), traced down and fixed the mystery leak . or shall I say leakS, fixed our autopilot power problem, connected the spare GPS, did a full mast inspection and a tuning sail, made mosquito netting, serviced throttle and gear shift, . well the list goes on. My dad after a week of visiting said that at first thought we got unlucky with our boat with all the work we have to do . after hanging around other boats in PV, he concluded that's just the life of a boat owner . fixing is a daily thing . hence this is one of the 3 'F's.

2 - FUN

Sometimes people mistake cruising for vacation and even I have to admit I expected to spend more time doing fun / sports activities like on a beach vacation . honestly, up to this point over the last 3 months I have only had a chance to windsurf once (well twice but the first time the wind died so it doesn't really count) and have been scuba diving only once too (again not counting taking in and out our shaft, cleaning the bottom of the boat or other boat related work . that would fall under the first F). Don't get me wrong I am not complaining, we are getting to see a lot and we got to do a lot of fun things with our friends and family but this whole cruising thing is far away from a vacation sitting around and enjoying the scenery . it actually is quite a bit of work too. All in all, I find we need to take proactive steps to make time for fun events because otherwise we find ourselves getting tangled up in boat fixing, home school and passage making. Talking about passage making, that turns out to be the most relaxing time so far, hard to believe but true, because it is the only time where I spend little time fixing the boat unless something critical breaks and then it is a fire drill no matter what, but more time hanging with the family or reading a book . I haven't read that much in a long time but then again the intellectual level of my reading isn't very high . Grisham, Koontz etc . I have to fess up to the lack of good literature, Niki better then me,  . :-)

3 - FAMILY and FRIENDS

That we got a lot of the last 2 months and we enjoyed it a lot. It felt great to show the boat in its full glory and action to Bonnie for a week, my dad and my brother for 2 weeks, and Luke and his girlfriend Stephanie . sometimes it was hard to tell them I had to do work on the boat . again the balancing of the Fs . but it was always a great excuse to have more of the second F . FUN. Here is a quick hit list of things we did in the last 6 weeks in Puerto Vallarta.

We went to the Tres Marietas Islands twice, once with Bonnie and once with my dad and brother. Snorkeling there was great though sometimes it felt a bit like a tourist trap . quite a site, when the tour boats pull into this quaint anchorage about 2 hours outside of Banderas Bay and about 50 or more people drop off the stern of the boat like lemmings with their orange lifevests around their necks and a snorkel sticking out of the water . all you see is a sea of orange spots all over the place . then 30 minutes later they are all loaded back into the boat and off they go to the next tourist attraction because they do what we do in 4 trips all in 1.

With Bonnie and TheMartins, we went to Punta de Mita and that's when I got my windsurfing fix in . it was great to be on a board again and go faster then my sailboat . should give the surfer a name . not sure maybe 'Lawurocket'. Also, Bruce slowly but surely tries to convert me to a regular surfer . still not sure about the whole paddling and waiting game but sure feels great to ride a wave in . got a few over those 2 days out in Punta de Mita.

We also visited Yelapa twice, once with my dad and brother and a Mexican fisherboat called panga because anchoring isn't very safe there. Yelapa can only be reached via boat which makes for a special atmosphere . a but touristy but with paragliders flying above, I felt right at home . Yelapa is known as the hippie town in Banderas Bay and sure enough not long after we landed, our 'tour guide' (what a racketeering schema between the panga driver and his uncle, the tour guide you had to take to show you the waterfalls supposedly) asked Werner if he wanted something to smoke . I believe the words they used later for Luke was . "You wanna fly or be high" . has a nice ring to it . he must be a full service business but not sure how safe I would feel going paragliding with him considering what he does in his spare time . LOL

We did quite a bit of snorkeling and took one guided scuba dive around Arcos Rock, quite impressive to dive below a 10ft wide manta ray . actually my brother and I saw 4 rays during 2 dives. They are such majestic creatures when they glide along, dark at the top and white at the bottom. Beside manta rays, we saw tons of humpback whales, mostly sliding in and out of the water and their large tail coming right out before they go for a 5 minute dive; once when we first arrived we got to see a full on show by them . sort of like a welcoming committee . they are amazing creatures.

Between other trips to a local fiesta and visits to downtown we split our time in Marina Vallarta where we did most of the boat work and the biggest anchorage I believe we will see for a while in La Cruz. La Cruz is a nice town just 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta but it isn't at all as touristy as PV and still feels like Mexico. PV in general is very 'American' . you can pay with US Dollars anywhere, you hear more English than Spanish unless you ran away to places like La Cruz . the rip-off artists and time-share sales people are around lurking everywhere.

All in all, we spent 8 weeks in Puerto Vallarta, it was convenient to be in a slip. It is always an adventure to take the local PV bus system that was great and inexpensive, especially considering that music was sometimes included with street musicians jumping aboard, playing songs between stations, collecting tips and leaving the next bus stop again. By the end of our stay the local restaurants off the beaten path we often visited would recognize us and greet us when walking by. That was a sign for us to leave PV behind again once our friends, TheMartins, returned from an unexpected 3 week trip back to the US (more on their website at www.ohanakai.net <http://www.ohanakai.net/> ).

We have been underway now again for a week and are taking a more leisure approach to sailing the last few weeks. Rather than hitting many anchorages, we are hitting less but are staying longer at each one. Currently, we are in Tenacatita Bay, have been here already 3 days and are planning to leave tomorrow for Zihuatanejo, a 210 mile / 40 hour trip or so.

Things on the boat are getting tightened up more and more nowadays, because the big trip across the Pacific (also nick-named 'Puddle Jump') is just around the corner. The way things are looking, we are likely to leave within the next 1 - 3 weeks, weather pending . damn his is getting close . feels like we have talked about that trip forever and now it is sooo close. We have to wait for a good weather window since typically winds are light and variable down here (further south and east then many people want to be for leaving for the Marquesas) and we don't have the luxury of some boats to motor for 3 days to reach the steady trade winds.

While I am on the 'Puddle Jump' subject, since a few people asked for more frequent location updates and better zoom in to where we are, I went and added a new feature to our website to track our progress more closely via Google Earth. Google Earth is a FREE program that can be downloaded at http://earth.google.com <http://earth.google.com/>  and it shows you where we are on satellite images; you can zoom in sometimes down to the bay and it is SUPER COOL . seriously you MUST check it out if you want to follow our progress; goto www.lawur.com/tracker for detailed instructions how to use it. While we are underway, I generally tend to update our location every 3 hours or so. With Google Earth, you can follow our the trip across the Pacific in real-time . almost. If we had better internet on the boat like the Volvo Ocean Racers, I would even give you a webcam . ;-) . sounds like 'Big Brother on Lawur' . there is a marketing idea for my corporate friends and marketing gurus out there.

OK, that's it for now. Sorry again for the long email silence from Lawur. Since we are underway again, updates will come again more frequent and we will try to do a better job of balancing the 3F's so you can get your fix of reading some of my Genglish again. I attached 2 pictures as a reminder that Niki updated our website with quite a few images from our last 3 months, our visitors and the trips described above . the 2 images are about our 2 new pets . one outside and one inside the boat . ;-)

Happy sailing,

Robert

TheSchmids Family Sailing on Lawur

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