20 Years Ago Today -- April 9, 1996 -- Day 1

Here's the start of a series of posts quoting from my travel log from 20 years ago.  I'll attempt to post them on the day, 20 years later.  They describe the roughly 3000 nautical mile sailing passage starting from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and making landfall at Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia.  I'll try to post some pictures along the way, though much of the passage went with few photos (the days before digital cameras).

This was a double-handed passage aboard a Valiant 32 named Vahevala, based out of Washington state.

Tuesday, 96-04-09  Day 1 -- Leaving Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Up at 07:30. Quick breakfast, then Skipper John and I went to Los Pinos to buy vegetables and fruit [having stocked up on more durable produce in the previous days]. The selection was more limited than I had expected, but we bought N$70 worth.

Returned to the boat by bus and then walked over to Commercial at Plaza Marina to finish our provisioning. We each bought a CD of the single Macarena, by Los Del Rio, which has been a very common sound throughout our stay in Mexico. Bought meat, a bit more fruit and bread, then returned by cab to the boat. Total less than N$300.

John checked us out with port captain and immigration and received the Zarpa - a beautiful certficate saying you've left legally. I had one last shower and wrapped the fruit in aluminum foil.

I dragged John to Joe's Fish Taco for lunch before we left, and had one last Mexican lunch. I mailed 8 postcards and a letter to the Bluewater Cruising Association.

We left the dock at 14:00 CDT (1900Z) and were waved off by a few friends. Hopefully we'll run into them again in Polynesia.  We played the Loggins & Messina song 'Vahevala' on the stereo as we left the harbour, then played Macarana in Banderas Bay.

We had nice wind all afternoon in Banderas Bay, but from the West, of course. The wind went light at sunset and died after dark, so we started to motor west.

John heated a can of Chorizo (spiced pork) and one of frijoles which made a nice Mexican supper. Unfortunately, it didn't agree with me and after about 6 hours of feeling ill, I barfed it all back up. [This was the only time in a year of sailing that I threw up at sea... must have been nerves and greasy food, a bad combination in the first few days of a passage.]

I had 20:00 - 24:00 and 03:00 - 06:00 watches. Great phosphorescent dolphin activity a couple of times in the night, with them leaping out of the water near our bow. Three amazing meteorites too.