Category: 2021-10 (October)

Up late almost 8:30. This was the night of the hurricane. We were up several times starting around 4 am, which is when the wind started. The wind was about 30 knots, but I did see a gust to 59 knots. Only for a second then back into the 30’s. We did not go to church today, the morning services were canceled and the bilingual service was scheduled for 7 pm. Going by bus that would have meant getting out of church about 8:30, and a half hour walk to the bus, then with two busses probably not getting back to the boat until 10 ish. So, we watched the sermon from North Coast. We did some odds and ends around the boat. 

I went to the pool at happy hour, and Reneé made chili and corn bread. 

At the end of the day we played a card game and went to bed. 

No pictures today.

Up at 7, breakfast and the net, then did our bible reading.

Off to the aqua-aerobics, then back to the boat. This is lead by one of the cruisers and is fairly well attended with about a dozen of us.

After lunch, we went to the store and did our shopping, in the states this would be a so what sort of thing, hop in the car and go to the store, but here we don’t have a car so it means hike out to the bus stop and take a bus to the area of the store and hike in to the store (Chedraui – similar to a Walmart) then across the street to Sam’s Club. This street is two lanes each direction (a highway) with laterals on either side. The  concept of the laterals is that the main road does not allow vehicles to turn either left or right, so, a block or more before you want to turn you exit the main road and pull into the lateral. This is where the left turn lane is and with the lights gets a protected left turn, across all four lanes and into the lateral on the opposite side (for a U-turn) or just a left turn. All of this makes for a wide road at relatively high speed to cross, so the crosswalk is elevated. On this trip, I waited at the bus stop with the stuff we got at the first store while Reneé went into Sam’s club, I would have had to wait outside or in the food court anyway, so no sense walking across the parking lot carrying all the groceries.

Then back to the boat, where I tried to get a nap in, while Reneé made cookies. But…. Way too many text messages and then a call from our financial advisor. We heard what he had to say, we have been planning on this anyway, the economy is down, forecasts are not great (could be, but let’s be real here) and we MIGHT be back where we started at the end of the year. Bottom line, we have decided that we are headed north into the Sea of Cortez to haul the boat at Puerto Peñasco and go back to work for a year. No neither of us wants to do this, but we are not getting any younger, and it will be better to go back this year then to wait a year and then go back when it is (potentially worse). We have been looking at this for a while now, and are pretty much ok with it, of course if our portfolio is back up at the end of the year, we will reevaluate our decision.

Oh well off to happy hour where most of the cruisers and Jodi were already in the water. An hour or so of pool therapy and back to the boat for dinner and doing nothing then bed.

No pictures today.

Well that was a long night! This is the day the clocks go back an hour here in Puerto Vallarta. It is somewhat understandable why the change, as sunrise yesterday was about 8:02 am, and today it is 7:03 am. We went to bed normal time last night. Anyway, our day begins!

Today we are planning to go to church (which starts at 10 am). This will take a bus ride to get there and perhaps we will go to the store afterwards, then catch an Uber back to the boat. If we don’t go to the store, we will probably take the bus, if we can figure it out. Bus fare is about 50 cents each, and Uber is about $6 for the two of us, maybe a bit more, that was the cost from Sams Club yesterday. Neither one is going to break the bank.

We are going to find some parts here on the boat this afternoon, then we are going to a halloween costume party hosted by the Veterans in Puerto Vallarta at a bar downtown in the evening. It starts at 6:30 pm, and if we are not having a good time we will just leave and come back to the boat.

So, we were unable to get an Uber to go downtown, but the Uber cost was going to PV was about 480 pesos, but no cars available. The cab ride was 265 pesos. The Uber back to the boat at the end of the evening was 439 pesos. For easy calculations, it is about 20 pesos to the dollar. Traffic was intense!

I missed this day in my notes. This was the day that Our old water heater was replaced. Pictures below. I don’t remember any specific details other than the water heater. 

Today was my birthday, and it was a pretty quiet one. We hung out on the boat, relaxed and took in some laundry, I changed out the chart plotter at the Nav station (the backlight is gone on the old one) with one that I bought off of eBay while we were in the states. At the end of the day we hung out at the pool and had a beer. Like I said a pretty quiet day.