5th February, 2017

A Day on the Bay

Yoshie, Richelle and Brian watching the whales.

February 2, 2017

We left the marina around 1200 with eleven of our friends on board. Most had volunteered for the race committee during the Vallarta Cup Series and we wanted to share Cadenza sans flags and horns and treat them to a sail. As we motored out of the channel, a few of us spotted a speedboat trailing a parasailer, heading straight for our mast.

“Jay! Look!” We were trying to get his attention and pointed up to the sky. “What is he doing? Is he crazy? Oh, my God!”

We watched, helplessly, as they got closer and closer. (The driver either didn’t see us or didn’t much care. I’m not sure how he could not have seen us.) Jay turned the only way he could, straight into shore. He nearly ran into the swim lines, we were that close. The speedboat stayed his course and the parasailer, he narrowly missed our mast, by what looked like six feet! Seriously. I practically had a heart attack. We all just looked at one another, stunned.

We motored on and raised the sails. It was a typical afternoon on Banderas Bay. The thermal came up around 1400 and we had twelve knots of wind over flat seas. We set course on a beam reach and sailed her across the water at six knots. Heaven. Just heaven.

Dolphins played along our bow. We saw a turtle. The best, of course, was sighting the whales. The trick is to look for boats gathered together and not moving. That usually means there are whales. We only saw one boat, but we also saw several sprays of water, telling us there were whales. Just then, the wind dropped, we started the motor and hurried to catch up with them. And catch them, we did.

We have seen whales many times, yet it never gets old. I light up like a little child. We watched as the whales sauntered in and out of the water, revealing their backs and sometimes their tales. Until, suddenly, one breached – his whole body rose out of the water! He landed with a loud thud and a huge splash spread across the sea. The entire crew screamed out in delight, “Woohoo!”

P.S. I did try to catch a photo of the whale, but I didn’t want to get behind the lense for fear I would miss the moment. I started clicking and only got the sky.