Ruminations of a Sailor: May 2026

Under tow, slow and careful

Well, life is full of adventures and we added another dimension to ours on the last leg of our sailing journey.

Our Perkins 4-154 engine had a ‘hard failure’ at 3am as we made our way north from Puerto Vallarta to Mazatlan. We spent a couple of quiet days in San Blas / Mantanchen Bay, seeing friends and buying the famous banana bread. From there, our route from San Blas to Mazatlan is 25+ hours at our pace of 5-6 NM / hour. We planned our arrival for the morning high tide. At 3AM, the engine had a different plan. I’d done my shift from 7 – midnight and Mike was midpoint on his when a startling noise came from the engine room. Let’s just say, ‘stuff’ ensued and we ended up turning off the engine.

As the adventure was unfolding, I realized we had a lot amazing blessings - all things considered, we arrived unscathed and safe. A few tidbits of our journey:

The first fortunate part was our location: only about 20 miles south of the entrance to the main harbor – think cruise ships, the fast-moving Baja Ferry, freighters and commercial vessels that move fast and always have the right of way (more on that shortly). Once past that harbor, our planned trip entailed a few early morning hours past Deer Island, Bird Island and voila!, we’d be at the entrance to the marinas at the right time for a safe entry.

Second, along with the relatively short distance to our destination, let’s talk wind. The wind pretty much stopped about 11PM, the main sail flopping in the "breeze", but thankfully, the wind picked up lightly before 3AM so we were able to make way under sail. Now, I know we are a sailboat; however, no wind means no go. And bobbing at sea is not a recommended hobby, as any boater will attest.

And so hours passed, northbound progress was made, conditions carefully monitored and at exactly 6:01AM on Sunday morning, I sent a text for help: we needed to be towed in to the marina. Luckily Mike is the smart one to suggest waiting for a ‘reasonable’ time to request assistance. Okay, okay. Nobody wants a text at 3 AM...

Marina Vallarta sunset, Puerto Vallarta

Marina Vallarta harbor at night

Back to the right of way and the commercial marina entrance. So we are tooling along slow and sure, and I am compelled to contact the marine control dude on channel 16 to announce Pura Vida is a sailing vessel with no engine crossing a busy entrance – can we pass safely? We get the OK but I have to say, shortly after we passed, a tiny dot I’d seen in the distance turned into a large freighter that within minutes zoomed behind us into the harbor. I guess it's kind of like ”objects in the mirror are closer than they appear” also applies to vessels on open water.

Beautiful but unknown desert flowers

Long story short (I’m not doing a good job of making this short, but it there was a lot of stuff going on), a longtime friend from our Guaymas dirt boatyard days arranged our tow. He knows the right people and arranged with Angel - a guy we already knew who cleans the bottom of our boat. We learned Angel borrowed a ‘lancha’ (motorboat) to haul us in to safety. Angel was to bring an assistant to manage the lines while he managed the vessel. As luck would have it, he brought the big guy who knows how to make a safe knot to secure our 37,000 lb vessel to their boat – and not his skinny brother who it was suggested wasn't as skilled or knowledgeable with knot tying. We see a fast-moving vessel depart the entrance toward us. Yeah! I grab the binoculars, and SCORE, we see a big guy at the stern ready to accept our tow line. He was ‘the man’. Stories!

This very nice boat was tricked out for fishing and had 2 giant outboards that cost more than Pura Vida, if you catch my drift, so we don’t want any physical contact. Just line tossing, shouting in Spanish about what to do, and, me not sure what they are saying but doing our best to cooperate.

Fast forward and a few mishaps later, a call ahead to friends at the marina brought a bevy of folks ready to catch our boat as Angel releases us, and we drift toward Dock 4. Thank you again to all for the safe docking and to our trusty Captain Mike.

Ruben made a new boat cover for summer storage

At the end of these adventures, happy to report Pura Vida is well secured in her slip in the water once again at Marina Mazatlan and we made our way north for dental work in Guaymas.

Tetakawi mountains at San Carlos, Sonora

Margs & sunset
at Charly's Rock, SC

Our sailing season

After Mike installed our new watermaker (fabulous) and various unending boat projects, we set sail heading from Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta, enjoying whale sightings and quiet days, exploring new places, even attending a Raicilla Festival in old town PV (Raicilla is a traditional agave spirit made only in Jalisco, featuring a complex, earthy flavor).

We are thankful for the good times we had, just a different return trip than we anticipated, to say the least. Engine parts falling off making loud banging noises is not usually part of our agenda.

Excursion with old and new friends to Pipi's in PV

Regional dancing at Raicilla festival

Vibrant dancing and costumes

Sunset at Mantanchen Bay

Whale strike warning poster!

We experienced an hour long whale
show around our boat, Punta Mita

North to Arizona

Now we are in the midst of 3 weeks of dog sitting in Arizona for our friends who went on a cruise through the Panama Canal - from Fort Lauderdale to Seattle! 'Hooker' likes us both so it's a good transition as her caretakers, but she’s particularly attached to me. Every move is tracked, including to the bathroom. Dog ownership is not on my radar – it’s more than having a kid.

We’ve had a great time seeing relatives and friends, hiked, biked and walked more than a few miles with Hooker, so she can sniff and chase bunnies. It’s been a good run and we are ready to make our way north shortly. After a couple more friend visits, we’ll arrive at our long-abandoned floating home on the Columbia.

And East to Germany

It’s been 20 years since Mike and I were in Germany before we married, so it’s time to revisit our mutual heritage. At the end of May, we will start in Munich and fast train to The Netherlands, where we'll spend some days with our Dutch friends to further explore that wonderful country. Then, we will meander upriver along the Rhine on boat, train and bicycle back to Munich.