Seabiscuit and Beyond: New England, Las Vegas and Time to head north

Location: Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico (Paradise Village Marina)

We are finishing up our boat projects, doing maintenance and preparing to head north to spend the winter in the Sea of Cortez – north of here, between the Baja Peninsula and mainland Mexico. We went and did some final provisioning this morning, Dave is finishing up a few more maintenance items and we hope to hit the high seas tomorrow morning. Our first stop will be Yelapa, a small village about 12 miles south of Paradise Village – a short hop so that we can get our sealegs, make sure everything is working correctly and do some final exploring before we leave Banderas Bay.

Our last blog ended in San Miguel de Allende. Dave left from there to go to New Hampshire and visit his father, James O. Herndon, who, unfortunately passed away on October 2. Prior to his father’s death, Dave, his brother Pete and Pete’s wife Cathy and his sister Julie were able to spend some quality time with their dad. All of the grandchildren (Ben, Erin, Heather and Amy) and the great grandchildren (Mariah, Maggie and Benjamin) were able to visit and tell their Grampy that they loved him and to share some favorite memories.

From San Miguel, I continued on and spent a week in Ajijic, on the north shore of Lake Chapala, and then came back to the boat before flying up to New Hampshire to join the Herndon family.

Mural in progress in Ajijic

While we were in New England, Dave and I did some leaf-peeping in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. The fall colors were really beautiful. We spent our time driving the mountain roads, doing day hikes, enjoying the fresh air and exploring the small towns scattered amongst the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the Rangeley Lakes region of Maine.

Cog Railway train that climbs to the
summit of Mt. Washington, NH
(at the bottom)

Cog Railway train at the top of
Mt. Washington

View of the surrounding valley and mountains

View - hiking in Vermont

Hiking the ridge of Mt. Mansfield, the highest peak
in Vermont

On Saturday October 18, we had an Irish Wake at Pete and Cathy’s house to honor Dave’s father. From there, we went into Boston for two days. We stayed at the Mariner’s house in the North End, within walking distance of the harbor, great restaurants and excellent cannolis. We did some touristy stuff including the “Duck Tour” which uses an amphibious vehicle to tour the city and the Charles River.

Tuesday, we headed for Las Vegas to join the annual “Divas do Las Vegas” trip. This is a group of girls from Houston who make a trip to Vegas every fall. We’ve missed the trip for the last two years so it was great to catch-up with everyone. My mom, Louise, joined us from California. We did a lot of gambling and walking, ate some good food and went to see Terry Fator at the Mirage. We didn’t win any money, so we will have to go back next year and try to reclaim what we lost.

Getting ready to board the flight -
Boston to Las Vegas

The last week in October, we arrived back in Puerto Vallarta with my mom in tow. She came to visit us here on the boat for a week. We did a mix of fun things like going to the beach, going to happy hour and driving up to San Sebastian in the mountains south of here, along with chore things like food inventory and boat cleaning.

Traditional dancers at the Paradise Village
Welcome Ceremony

Happy Hour by the pool

View of San Sebastian from the mountains above the town

View from our hotel room in San Sebastian

We also walked every morning, and, on one morning, saw a baby turtle making its way down the beach toward the ocean. Since then, Dave and I have been walking the beach almost every morning. We’ve seen baby turtles along with tracks of mother turtles who came ashore during the night to lay their eggs.

Turtle tracks leading to a new nest

Baby turtle making his way from the nest
to the ocean

Baby turtle - notice how small he is
compared to the bird track

And... he made it...

We have managed to complete a lot of boat projects this summer. Our solar panels are mounted and operational so we now have access to free power when the sun is shining. This will help cut down use of the generator while we are at anchor and will save us money on fuel and maintenance. We’ve installed a bimini over monkey island so that we have a shady place for happy hour and had slipcovers made for the interior cushions. We also installed new deck mat on the swim platform.

We are both looking forward to being back on the ocean and cruising again.

Until next time…