“Faster than a hurricane.”

When Tropical Storm Nora decided to up her game and morph into a Category 1 Hurricane, we were in good time to be safely docked in Marina Riviera Nayarit at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. The next day, Saturday August 28th, Nora came howling through with a true windspeed of 69,6 knots (128 km/hour) and gusts of 82 knots (151 km/hour). Speeds registered inside the Marina.

Tied down with 8 mooring lines – 4 of which are equipped with heavy duty shock absorbers- we watched Nora whip up the waves into the Marina and make the palmtrees rattle . Peering out through the window of our cozy galley annex “living room”, it didn’t look too bad at first. Until we witnessed how our neighbor’s headsail got torn to shreds. Then we saw with growing alarm how a smaller sailing boat which had been anchored just outside of the marina started dragging and was then being swept out of control towards the coast. It sadly ended up on the rocks where it sank. A similar fate befell a second bigger yacht. That one didn’t sink but is now still lying belly up on the shore, being pounded firmer and firmer on its side into the sand by the surf. Fortunately, nobody drowned.

Downtown Puerto Vallarta, the city center is a mess and off limits for the time being. Canned food, clothing and bedding is being collected for the families that have lost everything when the Cuale river took it all away. Spanish and Portuguese canned veggies, mackerels, tuna & sardines – which had been stored in our holds for our Atlantic crossing nearly 2 years ago – and which during all this time have been left untouched – have now found a more useful destination.

To celebrate the fact that we have safely weathered our first Category 1 Hurricane, we have now gratefully shifted into our boat maintenance mode. 

Enter Russel, our man in Mexico. Russel is a charming Californian guy – father of four- who has turned Mexican. For the past couple of months, he has been collecting and storing the stuff My Captain had ordered on Mercado Libre (= the South -American version of eBay) and from several North-American specialized chandleries. We are now the proud owners of a 207cm x 105cm industrial solar panel (very hard to get hold of, My Captain claims) among a lot of other boat things.

Russel is also a very well-connected guy. He introduced us to Salvador,the stainless-steel welder, to Luis, the upholstery guy, to Mike the sails guy, and to Alex the Volvo Penta expert. All of them skilled craftsmen who will be turning O2 into a busy workstation next week.

In the mean time, we get to know our neighbors better. They all keep a clean ship, while waiting for the hurricane season to pass.

To our excitement, we have also spotted the sailing yacht Martin Sheen which is docked right across us. The Martin Sheen is part of Neptune’s Navy, the fleet of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. This society was founded by Paul Watson. Paul was also a co-founder of Greenpeace and sat on the board. But he was kicked out in 1977 because of his “direct action” strategy views. He has been called an “eco-terrorist” both by the whaling Japanese and by Greenpeace itself, because of the high profile confrontations with whale killers. His 12 ships also fly a stylized Skull & crossbones. In the old days, this was a symbol of resistance against authorities. It was also the pirates’ way to inform their targets they were about to be attacked.

I so hope the Captain of the Martin Sheen will be arriving soon. So that we can learn first hand all about their next mission here in Mexico. Commissioned by the Mexican government.