March 30th – Paradise Village – Jim’s Blog #36

This blog has been a little bit longer in coming due to our transition from the anchorage at La Cruz to the marina at Paradise Village. You have to see this place to believe it, so we will be including some pictures of the place. Essentially the marina residents have access to all the benefits of the guests who are staying in the five-star Paradise Village Hotel. We have been anchoring out away from a dock now for about three months since our last stay in a marina, and we are rediscovering the joys of the marina life – like drinkable water out of a faucet, a holding tank emptying service, electricity from shore that doesn’t require the running of the solar panels or the engine to keep the batteries charged and the icebox cold.

This is where the virgins are supposed to be sacrificed, but there has been a decrease in their number over the years - actually the indians often sacrificed their best warriors to appease the gods, possibly to make sure these individuals didn't kill the priests first


Why has this blog been delayed a week instead of the usual three to four days? The main reason is that the availability of fresh water (and a dock area) has given us the opportunity to really clean up the boat. We have now stretched out our jib and staysails and washed the salt spray off them, as well as removed the salt and dirt from the jib and staysail sheets (the lines that control them). We have laid out our dinghy on the dock beside the boat, thoroughly washed it down, and applied a preservative to the Hypalon material from which it is made. This dinghy should last us about 10 years, if we take care of it. Since we don’t need it in the marina, we have deflated it, wrapped it up in a protective cover, and stowed it in straps on the top of our boat in front of the mast. We have also washed down the entire exterior of the boat, swabbed the deck, and cleaned the bird droppings off the bimini that covers the cockpit area. The only reason I am able to get catch up on this blog is that Sheilagh has given me Sunday off as a day of rest, but my dedication to our readers keeps me working nonetheless.

Paradise Village maintains a number of animals in cages in several different locations with double fencing to keep small hands and arms from becoming appetizers


During the coming week we will be washing down the mainsail and its mainsheet, waxing the exterior, cleaning the stainless steel (a weekly effort regardless of where we are), and repairing some electrical connections that are not working quite right. We are also making some shopping trips to get as many marine items as possible down here to lighten the load of items we will be bringing back with us from our trip to the states (April 7th-28th). Sheilagh has now reorganized the icebox for the umpteenth time, along with the cupboards devoted to food supplies. I’m sure she will need to rearrange them another time or two before we leave. On Thursday we have an appointment with an engine mechanic to have him perform a 1000-hour service on our diesel engine while we observe the process. Yes, keeping up a boat is very similar to keeping up a house or condominium, but it requires even more effort to resist the damaging effects of salt spray, wind, and waves. Thankfully we have a respite from the elements for the next few days to get on top of some of our maintenance jobs.

This is the smaller, more-relaxed pool of the three pools at Paradise Village - this is for those who aren't trying to connect with someone new or who are too lazy for the sporting activities of the major pool


Other advantages of a marina: in an anchorage we have to put our dinghy into the water to go anywhere and take it up again on a hoist at night to keep the bottom clean and prevent theft. In the marina we just step off the side of the boat onto a dock and walk where we please. During the last few months while anchoring we have noticed that a strong wind usually starts blowing in the afternoon and churns up the sea state; so our return to the boat from the shore is usually a very wet affair – for that reason we have been carrying a couple of black trash bags with holes for the head and arms so we can get back to the boat without soaking our clothing. When our clothing gets soaked we have to wring it out in fresh water and hang it up to dry, because the salt water prevents drying and is itchy if it ever does dry. In the marina we don’t even need to think about the wind and waves when returning to the boat.

This is the adult end of the active pool with a supervised water-volleyball game going on - this is where those who want to be noticed will stand thirty to a side for hours on end to touch a beach ball every 15 minutes or so while keeping an eye on romantic possibilities


We also have access to showers and all the hot water we want – no more wetting down in our tight shower, turning off the water, soaping up, and then turning the water back on to rinse off. I realize these are things that all of our readers are used to; so the natural question is “Why deprive yourselves by anchoring away from a marina?” Marinas have some downsides, too. We have to put the covers on our hatches and the curtains on our windows to shut out the marina lights and the inquisitive gazes of passers-by every night. Most boats in a marina are moored together in a u-shaped dock arrangement, where there is no buffer with your next-door neighbor – each of us is tied to a finger dock on one side only. This neighbor could damage our boat when they are arriving or departing – at the present time we have a vacationing family keeping their ski boat and four wave-runners loosely tied up beside us; so we try to be present when they are arriving or departing to help them keep their water craft from bumping into our boat.

This is the young persons' end of the active pool with two long slides, a swinging bridge, and plenty of space to play


Because marinas are protected from the wind and waves, they offer very little wind circulation, making them fairly hot places to be on hot days. One of our friends is moored between two large motor vessels with high sides, which gives them very little visibility except to the front and rear, along with very poor internet service and minimal fresh air. Marinas can be expensive, since they charge by the foot by the day or month, and they include surcharges for electricity and holding tank pump-out services. We are here during the expensive winter season and are paying about $25 a day to stay here for our 42’ boat. That’s about $750 a month to have access to all the hotel facilities, which is a bargain when one considers that hotel guests are paying at least $150 a night, which averages out to $4,500 a month. The major drawback is that we don’t have daily maid service and Sheilagh makes me clean up my own area of the boat.
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I should mention that there are a number of former cruisers who have their boats permanently moored here in the marina year round (at a cost of about $500 a month during the summer season). They figure that an annual cost of about $7,500 for winter and summer combined is a small price to pay for a winter home in Puerto Vallarta with none of the hassle of buying and keeping a house or condo here. They still need to get the bottom cleaned periodically if they intend to go anywhere; so there is the natural upkeep of a boat that needs to be added in. My perception is that a condo in Puerto Vallarta would run a lot more than the cost of the marina moorage and the boat upkeep cost. If you happen to be looking for a cost-effective winter home in Mexico, this might be a viable solution.

We also took the liberty of joining the Puerto Vallarta Yacht Club, which makes us full-fledged “yachties.” We had never joined a yacht club in the States, but were interested in joining the Southwestern Yacht Club in San Diego, where a number of our cruiser friends were members. These friends offered to sponsor us, but we found out that the initiation fee was in the several thousands of dollars – more expensive the older we were, because they wanted to encourage younger members with lower prices and let us older members subsidize the operation. We would also have been held to monthly fees whether we were there or not. At the Puerto Vallarta Yacht Club the initiation is in the hundreds of dollars and a reasonable monthly fee only when we are at the marina and using their services.

Why be in a yacht club at all? I wondered that myself until I found that our cruising friends (who were members of a yacht club in the San Francisco Bay Area) stopped in at other yacht clubs where reciprocal privileges were in place with their own yacht club as they ventured down to San Diego. This meant that they were offered temporary dockside moorings, access to the local yacht club for food and beverages, and an immediate connection to the local yachting information network. Now, as members of the Puerto Vallarta Yacht Club, we can stop in at the St. Francis Yacht Club (very exclusive) in San Francisco, show our membership badges and use their facilities for a fraction of the cost to their own members. Works for me!

Let me tell you a bit more about the Paradise Village lifestyle for cruisers like us. We have access to a wide sandy beach with small individually-covered palapas and lounge chairs, where waiters are only too glad to take our drink orders as long as we decide to sit there. We also have access to three separate swimming pools – one very active with large water slides for the younger set, one less active with more emphasis on adults, and an out-of-the-way lap pool where we can swim laps, sun bathe, and read with very little commotion. Although I like the solitude of the lap pool, it is a poor location for checking out the best looking bikinis and their wearers, and there is no waiter service there. Tough choice as to which pool to sit beside!

Paradise Village also has a fairly extensive mall with a McDonald’s, a Subway, and a Dominoes Pizza at one end, dozens of other restaurants and clubs, shops of every sort (where, unfortunately a set of flip-flops costs $23), and a bookstore where English books and magazines can be found. Although Sheilagh and I have made an effort to learn Spanish over the past several months, we are not yet prepared to read books and magazines in that language yet. The problem is that there are no stores that sell English books or magazines in any of the small villages near where we have anchored over the past several months. We do a lot of book trading in cruiser hangouts, but magazines seem to be less available for trading. USA Today is just about the only newspaper available, but it costs $3.60 per issue for something that costs $.75 in the States.

That’s one of the reason we are so tied to the internet. We do a lot of reading of newspapers on the internet, when it is available, and so far we have attempted to spend only a few days in anchorages where there is no internet. This summer we plan to cruise up to the Sea of Cortez, where there are hundreds of small anchorages with no internet availability. At that time we really will be cut off from internet browsing, although we can still send and receive email messages over our HAM radio. We’ll see what that is like. I am attempting to find a way to update our blog using the HAM radio access, but I have not been able to set that up as yet. I may have to send my blogs to a friend or relative and have them update the blog for me. More later . . .