Anarquìa en El Camino
When we ditched our jobs, got married, and headed off on the road last month, we made an effort to avoid concrete plans or schedules. We knew there were a few events we wanted to sail, and a few more we wanted to cover for SA’ers, but other than that, we didn’t know where we’d end up or when, or how we’d pay for it. So far, our lack of a plan has yielded some seriously fun times. At the moment I am sitting on the deck of an apartment overlooking a tropical bay wearing only shorts, and finally, I have nothing to complain about. Our goal, if we even have one, has been to experience some of the adventures we dreamed about while trapped in a cubicle from 9 to 5 in the frozen North. It’s sort of an experiment: What would do you do with your time when you’ve got no restrictions, no money, a love for sailing and the sea, and a community of Anarchists to help make the decisions? Since so many of y’all have told us that you’d like to follow along, we decided to share our journey on the road, and hopefully, our stories will make your February days a bit less dreary. For the handful of you who are already seething about this tripe taking up your precious front page, please feel free to check out www.bite-me.com. Last week, the Clean and Mer Road Show left San Diego after a weekend sail at Midwinters aboard Anarchy with the Ed and his bunch of merry men. We drove sleepless through the desert, bound for the border, to meet our new Australian Teammates and sail the J/24 World Championship in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We didn’t have a lot of time to drive the 1700 miles between SoCal and the state of Nayarit, because we are terrible slackers and always leave everything until the last minute. We had planned on leaving SDYC after the race and packing the car up for an early evening departure, but one drink led to another and it wasn’t until 3 AM that our little family headed into the desert, with 3 gallons of water for the increasingly panting dog, and a reduced inventory of clothes and sailing gear for the warm temperatures of the tropics. It would be immensely cool if I could tell you a story about banditos at midnight, or at least something about bribing highway cops, but in truth our trip down was calm and easy, no worries at all. In fact, I’d recommend the trip to almost anyone – it’s a damned cheap way to visit beautiful little seaside towns on the Pacific without the Disneyland crowd getting their fat asses in the way. If you’re worried about taking a trip like this, it might help to think about one couple we met who make the drive every year; the guy was 76 years old, with a hot young thing on his arm who was barely 65. If they can make it, you certainly can. It only took us two days and a few hours to make it to a dusty lot filled with J/24’s sitting on the hard in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, and less than an hour after that to be drunk and barely coherent. We couldn’t have been too bad though, since the boat made it into the water…or did it? I don’t really remember much of that afternoon. I knew that Mexican racing was for me when I saw that one of the J/24 teams is sponsored by Candy’s Girls, one of the many Puerto Vallarta strip clubs,. Hopefully, they’ll see fit to bring some of their talent to the tent during Worlds week. Our team fits in perfectly – the logo painted on our spinnaker, “Aussie Millions,” stands for one of the largest Poker tournaments in the world. If anyone happens to get a nice downwind shot at Worlds that includes us, Candy’s, the Jose Cuervo boat, and one of the Bank sponsors, please send it to me, so we can show the world that J/24 sailing is really about gambling, hookers, booze, and cash. Later this week, I’ll tell you all about sailing the J/24 Mexican Nationals, but at the moment I’m heading back to my hotel to get some sleep in preparation for a week of screwing around on the Mexican coast. We’ve got a few days before we go tuning for the Worlds next week, so we’re going to try and find some secluded beaches and funky drinking joints. If you have any suggestions for cool places to see in the Vallarta area, feel free to post them on the Road Trip thread. Meanwhile, my lovely bride’s got a hell of an eye to go along with her pretty new camera, so enjoy these little postcards from the road to Banderas Bay. -Mr. Clean, with photos by Mer
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