Yann and Gaia live in La Crux de Huanacaxtle, near Puerto Vallarta, with their four sons: Namkhai, Sanka, Inti, and Kinan. Can you guys imagine their grocery bill? Oh my. Their six, plus Jim and Sewell Mt. Sailing Bob, and Jeanne, Colin and me, made a crew of 11 for a Banderas Bay daysail. Gaia had to get back by 3:30 to her midwifery work, so we ran a tight ship beating upwind. The two ladies enjoyed some female company among 9 sailing dudes.

Namkhai & Sanka are México national team-level laser sailors, plus getting big boat experience in next week’s MEXORC Grand Prix Regatta. Inti was my navigating driver today, and Kinan was all over the boat, here as future pro surfer.

The older boys drove Ravenswing upwind smartly, doing 7&8’s in 10kts of breeze. As the wind built towards Punta Mita we executed a big bear away and rolled out the reacher. What a warm weather sleigh ride as we drive downhill doing up to 15.5kts. Just before it got to hairy we rolled up the a-sail and not long after the wind shut down. Us San Franciscans are not used to such dramatic wind drops, except maybe hiding behind Angel Island in a summer blow. Ravenswing held up the load of 11 humans plus all our cruising gear really well today. Keith, you would have felt OK about it – she has perhaps a bit more load carrying buoyancy than we originally thought.

I feel a little guilty Jimbo and Bob never got near the tiller with all those boys aboard, but the guys didn’t have a crappy afternoon at all :)

So, who’s the hero? Yann for making sure all four boys fall in love with sailing? Gaia, hard working mother of four sons? I think this photo says it. It’s the family unit. We should all find this kind of joy being a family together!

And lest you think it’s all whales, sailing and bon-bons down here, boat work continues. Drew will dig the new lightweight carbon transom boards for TacoCat

Finally, a few shots from yesterday’s cruise to Puerto Vallarta. Just a couple with their grown son, loving the day. So great to have Colin aboard and the three of us await Griffin coming in Thursday.

The co-owner was asked to steer a few times on this run, and she did great. Banderas Bay in the spring is a good place to learn to drive your big boat, so we’re easing in to it over these two weeks. Thank you! Honey for being a good sport about it. (She was actually pretty impressed when her floating house was holding 14kts today!)