Terri and Jay Join Barra de Navidad’s Cruise-In Week
It is February in Barra de Navidad. One by one, sailors arrive from all different directions for the eighth annual Cruise-In Week. Some sail up from the south. Others sail down from the north. For several years, the Vallarta Yacht Club has rallied its members to make the trip down to Barra. Nine boats and over 30 people made the journey this year. Bart Goodell, director of VYC’s youth sailing program, even towed three Hobie 16s down, and encouraged five of the students and their parents to drive down and compete in the race. Children helping children. You have to love that.
All come because they love this community. All come because they want to give back. And all come because it is a whole lot of fun. As the boats trickle in, cruisers gather around the pool, catching up with old friends and meeting new friends. Afternoon water volleyball quickly becomes a daily event. All are waiting for the festivities to begin.
Cruise-In Week is a fundraiser that was created in 2018 by sailors Pat and Carole McIntosh, and local resident Linda Bella Ruiz, to help fund the schools of Barra de Navidad. Barra is a quaint Mexican village along the Pacific Coast of Mexico. It has kept its charm over the years, despite the influx of American and Canadian tourists who return year after year. Chiefly a fishing village, it’s also surrounded by areas of farms. It is a small, rural community, and supporting educational opportunities for the children is a challenge. The Mexican government supplies the school buildings and pays the teachers. Everything else is up to the families who live here. That is why we come. To offer support in the best way we know how: by sharing our love of sailing.
Each year, the week morphs into its own unique schedule, depending on what we’ve learned from the year before. This year, there were three on-the-water events, nicely timed by sending the cruisers out every other day. There were two music cruises and one race, affectionately known as the Flamingo Regatta.
Those of us who signed up for the music cruises took paying customers out for a short daysail around the bay, eventually finding our way to the cove in front of Barra’s sister town, Melaque. There we anchored around the music boat, Baja Fog, for a concert by the local talent.
Eva Kabande and Daniel Abela treated us to an afternoon of mellow Latin jazz. It fit perfectly with the soft breeze and gentle swells swaying the boats. Salvador took it up a notch on Thursday with his rock-and-roll cover songs. People were grooving with the music, dancing across the bow, while some sat in groups, chatting and enjoying drinks and goodies from the French Baker. Others jumped into the water for a cool dip, swimming from boat to boat. There were even some water-pistol fights.