boats participating were to "race" from La Cruz to Punta Mita. Of the six boats racing to Punta Mita only two were mono-hulls Blue the J-160 and Charissa. The rest were catamarans: Capricorn Cat, Endless Summer, Escapade and Sea Level. We were recruited by Jim and Kent Milski to be on Sea Level a while ago. David and I were both looking forward to sailing on this beautiful cat. The start of the race was intense! We were pushing Endless Summer up trying to pinch them out at the starting line, but Steve did an amazing job of turning up and dropping back down barely making it inside the line. Kent couldn't watch as we were about 18 inches away from having Endless Summer crawling up our rear.Cap Cat was hot on our trail for most of the race, but two not-so-good tacks let them take the
lead. We stayed inside hugging the coast to keep with the pressure and Cap Cat had gone towards the middle of the bay. By the time we tacked out of the beach some huge swells were rolling in...we had been in the surf zone! We could tell Jim was pondering going back to that very spot after the race, but for now we had to keep on racing. That little trick allowed us to catch Cap Cat. We kept closing the distance until we knew Cap Cat couldn't tack. We were both on starboard tack and they would have to duck us and lose valuable time. While we kept playing with Capricorn Cat taking them up towards the Marietas, 
Escapade started to catch up. We knew we had to pull out some serious tactics. We pulled up alongside Cap Cat less than a boat length away and began talking to Wayne. A little history about this tactic: We have raced with Cap Cat many times and David made a rule that no one was to talk to Wayne or vice-versa because he would stop steering the course. So we pulled out all the stops and taunted, yelled and chatted until there were water guns being pulled on us. Once everyone was distracted on Cap Cat we tacked in and made a hustle towards the finish line. Cap Cat scrambled and tacked quickly and were hot 
on our heels for the remainder of the race, but we are happy to say WE WON!!!It was a great day of fun sailing so we went over to Cap Cat to congratulate them on a great race and give them their second place prize...the scrotum totem courtesy of Jim and Kent. Jim and Kent found these baskets in Zihuatenajo that turned out to be bulls balls made into cute "little" baskets. Huge and furry bulls balls. Wayne seemed pleased with his new toy and we all got a good laugh. Soon Cap Cat turned into the party boat as every boat came over to hang out, talk tactics, sail trim and mingle.
Later we caught a panga ride (since the swells were big) into the Blue Water Grill for some drinks and food. We got into some playful trash talk and started to throw down some money on the
Lucha Libre challenge. The food 
arrived and my plate was delicious. I had the Pollo Adobada with a green pepper. Mmmm yummy. We enjoyed the socializing, but after a long day of fun in the sun we called it a night by cruisers midnight.As we piled into Sea Level feeling elated we heard a horrible scraping noise on deck. Jim went up and was astounded to find that a turnbuckle (silicon bronze) broke allowing the now free shroud to flop around. The guys secured it to a cleat and ran the spinnaker halyard down to the deck for added safety. A closer inspection inside the boat revealed cracks in the partition joints. Luckily Jim realized that it wasn't structural part of the boat, but still a pain in the ass to repair. Not the best way to end the night.
The following morning we called Mike to see if he had any 3/4 turnbuckles laying around. Turns out he did. He brought two to the El Dorado brunch for us. We strutted the beach in full on pirate garb and made our way to the gathering. We weren't sure which restaurant it was until we saw two little pirates running around slaying people. Yep, that was us. The brunch made for some more successful donations for the Pirates for Pupils, more trash talk Lucha Libre fun and more Punta Mita Y&SC members. A successful start to the day.
Since we had our two turnbuckles to try out we hoped to be participating in the spinnaker run.
We took on the Don Quixote family and after trying both turnbuckles with no luck we quickly hustled with them to Endless Summer. It was a full boat with Manjula, Steve, Dean, Toast, Jamie, Mera, Aeron, David, me and Sookie the boat dog. We were late to the start, but our spinnaker was up and we were on the way. It was a great boat to sail and a decent day for a spinnaker, but we never caught up to any other boat once we blew by Tomatillo. I really enjoyed talking with the Don Quixote family. I think both the parents of the girls and I had preconceived notions of one another and they were
quickly set straight once we actually got talking. I love when that happens. The girls are so smart and free in the way that they think. We need more people in the world like them.So in the end Cap Cat won followed by Escapade then us on Endless Summer. At least we got on the podium. I am told that it was a "photo finish" between Blue and Capricorn Cat. That would have been great to see, but we were busy not catching up, but enjoying ourselves fully. I also heard from Ronnie the Tea Lady that we raised a whopping 30,000 pesos, the most ever for this event! Very cool.
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