The Rotary Chacala and Las Varas Projects

The Berkeley Rotary Club has been working for several years with the Mexican Rotary clubs within a 15 mile radius of the the beach resort town of Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico.  The projects include building schools, community centers, libraries, funding scholarships, business incubators, and more.   This year the projects included building classrooms, a commercial kitchen in which to teach culinary arts, and a computer lab room at a high school in Las Varas.  A second project was building a apartment at an elementary school for use by teachers in training.  I volunteered for one week at the end of April.

Chacala

I landed in Puerto Vallarta with about six other Rotarians on April 21st and we were transported by van to Chacala, a beautiful little beach  town about a two hour drive north of Puerto Vallarta and eight miles from Las Varas.

 There were about 20 Rotarians in our group this week, mostly from the five clubs in the San Francisco East Bay area.

Early morning moon 

I stayed in an apartment on the second story of a house,  which was built several years ago with funds from the Rotary incubator loan program.  I had a nice view of the town and beach from my apartment.  One early morning I got up and saw a full moon over the ocean.

Many of the Rotarians stayed in a hotel on the beach and we joined them there 5 p.m. for margaritas and dinner. The next morning at 7:30 we boarded vans which took us to the schools.

Everyone completed a questionnaire before  the trip stating their construction experience and what they are willing to do.  Having had experience in most aspects of construction, I asked to be assigned to plumbing and electrical.

"Make it wider"

 The first day two other Rotarians and I ran wires for power, dug a trench from the apartment to the septic tank, and installed the drain pipe for the bathroom and kitchen.  We worked until 1 p.m. and then ate lunch under the mango trees at the high school.  Lunch was prepared by mothers of some of the students.

Surfs up

In the afternoons we went the beach.  I went boogie boarding, body surfing,  swimming, and socialized with the other Rotarians.  We met at 5 p.m. every day for cocktails and Rotary fellowship. One evening three of our group played music and I sang a song, then gave a salsa dance lesson.

Nice ride

On Saturday four other Rotarians and I went on a tour to San Blas and a boat ride through the mangroves and jungle of La Tovara.  We saw lots of birds up close.

Sunday we hiked to the top of a small dormant volcano and then down to a secluded beach.  We were picked up by a boat that carefully ran up the beach through the high surf.

Jungle walk to volcano and beach

The last two work days I cut tile for the back wall of the commercial kitchen and supervised the grouting.

 We finished the grouting just before lunch and I was very glad we accomplished the task.

Constructing computer desk

 There is still a lot of work to be done and only one more week of Rotary volunteers.  I should have signed up for two weeks, but I can’t stay another week because I have some work to do at Casa Martillo next week, and I am diving with friends on Cozumel.   There are a group of local volunteers who work every Sunday at the schools and will complete the project, just not on the schedule that the project manager, Grier Graff had planned.

Tiling kitchen wall

We met many local Rotarians and I ate lunch with the high school students.

Lunch with the students

There are many Rotarians who have been performing service projects in this area for the past 20 years.  The need is huge, partly because the government does not provide support for the maintenance of schools, and the level of education in the past has been limited to 8th grade for the rural fishing villages.  Rotary is making a positive impact and changing the lives of the many people. Rotary has an incubator loan program by which Mexicans have built ten homes with a second story to rent to tourist and Rotarians.

Cutting tile

Finished wall

One day a  Rotary  volunteer was working with a local Rotarian on the construction of a house and apartment and asked:  “Are we building a house?”  The local Rotarian responded:  “No, we are empowering a family.”

Hammer Time - Change in Latitude, 32 N. to 38 N.

One thing on my bucket list is do some long -term cruising. I have charted boats it BVI, Belize, and Croatia and crewed on boats in Australia and Tonga. I want to live the dream I have been reading about in Latitude 38 for the past 37 years. So a few weeks ago I bought a Catalina 42 that was berthed in San Diego.

Catalina 42 - new name "Hammer Time"

I reserved a slip at Marina Bay in Richmond at the same docks that Tradewinds Sailing School and Club has their boats. I am a member of the club and really like the location and the people who own and manage Tradewinds.

I posted on the Crew List with Latitude 38 and on the Tradewinds website and found two nice guys (both named Mike) to join me for the trip from San Diego to San Francisco. I rented a car and we drove to San Diego on March 7^th, and started north on the morning of the 8^th.

It was about 70 degrees off the Southern California coast and the wind was almost on the bow. We were able to sail for a short time, then furled in the jib and cranked on the iron genoa and left the main up.

Leaving San Diego

The first night I took the mid watch from 12 to 4 and enjoyed the beauty and serenity of cruising at night with almost a full moon. We pulled in to Santa Barbara the next day about 3 p.m., refueled, and headed out again. The forecast at Point Conception was for 3 foot swells and wind waves of less than 2 feet. We had a 15 to 18 knot wind out of the north west when we left Santa 

Santa Barbara

Barbara and we sailed south west for about an hour to get away from the coast so we could clear Point Conception.   It was a beautiful afternoon, followed by a gorgeous sunset.  

The seas starting growing as we approached the point. I took the 8 to 12 watch and by midnight we were about 8 miles south of the Point and it was blowing 20 knots on the nose, with 8 to 10 foot swells and wind waves breaking over the dodger. I stayed up and hunkered down under the dodger, while my crew took the helm. About 2 a.m. there was loud bang and the dinghy davit on the port side broke. At almost the same time, I heard another bang on the bow. The anchor chain jumped out of the windlass and the anchor fell about a foot, leaving it free to bang against the hull. It was too rough for me to go on the bow to retrieve it and I did not want to try to turn downwind, so we motored on with the banging until we got out of the Point Conception confluence and the seas settled so I could go on the bow and pull in the anchor. The bow looks like hell, but the damage is not as bad as it looks. Both the broken davit and the damaged bow are my own fault. When we arrived in San Diego, I went through the usual pre-sail checklist, but did not inspect the anchor. I just had the boat surveyed and knew the windlass worked. I have sailed for many years and know not to leave a harbor without a stopper on the anchor chain. Also, when we went aboard in San Diego the dinghy was already hoisted in the davits with the outboard attached. I know better than to go to sea with the outboard on the dinghy, but I was too lazy and in too much of a hurry to lower the dink and put the outboard on the rail.

We pulled into Moro Bay to refuel, lower the dinghy, secure the outboard to the stern rail and put the dink on the foredeck. We left Moro Bay at 3:30 p.m. and had almost ideal conditions the rest of the way to San Francisco, with southerly winds and small following seas.  

  We saw several whales, otters, dolphin, and schools of porpoise. The water that night was luminescent for hundreds of yards behind the boat. It was what cruising is all about.

I was feeling a little emotional as we sailed under the Golden Gate at 3:30 p.m. at max flood the following day. I am sure many sailors have experienced this feeling of elation.

"Hammer Time"  arriving at her new home

Now it is my turn. I have renamed the boat “Hammer Time.” The name has two meanings: My last name is Hammer, and it is time for this phase of my life.

I may sail in the Baja ha-ha to Cabo this year, but my plans for the next few months are to sail the Bay and local waters until I can sail the boat with my eyes closed, then go out the Gate and turn south for about a thousand miles, enjoy Mexico for a few months, then sail west to the South Pacific.

*All photos by Michael Mayernick, crew.