Photo of the Day: Linh Goben, soon to
be Commodore of the Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club
March 8 - Punta Mita
Today's Photo of the Day is of the lovely
Linh Goben, soon to become Commodore of the Punta Mita Yacht
& Surf Club on Banderas Bay. She's not Commodore yet because
the club won't be founded until March 27, the night before the
Pirates for Pupils Spinnaker Run for Charity from Punta Mita
to Paradise Marina.
If you look closely, you'll see that Linh isn't wearing the traditional
blue blazer that most commodores wear. That's because the Punta
Mita Y&SC will not be a typical yacht and surf club, but
be more based along the lines of the Musket Cove YC in Fiji.
For example, the only two requirements for membership will be
that you sailed to Punta Mita - even if from just Puerto Vallarta
- and that you pay a $1 to cover your initiation and annual fees
for 50 years. For that, everyone will be issued a really cool-looking
membership card. While just a 'now and then club' without a dedicated
facility, by next year Punta Mita plans to host several new fun
sailing events on Banderas Bay in coordination with the Vallarta
YC and other organizations.
The Punta Mita Y&SC will be based out of Hector's Margarita
Restaurant on the beach with a view of the fleet at Punta Mita.
Thanks to the help of Radio Rob of P.V., Hector, and Latitude
38, the Punta Mita Y&SC expects to be providing wireless
high speed Internet access to boats at anchor at Punta Mita by
the time the club is founded. And Margarita's and Latitude
hope to be able to provide that Internet access for free.
Linh is expecting all sorts of folks to show up for the founder's
party on the 27th. Philo Hayward, Ha-Ha and Pacific vet and owner
of Philo's music bar in La Cruz, has promised to show up and
provide the music. Terry Klaus, Staff Commodore of the St. Francis
and owner of the great schooner Brigadoon, plans to make
it and share commodore-type knowledge with Linh. Greg and Sherri
of the Morgan Out-Island 41 Scirroco plan to be there,
as do the Wanderer and Dona de Mallora, and a few other shady
people. We hope to see you there.
But you really want to know more about Linh, don't you? She's
Vietnamese, and in late '99 she suggested that she and her husband
Teal buy a boat. This, despite the fact that she'd never been
on a sailboat before and didn't know how to swim. Two of the
motivating factors were that she wanted to travel, and that while
she and her husband were both making good money working in Seattle,
they were spending even more and therefore getting deeper in
debt. In astonishingly rapid fashion, they got out of debt, bought
a Williams 41 trimaran, and joined the Ha-Ha. The couple report
that in the year-and-a-quarter they've been cruising Mexico,
they've spent less than they were blowing every single month
in Seattle. And the sum includes all their expenses including
haulouts, marina stays, dining out, and everything else. Teal
says he's lost 20 pounds and has never felt so fit in his life,
and Linh has become an excellent free-diver. The couple have
found the cruising life to be so satisfying that they plan to
start a family on board.
Teal and Linh on a hill at Isla San Francisco overlooking Savannah
and the blue, blue waters of the Sea of Cortez.
Although the couple bought the Williams 41 tri when she was all
but brand new, they completely gutted and rebuilt her.
We're still not sure about the bimini / dance floor.
Photos Courtesy Savannah
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