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Festival de Veleros in Barra de Navidad Is on for February 21-27

It’s always great to hear about events with the word ‘festival’ in them these days, and without the word ‘canceled.’ The Barra de Navidad cruising community has been raising funds to help the local schools, and they’re finally at a point where they feel confident that their annual event, Festival de Veleros, will happen again this year, though within the parameters of local health guidelines.

Lagoon 440 Baja Fog
John Schulthess and Monique Boucher aboard the Lagoon 440 Baja Fog are among this year’s ringleaders.
© 2021 Baja Fog

The shift means no crowd-gathering sailboat rides, but instead the cruisers plan to go racing while broadcasting it live on Facebook. The dates will be February 21-27, so if you’re nearby it’s a matter of getting time to cast off the docklines and head on over. The fundraising will be harder to accomplish, but they plan to allow betting, sponsoring, and donating to these high-performance, finely-tuned, maximum-comfort cruisers-turned-racers.

Cruise-in-week Fiesta de Veleros
The colorful Fiesta de Veleros reminds us that helping others always cheers everyone up.
© 2021 Barra Cruise-in-Week

Outside of the racing, cruisers are all lined up to take care of community projects to help the schools and roads that were severely impacted earlier this year by heavy rains and flooding. While the word ‘cruising’ suggests lounging on the aft deck or reading a book in a hammock, the event continues a long tradition of cruisers who appreciate the hospitality of the local Mexican community and give thanks by giving back.

Painting the schools in Barra
And you thought cruising was all fun and games! Actually this is part of the fun and games from the 2019 Cruise-In Week.
© 2021 Barra Cruise-In-Week

If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done at all. The difficulty of planning in pandemics makes this short notice for cruising boats that, despite our moving into a 5G world, still travel at about six knots. However, bets and donations can travel at the speed of Venmo or PayPal, so support funds can get there faster than sailboats. Elinore Craig of the s/v Nakamal will help you place your bets. You can get the latest information on her blog here.

3 Comments

  1. Turi Drake 3 years ago

    Sure glad to read this in lat 38 as my sailboat, Alexsea, is just a day sail away in Las Hadas & I had no clue!

  2. Pat McIntosh 3 years ago

    The cruising community has figured out how to help the Barra de Navidad kids & whole town and stay safe at the same time. They have done a fantastic job of organizing a fun week! Even if you are as far away as Mazatlan you have plenty of time to get there, AND YOU’LL BE SORRY IF YOU MISS IT!

  3. milly Biller 3 years ago

    I absolutely love that this is happening. US cruisers helping refurbish damaged schools is really how the world needs to see responsibility by US visitors to their country.

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