Sailors’ Splash & Banderas Bay Blast

The Riviera Nayarit part of Banderas Bay — one of the great tropical sailing and nautical playgrounds of the world — has two great events next week for sailors. 

The first, on Tuesday, is the inaugural Riviera Nayarit Sailors’ Splash, which is the big welcome to the Riviera Nayarit for all members of the Ha-Ha and other cruisers. The Splash is being put on by a combination of Riviera Nayarit Tourism, Paradise Village Marina, the Vallarta YC, Marina Riviera Nayarit, and other Riviera Nayarit businesses. 

The fun will start at 11 a.m. with a full brunch at the Vallarta YC adjacent to the Paradise Village Marina. You can get there by foot, car, bus. Or if you show up at the Marina Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz by 9:30 a.m., you can probably get a ride over on a catamaran such as Profligate or Younger Girl, in which case the fun will start 90 minutes earlier than for the others. After brunching, checking out the YC pool, and checking out Paradise Village Marina, folks will hop on the 70-ft cat Humu Humu, or one of the other cats, for the trip over to the Marina Riviera Nayarit. You won’t need a sleeping bag because it’s only about seven miles, and you won’t need long pants or a coat because it’s going to be warm.

The Marina Riviera Nayarit/La Cruz portion of the festivities will start — listen in on Channel 22 for the exact time — about 5 p.m. The Riviera Nayarit folks will be handing out free sunshirts — not cheesy T-shirts — to the first 200 attendees. In addition, they plan on serving a pile of appetizers at the marina’s Sky Bar that overlooks the Riviera Nayarit and Banderas Bay. Of course there will be live music and dancing under the starry sky. 

If you think the Splash will be great — and it will be! — it will be followed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday by the Banderas Bay Blast, three days of ‘nothing serious’, Baja Ha-Ha style racing for cruisers, only in the ideal flat-water sailing conditions of Banderas Bay. The first race will start and finish at La Cruz. The second will be an upwind sail to eight-mile-distant Punta de Mita, followed that evening by the annual opening of the Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club. Lifetime membership in the club is available for $1 — assuming that you qualify. In order to qualify, you must: 1) Sail to Punta de Mita, and 2) accept the initiation paddle. The latter will be administered by the lovely Isabella of St. Barth and more recently Sayulita, who is the new Commodore of the Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club. The athletic Isabella is a heavy hitter, so those who want additional whacks will have to donate $5 per whack to the club’s fundraiser.

The final day of the Blast is also the 12-mile Pirates for Pupils Spinnaker Run for Charity, from Punta de Mita to Paradise Village Marina. Donate $20 and you’ll get to ride on one of the cats. You should dress in costume because . . . well, because it’s festive and it’s fun. Any costume will do. One hundred percent of the money collected — and nobody takes out any expenses — will go to several great causes on the Riviera Nayarit.

Speaking of money, there is no entry fee for either the Splash or the Blast. In fact, you get a free night of berthing at the Marina Riviera Nayarit (Wednesday night) and at Paradise Village Marina (Friday night). How can you lose?

If you’re in California or on your boat in the Sea of Cortez, you’re probably asking yourself if these two events are going to be enough fun that you should travel to the Riviera Nayarit to participate. Absolutely!