Talking About February’s Barra de Navidad Cruise-in Week

This is the second year that John Ryan and Elinore Craig of the Island Packet 380 Nakamal and John Schulthess and Monique Boucher of Baja Fog have been in Barra de Navidad and participated in Cruise-In Week and Fiesta de Veleros together. (It’s Nakamal‘s third year).

Cruise-In Week is usually full of events arranged around the boaters to encourage people to come to Barra. The Fiesta is a series of land-based events to encourage people (mostly snowbirds) to have fun and donate money for the local schools. The two events usually merge on Friday of that week, when boaters volunteer their time and effort to take paying customers out on sailboat rides around the bay, relaxing and sometimes spotting whales playing. It’s a huge fundraiser for the local schools — last year the boat trips alone raised almost $5,000 to split among three local schools.

In Mexico, the government builds the schools and, after they are open, provides enough funding to pay the teachers and utilities. However, ongoing maintenance and improvements are the responsibility of the community and the occasional municipal (county) grant. Want to buy, replace or upgrade computers? Need electricity rewired? Want a shade cover for the outside play area, or new toilets in the bathrooms? Fresh coat of paint? Tools for the groundskeeper? Need to fix drainage to keep the classrooms from flooding during summer’s rainy season? All that and more are the responsibility of the community, and why the donations are so important.

Cruisers, especially those of us who come down every year or stay here year-round, are grateful to the Mexican communities that share their country and hospitality with us. Events like this are one way we can give back. However, just like everything else everywhere in the world, Cruise-In Week 2021 (Pandemic Version) promised to be different.

In December, we didn’t think we could do any fundraising at all due to COVID restrictions preventing large gatherings, plus so many snowbirds aren’t even here this year. So, Baja Fog floated the idea of a sailboat race, and once we figured out how we could have folks bet on boats and make money on it, we were off with ideas and no clue as to how, or even if, it would be successful.

Please go to April’s Latitude 38 to continue reading.