CHANGES enjoy yourself. I want to encourage other cruisers not to miss Bahia del Sol.” Greg and Debbie Dorland of the Lake Tahoe-based Catana 52 Escapade have made it all the way to the Eastern Caribbean since doing last fall’s Ha-Ha. In fact, they not only made it to St. Barth, they did so in time for the island’s big new event, Les Voiles de St. Barth. “We completely dominated our class,” writes Greg, “thereby winning a beautiful trophy, a magnum of Taittinger, a bottle of Mount Gay — and a week in a villa in St. Barth! It was somewhat embarrassing, however, as we were the only boat in our class. The regatta was windy as hell, with 25 knots of wind and nearly 10foot seas. In addition, the courses were long and had lots of roundings. We were short-handed, so we only put the kite up once. I’d love to do the event again next year — but on somebody’s race boat. The one thing we did learn is that owners of cruising cats who think their boats can point as high as monohulls are clueless. The Voiles race committee and event organizers pulled out all the stops, and spent some big money on the production.

This photo by famed photographer Tim Wright proves that it really did blow like stink during the four race of Les Voiles de St. Barth.

I wish the emphasis had been a little bit more on fun — like the Banderas Bay Blast and Sea of Cortez Sailing Weeks — rather than an homage to money, but everyone was very friendly and I got to

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meet Luc Poupon. Le Select Bar is still a great place, although I don’t think the cheeseburgers are as good as they used to be. As for the Bar de O’ubli across the street from Le Select, we paid 12 euros for two ice creams. Wow! In late May we’ll head down to Trinidad, where we’ll leave our cat for hurricane season.” With the cost of Alaska Airlines flights between Mexico and California spiking from time to time, lots of cruisers are opting to fly Volaris, the Mexican discount airline. While the airline does fly into Oakland and Los Angeles, it doesn’t do so from coastal cities. So many cruisers are using flights from La Paz, Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta to Tijuana, then crossing the border and continuing on with Southwest. They’re doing so because they’ve been getting P.V. to Tijuana tickets for as low as $39. John and Gilly Foy of the Alameda- and Punta Mitabased Catalina 42 Destiny flew Volaris from La Paz to Guadalajara. “Our plane was a new-looking Airbus 319 staffed by a very attractive and professional cabin crew, and our flight departed and

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