This Friday, March 2nd, my crew and I are racing in the 31st Biennial San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race (PV 2012).  This is a biennial event which starts off San Diego's Shelter Island and finishes off Punta Mita in beautiful Banderas Bay, Mexico.

After that, we'll be participating in the 22nd edition of the MEXORC (Mexican Ocean Racing Circuit) regatta and the Regatta Copa Mexico.  MEXORC and the Regatta Copa Mexico are a joint effort between the Mexican Government and the Mexican Sailing Federation.  We'll be participating in 7 one-day races then.

Over the next few days, I'll be answering some of your questions regarding this next adventure...

Why did you choose to do the PV 2012 race?

For about five or six years, I was only doing buoy races and wondered about what it would feel like to have a big sailing adventure. I decided I wanted to have one and came up with idea of doing the Cabo race where you sail from Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas. I put together a crew with one pro and assumed we were going to lose because we weren't a bunch of pros. Lo and behold... we took everything and won in all three categories.  It was so much fun!

I had never been out in open sea before and I wanted to see if I liked it. At that point, after we won in Cabo, I decided to do Trans Pac. Trans Pac was extremely difficult - physically and emotionally - with the squalls, not being able to eat and being dehydrated. It was very tough.

But it was an incredible experience, feeling the team work together and at one point we were the farthest you could be from land in the whole world. It was a sobering experience... it felt like we were in a fishbowl. There was no land anywhere and we were alone on a boat with a bunch of people and we had to keep each other alive.

Trans Pac was an amazing experience emotionally. We went the wrong way, didn't place and afterwards I was determined to do it again -- and do it better.

The PV 2012 race is a hard one; it takes eight and a half days.  This race and the other long distance races I am doing this year are all preparation for next year's Trans Pac.
 
We are much better prepared for this race to Puerto Vallarta and for future races. There is enough food and water;  I have noise-isolating headphones so I can sleep better; and I am well equipped with loads of snacks.

So, the reason I'm doing PV 2012 is 20% adventure, 80% prep for Transpac.

What are the different challenges in this race versus Transpac 2011?

This race is a lot easier, and takes half the time. Overall it is less grueling physically because it's much shorter and also we are closer to land. The second part of it, called MEXORC is a five-day series of day races that are sponsored by the Mexican government. This time around, my son Deryk is going to be a grinder on the MEXORC races, and is also coming along as part of my security.