Keeping up With the Jones's

September 20, 2016

As much as I love shiny new toys and gadgets, I've never been one who has needed to keep up with the Jones's. Being a full time cruiser and having to live on some sort of a budget prevents us from going buck wild and buying every little thing our hearts desire. Part of that is money based, we just don't have an endless supply floating around, and part of that is the fact that we don't have much space on our tiny floating home for more junk than is absolutely necessary. But sometimes, just sometimes, the Jones's have some pretty cool stuff that we obviously need.

We've been amazed at how many sailors from our home waters are heading down the coast to Mexico this year. I have counted more boats on our trip south from the Great Northwest than I have fingers and toes. We are currently anchored in Half Moon Bay with approximately 15 boats. Out of those 15 boats, 7 of them are from our back yard in the Seattle area. And of those 7 boats, we've only seen one of them before. On each stop we've made on our way south, we've run into a handful of boats all from our home turf, and all doing exactly what we are doing. It's kind of like a mass exodus of Seattle sailors trying to escape the upcoming Northwest winter blues. And here I thought we were the only ones living the dream.

We've noticed that a lot of these boats are carrying folding bicycles. While we are busy walking 5 miles to the grocery store, with me complaining to Brenda about my barking dogs, we have been getting passed by other sailors on their fancy, compact, and much more efficient than my feet bikes. Our friends on S/V Danika (the Jones's), who just happened to be our former neighbors in Seattle that we had no idea were heading to Mexico this year, of course have some of these folding bikes. And of course the Jones's are rubbing it in my face that they are so much cooler than we are because they don't have to walk everywhere.

After a handful of days in San Francisco chasing down boat parts and groceries via feet power and Uber rides, their bikes were looking pretty enticing. They were covering fun filled miles of leisurely pedaling while I was begging Brenda to let me take another Uber instead of carrying a heavy backpack of supplies through the mean streets of the Bay area. Brenda of course just told me to “stop being such a weenie. Keep walking. Remember, we love walking, and you signed up for this lifestyle!” Yes I remember, but honestly, no mere mortal should be walking as much as we do.

After watching our friends the Jones's, merrily riding their bikes around town, hearing about how much fun they were having, and hearing me complain about my barking dogs, Brenda could take it no more. She stayed up all night long and researched different brands of folding bikes. She read reviews, decided which color she would look the cutest on, and then when I woke up, had coffee and a prepared speech waiting for me.

When I got up that morning, I instantly knew something was up. After living together in tiny space for 15 years, it's impossible to not know your spouse. She handed me a hot cup of coffee (that was the first giveaway...normally I have to get it myself), she waited for me to have a few sips to get my mind working again, and then she just looked at me patiently, waiting for the precise moment to unleash a torrent of information.

“Something is going on in that melon of yours. What's up?” I asked.

“Well, I think we need some folding bikes. Everyone has them but us” she tells me.

Her speech was laid out in such a way that there was no way I could say no. She had a power point presentation ready with slides, brand reviews, measurements, color charts, graphs that correlated the amount of fun we would have with bikes versus without, and even places we could have them shipped to (since we don't have a physical address and we don't stay in one place for very long, this is always an issue). She showed me the picture of the bright orange one which she assured me she would look the cutest on (she will), and the red one which I will obviously be the fastest on (I will). She took the time to figure out where we could store them when they aren't in use, and yes they will be crammed in such a way that I will take up cursing like a drunken sailor every time I have to get them in or out of their home. And then after her hour long speech and presentation, she asked, “What do you think? Do you want the red one or should I order you a different color?”

Since I was still in a daze from the vast amount of information that was shoved down my throat when I was just barely awake, I could only answer, “are you sure the red one is fastest?” And with that, some folding bikes were ordered.

So, here we sit in Half Moon Bay, California, waiting for our folding bikes to arrive. We are pretty excited for them. Our friends on S/V Danika, aka the Jones's, are anchored here as well and have already scoped out the area on their folding bikes. They have assured us that since they got their bikes before us, they are still cooler, but they will still give us the grand tour of the area when ours arrive on Friday.

Half Moon Bay is a great place to wait for some bikes to arrive. The anchorage is protected from the ocean swell, the town has great restaurants, we've seen live music at the local brewery, the beaches are beautiful, and we've even had dolphins swimming around the boat in the morning while we've sipped our coffee. It's just about perfect.