S/V Adventurer

A couple of days ago, Brenda and I had one of those talks.  You know the talks I'm speaking of – the ones where you get to talk about your feelings.  Ugh.  Only this talk wasn't about the normal things that get brought up in one of those discussions.  There was no mention of a toilet seat left up, no caps left off the toothpaste, and nothing said about me not noticing a new haircut.  Why you ask?  Well, it's because I'm obviously a perfect husband and there would be no reason to bring any of that up. What was discussed was the fact that we have been racing down the Baja Peninsula for no good reason.  We have no place to be and no time we need to be there.  This is realistically the only time in our lives when we are going to be sailing this coastline, so why on earth would we miss anything?  The big talk was purely about slowing down.  Phew.  No hurt feelers mentioned and no tears shed anywhere, and even better yet, we were both i...

I'm not exactly sure what to talk about today. All that I know is that I was awake for most of the night with my head spinning on a whole lot more topics than it should have been. We've been in Mexico for two weeks now, and it seems that almost every day there is something exciting that should be shared. We are in new and exciting places with new and exciting people and we are doing new and exciting things. The problem I'm having though, is that the election still has me reeling. Just like half of our country and the majority of the world, it has me in knots. When I started this blog a couple of years ago, it was more than anything a way for us to bring our family and friends along on our journey. My intention was to share our experiences, maybe a few photos, and my thoughts on the places we were visiting. What I've found along the way is that I really enjoy writing this blog. It's given me a voice that I didn't know I had. At the beginning, I though...

I have quite a bit to cover today, so let's get right into this. First of all, I had started writing a blog post last night that covered our last week of adventure. You know, the same old usual stuff. But this morning we woke to a changed world and it doesn't seem like my usual rambling is important right now. If you want to hear about what we've been doing and not how I'm feeling this morning about our election, just feel free to skip down a few paragraphs and read on. I'm sure you are aware that we are not in the United States and we just had what could be the most important election of my lifetime. Actually, if I'm going to be honest, each election I have had the privilege of voting in has felt pretty important to me. But before you get too worried, I'm not going to go on a big political rant here. I've done my best to keep my political views out of this rambling, and more than anything, my views are mine, and the fact that I think a ce...

I can't honestly remember the last time I've been this excited. I'm generally a low key, pretty mellow fellow, but today, I'm abuzz. We just checked in to Ensenada and have our 6 month visas in hand. We are free to roam the country, eat as many tacos as possible, and butcher the Spanish language until April 30 th of 2017, at which time we can either move on to another country, or extend our stay for another 6 months. It's thrilling. Our trip from San Diego to Ensenada was almost as exciting as actually getting here. We didn't have big seas or big winds, but the fact that we crossed the shared border of the US and Mexico while at sea, and I could see that imaginary line on our computer screen as we sailed over it, made me let out a huge “Woo Hoo!!!” for the whole ocean to hear. And the fact that we caught our first Mexican fish just after we crossed the border, well, that wasn't too shabby either. When we left San Diego, we almost felt like...

I've always been a goal oriented kind of guy. I seem to have a need to be working towards something. If I don't, I feel stagnate. I've had lots of little insignificant goals over the years, but the major goal of getting us to Mexico on our boat is about complete. On Sunday, we are leaving San Diego, crossing the border on our little floating home, and then we should be checking into Ensenada, Mexico sometime on Monday morning. Major life goal...check. Yesterday, Brenda asked, “what is your goal now that we've basically made it to Mexico?” It's an interesting question that has sort of thrown me for a loop. Since I've always had some major goal that I've been striving to achieve, and my goal of the last 20 years is basically done, what now? I hadn't thought about it until Brenda brought it up, but now my peaceful and zen state of mind is going berserk. I've been thinking that I could have a new goal of getting us to a specifi...

For the last week, we've been tied to the municipal dock at Shelter Island in San Diego. As glamorous as it sounds to be tied up at the municipal dock, trust me, it isn't as glamorous as it may seem. There has been a steady stream of vagrants, drug deals, thefts, and police busts during our week long stay. Last night, Brenda and I were going for our nightly stroll and ran into one of our “neighbors” being handcuffed and carted away (I use the term neighbor loosely. He happens to be living on a boat that doesn't run, barely floats, and is full of stolen goods that has been tied up at the dock close to us) Yeah, glamorous isn't the word I would use to describe this place. When we first pulled in to the municipal dock, there were a few cruisers that are on their way to Mexico, but the vast majority of the boats here are what we would call derelicts. I've done my best to keep my social and political views off of this blog and today is going to be no different...

I hope you have some time today, because I can tell you right now, this is going to be a long bit of rambling. We set sail from Oceanside, California this morning and have made it to San Diego, which is about as far south as we can go before we get to Mexico. It's kind of a big deal. It's such a big deal that I'm feeling a bit emotional about the whole thing (yes it's true, tough guys have feelings too). If you've been following along, you can probably do the math and figure out that we left our home waters about 2 ½ months ago. You may be thinking that 2 ½ months is a long time to sail the coast of the US and get to Mexico, but really it's not. I've been dreaming about this trip for nearly 20 years, so 2 ½ months compared to my 20 years of dreaming seems like the blink of an eye. I have told people for years that I was going to sail around the world someday. The dream started shortly after I bought my first sailboat in my very early 20...