Sep 8, 20113 min read

Our New Home

Tim, Me, Shelly and Mike just after the sea trial on our new boat

So, we did it. We bought our dream boat! We took her out for a sea trial today and we sailed for the first time in the Sea of Cortez. It was awesome! I can already tell I will be one of those types who continuously tweak the sails for more speed. Keep in mind, we are talking about the speed of a 35 foot liveaboard boat, so we are looking at like 2-6 knots. It is perfectly slow, however, because you have AMAZING views to take in while you are doing it. The water is clear about 100 feet down. Can you imagine? I didn’t really believe that —having been on lakes often — but Shelly dropped a green grape overboard just to see how long we could see it in the water. We sailed away, slowly, remember, before we couldn’t see the grape. It was stunning. Tim took a dive because it was blisteringly hot. We have found ourselves on a sailboat in the sun in Baja Mexico in the hottest part of the year and the hottest part of the month for this area. Just step outside and sweat a gallon a minute. And I thought Texas was hot! Well, it is actually about the same temp, but the humidity here takes the cake. We drank more water and Gatorade in 2 hours than I have in most days.

It was all worth it, though. We have a wonderful new home and we can float around anywhere we want. It hasn’t quite all sunk in yet. We had the boat surveyed by a pro boat builder who has been living in Mexico for the part 22 years — Cecil. He is an 86-year-old Austrian who kept up with the rest of us in that heat. I was so surprised at how good he was at moving around the boat while withstanding the heat.

Our Captain for the day was Ray. He maintains several boats in Puerto Escandito while the owners are out for the summer season. He is so nice, and a friend already. He has the exact same boat make and model as us, so he highly recommended it. We are so excited and can’t wait to head back down for the good cruising months. We have been told by every sailor we have met that the weather switches on October 15. Like clockwork, there is less humidity and a nice breeze every year. Can’t wait for that.

While we have been here we have been greeted with the friendliest people on earth. It seems everyone is incredibly supportive and helpful in whatever way possible. It is really refreshing to slow down and appreciate others. The cruisers (people living on a boat and cruising up and down the coastline) have a code of conduct to help out other cruisers and then pay it forward. They don’t help expecting anything in return, they just help because they are nice and know it will come back around one day. And it does.