I know I’ve been very neglectful at posting on the blog. Obviously the ‘cruising’ portion of our life has changed a bit in the past year and a half.
This past year saw us completing a successful year as a new business. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it, of the 6 different divisions or mini businesses under our corporate umbrella, all have been fairly successful. This past year the business definitely ran us.

The store has become quite popular in filling in a big gap in the marine supply stores – mostly just due to our location at the northern end of town. We don’t have a lot of items, but a good selection of things we felt were important to the transient and more permanent cruiser. Like a lot of Mexican businesses, if you don’t see it on the showroom floor, just ask – it’s likely that we have it in the back room. The store has also become a bit of a gathering place for people. We like that. We get folks who stop by early in the morning to listen to the cruisers net, or watch while Tom hosts it on Monday mornings. We’ve had several impromptu musical jams sessions on our patio just outside, and we’ve been known to host a Friday afternoon themed ‘safety meeting’ – such as “how to drink your margarita and not get salt in your eyes!” (Due to some ‘issues’ a couple of years ago, the boaters are not allowed to have ‘dock parties’ on the docks. We can, however, have ‘safety meetings’. Some of our safety meetings are quite large!)
Quite often the chairs that are on the sidewalk outside, get brought inside for a discussion of a project, or just a chat by several people who just stopped by to say ‘hey, what’s happening up at La Paz Cruisers Supply today?”

Our yacht management business saw us turning away more boats than we wanted to, but felt it was crucial to attending to the needs of those that we did have. After experiencing the effects of Hurricane Odile , we were pleased with our decision. The boats under our care sustained with very little damage, to no damage from the hurricane.

The canvas/sewing business has done well. Often I have 10 or so projects on the ‘board’ awaiting completion – not including the larger ones like biminis, dodgers, sunshades and dinghy chaps that I farm out to the couple of guys with larger canvas lofts and bigger machines.

Tom seems to always have someone looking for his services to assist or install a water maker, solar system, or other electrical repair, among many other jobs.

After retiring from almost 20 years doing massage therapy, I never thought I’d want to do any more. I realized that I missed doing massages. My table was delivered to La Paz by some friends that drove down and, I’m doing 2 to 6 a week, and thoroughly enjoying it. With the expansion of our store into our bigger space, I now have a dedicated massage and sewing area. It’s nice not to have to take down one thing to set up the other. It’s also nice to have someone walk in to ask about massage and for me to be able to say ‘right now works’!

The one thing we both wanted to do when we got to Mexico was to pursue our photography. Slowly but surely that’s happening. Tom’s yearly bird calendar continues to be a sell out. We both have had several images, and articles published in local publications, and I’ve had a cover in a very fine tourist magazine as well as the local monthly English newspaper. I’ve just completed a multi daylong photography shoot, documenting a home for the owners after a remodel. A fun project that tested my memory from long ago days of shooting interiors and studio work! We continue to seek out stories and locations that interest us, as well as hopefully, you, our reader.

Now if that isn’t enough, the monthly billings, keeping the books for the store, keeping track of orders and shipments, making sure that our vendors for boat services are doing their jobs and are paid, banking and all the other things that owning a business entails and you’ve got a full time job right there! And we haven’t even brought up the personal stuff – laundry, Eagle project lists, groceries, etc!

So, where’s our fun vs suck ratio? After reading this you might realize, like we do, that it’s a bit out of balance – at least it’s pretty heavy on the ‘suck’ side of things. Now, the good part is that we recognize it and are actively making plans to correct that out of balance ratio.

So, dear reader and blog follower, my goal is to continue writing and posting photos to the blog. There are several stories in my head anxious to get out, as well as lots of photos to share.

That said, we’re sitting on an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle to help out at the Cruise RO Water Maker and Technautics Cool Blue refrigeration booth. Lefty, of course, is with us, and also has his stories to tell. We’ve a few days with the family before the show begins and the Seahawks game tomorrow. (Please win, please, please! ) That of course if purely for selfish reasons – if they win, they’re in the Super bowl, and that means ONE LESS DAY AT THE BOAT SHOW!!!!!! 9 days instead of 10- GO ‘hawks!

See, I started this post while on the airplane to Seattle. It’s now Monday. The Seahawks won their game yesterday!!!!