Steve
05/21/2013, San Diego

As some of you may already know, yesterday I resumed my 30+ year career in the San Diego Real Estate industry. On one hand I have great sadness in writing this final blog post, on the other hand I have extreme excitement in returning to a career which for the most part, I always loved.
It has been an unbelievable 3 year adventure and writing this blog was a major part of the joy. Being able to share my adventures with my friends and family, and being able to look back and see where I had been and what I had done was something I always loved.
In many ways a career and a sailing adventure are similar. You must have goals and you must be able to constantly update your goals. You must plan things out in advance and be ready for when those thing don't go as planned. You must be willing to take chances and be prepared for the consequences of those chances. The most important thing in either a career or a sailing adventure, (or any other endeavor) is to at some point cast off the dock lines and go for it. if you're afraid of failure in life than you probably won't get very far.
I would like to thank everyone for all of their support, thoughts and prayers while I was away. God bless.

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Steve
05/05/2013, San Diego

One of the reasons I wanted to return to San Diego was to be able to take friends and family sailing....something that didn't happen very often while in Mexico. Yesterday for the first time in over two years I took my Daughter Amber and her boyfriend Wade, and friends Heather, Robin and Robins niece Galean out for a sail on San Diego Bay. OK....so it wasn't a perfect San Diego sailing day, in fact the wind was from almost due south at about 10-12 knots, which conveniently blows me away from the dock while coming and going into the slip. It was also quite cloudy/overcast which isn't all that unusual for May in SD.. Never the less it was great to be back out on the bay. I had to get use to watching out for other boats and trying to remember the "rules of the road" all the while bundled up to combat the frigid 65 degree weather. As usual the newbie sailors (Robin and Galean) showed up in shorts and light tops in anticipation of working on their tans...only to have to borrow hoodies and blankets to fight off the potential for frostbite. For most of the day we had 10-15 knot winds and sailed under reefed sails, more for comfort than necessity. Everyone did a great job of crewing and as predicted the most excitement was coming and going from the slip in the breezy cross wind, especially Amber's leap of faith as we blew away from the dock while leaving. San Diego is such a beautiful place to sail, and I look forward to taking more friends/family out over the next several months......just don't forget your hoodies.

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Steve
04/19/2013, Sun Harbor Marina, San Diego, Ca. USA

WOW...what an adventure I've had! As I'm settling back into life in SoCal my mind often wanders back over the past two years. I've definitely learned a lot about a lot of things. I've traveled over 4,000 NM, been in 13 different marinas, somewhere around 40 different anchorages and met hundreds of interesting people.....some more than others. All while traveling on a 42 foot sailboat. I've somehow managed to avoid any horror stories, which I know makes for dull blog posts. Si Bon has handled the challenge of her second Mexico cruise with a stellar performance. Together we managed to have no major systems fail. Sure there were plenty of times that I had make repairs underway, or to jury rig something to get by....but no major issues. There were also plenty of times I said a prayer to the man upstairs thanking him one thing or another.
So....where do I go from here? Well, I never did get to Panama, so thats still out there. One reason I didn't get to panama was because I over estimated the ease of picking up crew members. I have realized that after cruising both with a partner and without a partner, that it is much more enjoyable to be with someone whom you care about and have a relationship with. The best times for me were the 10 months or so that Sharon and I cruised together.....thanks Shaybo! Because of this I would likely want to be involved with someone before heading out again.
In the mean time I'm settling into my new digs quite well. I love being back to beautiful San Diego. Today it's predicted to be in the 80's and there's not a cloud in the sky. Sun Harbor Marina is a great place to live, and my slip A-18, is a perfect location. The picture is taken from Si Bon's stern. I do plan or continuing my adventures in SoCal and possibly northern Baja, there are a lot of beautiful cruising grounds within 100 miles of San Diego...and I want to explore more of them.
I haven't really decided what to do about the blog. As I said earlier, I'm not going to keep writing it forever, but at this time I can't bring myself to terminating it. I kind of use my blog as a journal of sorts, and it seems that I may have a couple more things to put in the journal before closing it....we'll see.

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Steve
04/17/2013, Ensenada to San Diego

Monday afternoon my friend Robert and I took the Marina Coral shuttle back to the Coral. Monday night we went out on the town and had a blast. Ensenada is a really cool and fun town and very easy to get to from SoCal.
Tuesday morning we woke up and made our way to the Capitan De Puerto, and after cruising Mexico for just over 2 years, I cleared out. Next I serviced the massive 42 horsepower Westerbek diesel, then a quick trip to Soriana for a few provisions and at just before 1800 we left Ensenada.
When originally planning our return we had a decent sized weather window. As we got closer to departure the window had gotten quite a bit smaller....and had also somewhat deteriorated. Even worse was that there were now predicted to be 8-12 foot swells....on the nose of course. We had people pull in next to us who had just come up Baja, they told us it was horrible and if we left we would be back within 4 hours. Robert and I (and Katrina) all keep a VERY close eye on the weather, and while we felt that it wasn't going to be great, we did have a 14-16 hour sorta window before it completely slammed shut, that gave us just enough time for the 65-70 leg. So off we went into the treacherous seas. There were some pretty good sized swells, but i don't think we saw anything close to 12 feet. The wind was for the most part calm and so was the sea state. All in all it was a good trip and we pulled into the Customs dock on Shelter Island at around 0630 and were cleared into the USA by 0830.
After being away for so long it felt pretty cool to see Point Loma appear in the dark (pic), and it feels really good to be back.
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts/prayers/support over the past 2 years. God bless!

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Steve
04/08/2013, San Diego (by land)

I'm not going to be of these cruisers that continues writing my blog forever. I will probably stop posting blogs sometime shortly after I get Si Bon back to San Diego. I do think it's important..for me anyway, to continue blogging as I start to fit back into mainstream society. Some of the best memories of my Mexico cruise have involved the mexican bus systems. It took me awhile to feel comfortable hopping on a mexican bus, sometimes standing room only, many times with backpack and bags full of provisions, often being stared at by curious Mexicans as you tried not to knock anyone over with your heavy load. There are many moments that are now running thru my mind of funny and sometimes not so funny moments riding the Mexican buses throughout the country. As I prepare for my return to life in Southen California one of the most important things to have is a car. If you've been following my blog since the beginning (and are still awake), then you know that it was a liberating experience when I sold the last of my two cars. I have now been carless for over two years, something I would not of thought possible before the great adventure began. Yesterday my days of being carless ended as I became the proud owner of a 2013 Chevy Equinox.
As much as I'll miss the Mexican buses it sure will be nice that whenever I need something to be able to hop in my new Chevy and go zooming off to the closest supermarket/marine store/hardware store...or where ever.

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Steve
04/06/2013, San Diego (by land)

One of the many benefits that the Marina Coral in Ensenada has is a shuttle that runs between the Coral and West Marine in Shelter Island (San Diego). The price of the shuttle is a little higher than if you took public transportation....but it's soooo much easier. So yesterday morning I boarded the shuttle (a large van), and I'm now back in San Diego. I have a few things that I wanted to line up ahead of bringing Si Bon back in order to fit back into mainstream society, you know like a cell phone, a car, a slip in a marina.....and most important an In-N-Out burger. So after arriving in SD mid afternoon I rented a car, made a quick stop at my new marina (Sun Harbor), and made a mad dash for In-N-Out. On the way to In-N-Out some old lady pulled out in front of some old man, and at a speed of about 2 miles per hour they collided.....right in front of me. My first thought of course was "I hope they're OK" , but since they immediately started yelling at each other, and flipping each other off, my thoughts went to "you idiots, I haven't had an In-N-Out burger for 8 months". I quickly steered around the old codgers and beelined it to In-N-Out.
There's no place like home!

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