09/29/2010, WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY
Well....it may have seemed like we have vanished for the last few months, but we have been in the boat buying process and on Sept 29th we officially purchased WindRose, a 1977 Hudson Force 50, here in Mazatlan! The trick now will be getting all of our junk move aboard and then out of here and up to the Northern Sea for the summer!
| Summer in the Mar de Cortez 2010 |
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Today will be the type of day that doesn't typically happen out in the cruising world, as we scramble to get the boat ready to leave at the slip and get on an overnight bus from Santa Rosilia to Tijuana tonight at 6PM. The list of things needed to be done to make the boat as safe as possible in the event of a storm while we are gone is huge not to mention getting everything we will need for our trip to Annapolis and the kids trip to the grandparents.
Despite the image of a 1950 school bus loaded with farm animals, the Mexican Buses that make the long distance runs are top of the line motor coaches with TV, reclining seats and are quite comfortable. A bus ticket for the 13hr trip to the US Border will run about $80 each one way but at least I won't have a chance to smash-up another rental car! By the way, I did finally get the bill for that and I was only charged $600 for the damage! I was pretty happy with that because I figured $1500 and in the States it would have been at least $3000 to replace the entire passage side panels of the car. Now I just have to start the dance of submitting the cost to my 3rd party insurance company, in the dream that they will actually reimburse me!
When we arrive in Tijuana Thursday morning, we will then carry our bags across the US/Mex border and my business partner will pick us up and take us to the San Diego airport to pick up a rental car. Lori will then drive the kids to Bakersfield and I'll work on watermakers in San Diego until Lori and I both fly to Annapolis on the 4th of October returning on the 19th. The kids will spend time with both my folks and Lori's and will even get a trip to Yosemite. This will be fire first time Lori and I have had this much time alone since we cast off cruising, now over two years ago. Yesterday Sept 28th was our two year anniversary of casting off from Port San Luis, a milestone of sorts and we are looking forward to what I'm calling "our second honeymoon".
Lori asked me what I was going to do with the blog while we were away from the boat. She obviously doesn't know what I work on late into the evenings. In addition to describing our Annapolis Boat show experience, I have some posts to make that reflect back on our two years of cruising: what worked, what didn't, what type of boat makes a good cruising boat, etc. So don't fear, our blog will still be updated daily to give you guys a little down time while at work. I'm guessing that most people check out the blog while at work, because our traffic on the weekends drops almost in half, while it peaks Monday morning!
| Summer in the Mar de Cortez 2010 |
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08/29/2010, The SeaMaker 20 and 30 are Ready
SeaMaker-30
It's been almost 9 months now since I asked Lori if I could take some of our cruising kitty cash (ok, most of it) and use it to start up a watermaker company. It's taken 6 months longer and $6,000 more than I had planned and budgeted, but here in San Diego this weekend, I finally have something to show for all the time I took away from cruising. The first three SeaMakers are scheduled to ship out to real paying customers Monday morning and we used the opportunity to take some promotional photos for the website and sales broachers that we will bring to our product launch at the Annapolis Boat Show this October.
The process of starting up a business while out cruising has had its complications and through the process, I pretty much confirmed my belief that cruising and work simply don't mix. I've written about it before early in our cruise, but since I rarely take the advice of others, why would I listen to my own sage words? Without the help of my long time business partner in San Diego, I (or should I say we) would have never been able to pull this all together. The completed SeaMaker watermaker has 53 different parts coming from 16 different wholesale vendors and countless hours were spent on the web, email, Skype and phone to find the best matching parts. Still more hours (and dollars) were poured into demo testing and revamping the design into what looks pretty simple form the above SeaMaker-30 photo and SeaMaker-20 photo below. I've put so much time into this project, that for the last few months, many days have felt more like a "typical work day" with to-do-lists, deadlines and projects needing completion than a day out cruising. Don't get me wrong, I would take a hard days work from a boat in Mexico over an easy day in a normal office any day, but it's sure a lot harder to get any sympathy while working hard while anchored out at an island in Mexico!
It may be obvious from our blog that I have the type of personality that's always needing to be busy and always feeling the need to do things in what some could and have called a "over the top" manner. The trick for me will be to learn and apply the word "Balance". I'm not honestly sure I can pull it off, but they say knowing you have a problem is half the battle, the only problem for me is that despite what I've been told by others, I'm still not sure that I have a problem! Could it be that everyone else is crazy and I'm the only sane one in needing to be busy all the time, even while out cruising? Maybe, maybe not, but if being crazy is doing what you enjoy and makes you happy, then lock me up and throw away the key, because I'm certifiable.
SeaMaker-20
| Summer in the Mar de Cortez 2010 |
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