Six months ago, we signed the papers that transferred our house of two decades to new owners, left our slip for the last time, and headed out into the cruising life.

We started with baby steps: our first port of call was the Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda, just across San Francisco Bay from our home port of Brisbane, where we attended the Baja Haha Crew Party. Two days later, after spending nights in the marinas at Jack London Square and Pier 39, we said goodbye to the San Francisco Bay area, sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge, and headed south, in no particular hurry, and with no plans to sail back.

This morning, when we woke up aboard SCOOTS, she was rolling gently under sunny skies, anchored just off the beach at Zihuatanejo, Mexico. That's about 1600 miles south from our starting point, not including all the side trips we've made along the way.

But it's not the just the miles under SCOOTS' keel that have accumulated these past six months; it's also the experiences we've had and the lessons we've learned along the way. Just for fun, I'd like to share an incomplete list of things we now know, that we didn't know six months ago...

--Eric can diagnose and fix anything (Eric won't admit to this, but I know it to be true),
--brown boobies make shallow surface dives; blue-footed boobies dive straight in then bob to the surface,
--the spinnaker is not actually evil, though it is a pain in the butt,
--there are crocodiles here,
--in Mexico, baking soda is sold in the pharmacy,
--marinas have a tendency to keep you once they have you,
--you can always see smoke - and often smell it - from fires burning on shore,
--you can't buy lemons in Mexico, only limes; but the limes are really good,
--how to land a dinghy on a beach with breakers - and get back out again - without getting soaked,
--it's best not to eat the salad at a mercado loncheria (market lunch counter),
--the Mexican name for "no-see-ums" is "jejenes" and they are the devil incarnate,
--procuring groceries can take half a day and provide a full day's exercise,
--unrefrigerated eggs really do last for weeks,
--whatever you need from the sail locker is going to be at the very bottom, under the spinnaker and everything else,
--daily showers are overrated,
--sunrises and sunsets never get boring,
--you really can enjoy being with someone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; it can even bring you closer,
--there are dozens of varieties of molé,
--real Mexican food is so much better than US "Mexican food,"
--how to play Mexican Train dominoes (also that it's impossible to buy a set in Mexico),
--in Mexico, there are many different varieties of boxed milk, which last almost forever at room temperature, store easily and taste great (why don't we have this in the US?),
--what a gunky diesel tank looks like, and how to clean it,
--squids can jump high enough to land on a boat deck,
--Mexican pastries look really yummy, but are usually disappointing,
--how to spot a Mexican fishing net deployed in the ocean, and what to do if we encounter one,
--most brands of Mexican beer taste pretty much the same,
--in spite of all its different names, Mexican cheese actually comes in only two varieties: one that melts easily, and one that doesn't,
--Eric and I make a pretty good team,
--how to retrieve a boat fender using a boat hook, while underway, in waves,
--our big anchor holds like a champ,
--how to ask for a half-kilo of thickly-sliced ham at the meat counter; order food and drinks at a restaurant; take a taxi or bus to where we want to go; purchase more minutes for our Mexican phone; check in and out with port captains; describe what kind of boat part we want, negotiate the price, and arrange to pick it up - all in Spanish,
--beachfront palapa restaurants make the best ceviche,
--we really like being in Mexico,
--a watermaker is a miraculous and wonderful invention,
--toll-free numbers don't work between Mexico and the US,
--little Mexican mangrove swallows that perch on our lifelines and chirp are adorable,
and...
frigatebirds are jerks

I can't wait to see what we'll learn in the next six months....