Leg One: San Diego to Guerrero Negro Done
06 December 2008 | Free Wifi in Guerrero Negro after 13 hours of Driving
Capt Rich
We left Carlsbad, Ca at 0500hrs this morning and were in our hotel room in Guerrero Negro, Mexico 13 hours later safe and sound!
In addition to the rebuilt v-drive and a repaired radar unit, the trunk and backseat are packed with everything from a Costco and Wal*Mart run to 150ft of 5/16" chain for a friend in La Paz. There is no beating around the bush folks; it was a LONG 13 hour drive today and our last leg tomorrow isn't going to be any easier. We will leave here at dawn and should just make it into La Paz by sunset. The whole trip and experience has, however, been fun, well except for the check I wrote to the mechanic, but if this is the worst thing that happens to us on our trip we will have pulled off a near flawless cruise.
From talking and emailing with Lori she is holding up well in La Paz with the kids, but is tired and really in need of a break and some rest. So after I get the rental car emptied and returned on Monday, I will take the kids for the day and let her have a full day to herself because she really deserves it. Honestly, when I look at all Lori does on a day-to-day basis (and "mostly" without complaint) I have no idea how she does it....really. Unfortunately, I'm oftentimes derelict in thanking her and heaping the much deserved praise on her, but I'm making a concerted effort to take some of the stress and responsibility for the kid's home schooling off of her back by getting much more involved. As Captain of the boat and person responsible for THIRD DAY's mechanical systems, it is too easy to keep your head buried in tasks of keeping the boat systems happy, while not paying as much attention to the crew. In a way, it's my alone time to be buried in the sail locker or bilge doing maintenance, while Lori is left to deal with the kids. Sure, the boat systems must have their maintenance, but I need to start doing them in a way that doesn't always leave Lori with the responsibility of the kids.
This almost 3000 mile driving trip has provided me with lots of time to think about how our cruise is going, to look at where we are succeeding, where we need improvement, and to really give some serious thought and analysis to how each member of the crew is doing. The kids are having an absolute blast and have taken to the cruising lifestyle like a caught fish being released back into the water. They both still need to get more comfortable with the home schooling, but our hope is that they will improve with time. I'm stressed at times but would say I'm an 8 to 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 in cruise enjoyment. I haven't asked Lori directly (maybe because I know the answer and don't want to hear her say it) but I think at this point she would rank the trip a 5 to 6 out of 10. She is having fun on a day to day basis, but her idea of having lots of relaxing and down time while cruising on a boat with a 10 and 11yr old hasn't panned out. Much of her stress and work is associated with getting comfortable with and tweaking our day-to-day routines and way of doing things on the boat and should get better as we gain more experience. The one thing I can say with certainty at this point is: put those cruising books and glossy sailing and cruising magazines down because you can read every book and magazine ever written about the cruising experience and still not have a clue about what it is really like out here and most importantly how you will react to the changes of not living on dirt back in the States! I'm not saying this in a bad way, or that it is a negative of cruising, but it has been a reality for us even after years and years of dreaming, planning, and reorienting our lives in preparation for casting off the dock lines.
Casting off the dock lines is typically at the end of any wannabe cruisers' "cruise preparation list", but I am beginning to think that casting off the dock lines is just the beginning of getting a clue about what we have gotten ourselves into, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.