After our successful fall navigation of the west coast of the United States, winter and spring cruise of Mexico, and summer Land Yacht tour of the United States we’ve decided we’re ready and excited to re-engage in our careers. We own nothing but Deep Playa, her contents and a couple of boxes at our Moms’ houses. We have no storage unit full of junk and no property to which we need to return. So the obvious first question is where to do want to live?
We’ve given a lot of thought to how we’ve been living and here’s what we’ve learned.
- We love the ocean even more than we did in Seattle. The seabirds, the whales, the fish. Crystal clear, green warm waters. Long beaches to run on. All amazing!
- There is a lot to be said for amazing weather. Although, Patrick could definitely handle some cold crappy weather every once in a while.
- We have grown to love this more relaxed cruising lifestyle.
- Cute dusty Mexican towns are nice to visit, especially if there is surf, but we get bored living there.
- As in our house, in our condo and on the boat, we continue to enjoy living in a simple space with modest amounts “stuff”.
- We miss the variety of dining and entertainment options modern US cities brought to our lives. Coastal Mexico is very homogenous.
- We miss the Asian influences of Seattle. Especially the food!
- Living at anchor can be isolating, inconvenient and it’s hard to sleep more often than you’d think.
- We miss the convenience land mobility brings to life. Being able to jump on the scooter or a car and go someplace or get something.
- We need a bed which can be accessed from the sides, so one person isn’t crawling over the other to enter and exit.
- We miss having a tinker space or workshop to work on geeky stuff and projects.
- Dawn needs to be able run when she wants and go to the gym.
- We eat a lot of veggies and miss the variety and high-quality of produce available in the US.
- Dawn misses a full size kitchen and pantry full of options.
- Long hot showers with water pressure so strong you can barely stand-up.
- We miss really good wine. And Matty won’t bring us any!
- We miss hoppy IPAs. And Russian River Brewing won’t bring us some Pliny!
- We miss friends our own age. We miss younger friends. We miss geeks. We miss our kind of weirdos. We miss the depth of friendships and conversations you get from living in one place. We miss having a place to host our friends.
- We miss the collaboration and excitement that a great job brings to life. Working together with others to make something new. Growing our own skills. Mentoring others and seeing them grow.
With all that in mind, we started to think about where to live and really the only two coastal cities with adequate job options and access to the Ocean are San Diego and Honolulu. Ultimately, while Honolulu may be more complicated logistically and have a smaller job market, we think the lifestyle which is offered there is more appealing. We also have friends who live there already which is a huge bonus.
Will we sail to Hawaii? Living in a marina again would be fun. Living in a marina offsets a lot of the “living on the hook” inconveniences. But, in our mind, Hawaii is not is not a great place to live aboard a sailboat while working. The day and weekend trips seem limited and we’re not day sailors or racers. We think a power boat or catamaran would be more ideal in Hawaiian waters. It’s not a done deal, but we’re looking into selling Deep Playa here in Mexico. We have yet to meet with a broker, but we’re gathering information and looking into our options. It might turn out to be better to take the boat up to San Diego. We don’t know enough yet to make that decision. If we go to San Diego instead of Honolulu then living aboard is a more viable option and one we’d consider. It would be very hard to say goodbye to Deep Playa, but it’s just as exciting to think about what we’re going to do next and to get on with doing it.
So there it all is. We’re getting jobs. Honolulu is our favorite option. We don’t plan to take the boat to Honolulu. We have no precise timeline, but we definitely won’t be in Mexico for the summer.
The people are so friendly and the restaurants located here are so diverse and interesting. There is a German restaurant, a British pub, and an Italian restaurant with wood-fired pizza. And not to mention the many cheap and delicious local taco stands that pop out of the wood work after dark. One of our favorite places is Huanacaxtle Bar & Café that is is owned and run by a local family. They are super friendly and make you feel like one of the family every time you show up. They have an awesome happy hour, 10 peso draft beers, and host karaoke night on Tuesdays, but Oliver is ready for some karaoke any night of the week and will try his hardest to convince you of the same!
One of our fav spots for the cruising community is The Shack. It is a great restaurant owned by a Travis, hailing from Texas, his wife, Rosie, hailing from Mexico and their two very cute kids. This place makes the best coconut shrimp I have ever had (Rosie’s signature dish), huge Texas-sized burgers (and I don’t even like beef, but wow, this is something to be had), and awesome $15 peso margaritas for happy hour. 
The officer was maybe pushing 18 years of age. All they wanted was to review our paperwork and ensure that it was in order. The officers were very polite and respectful. He even became uncomfortable when he was asking for my age. What a humbling experience it was for the two of us. Their uniforms were ill-fitting and well-worn, they wore dress shoes (no boots), their guns were rusted, and the zodiac that transported them from the mother ship to ours was, to put it nicely, well-loved. He politely thanked us for cooperating and asked us to sign a piece of paper that stated that we did not have pay a bribe nor were we abused by them in any way. We happily obliged.
I understood the logic but I was extremely disappointed anyway. So instead we hiked a little while over the dunes and went into the village in search of a restaurant that, according to the guide book, offered cervezas fria. We stumbled into the little fishing village and RV park where we ran into some Americans and Canadians that made this place their home for 6 months out of the year for the past 15-20 years! We asked about the restaurant and learned that the old guy who ran the place just passed, in some unusual circumstances, three weeks prior and that no one had come forward to take it over. 
Muy bueno!
There are only a few choices. Either you head north to La Paz for Thanksgiving (which we had planned), take the couple days sail over to Mazatlan or do the Baja Bash, which is for those who were not continuing on cruising in Mexico and must beat their boat and crew back up the Baja peninsula 785 miles to San Diego (ughhhhh no thanks) If not for Matty coming for a visit, I think 
