The first leg of our journey

The first leg of our journey was with a group of friends on the annual “Couples Cruise”.  We are relatively new to this cruise but it has been an annual tradition for about 26 years lead by Rick and Carol Hamblton.  Sadly, we lost Rick this year so this was a special trip with friends and a reminder of the fragility of life. 

What a wonderful week end it was at Pelicans.  Great people, Beautiful sunny skies, warm clear water.  It was our best trip to Pelicans ever.

We departed Pelicans to Smugglers Sunday night.  As we traveled along the East shore of Santa Cruz each crack and crevice seemed extra special knowing that we would not see her again for a long time.

   Smugglers Sunday evening.    

Smugglers Monday morning.

Traveling in fog to  Santa Barbara Island then on to Catalina reminded us why cruising Mexico seemed like such a good idea.  But when we arrived at Whites Cove near Avalon it was sunny and beautiful.   Also, we noticed on the way to Catalina that our stress almost partially totally resolved.  A lovely calm had come over us and we felt so much more relaxed.  

An exert from an e mail to a friend:

“Everything is different now.

Jeff and I feel much more calm and relaxed,

sailing is more enjoyable- We are live aboards!

The Captain is spiraling down quick though,

I made cinnamon rolls and 

did not have the vanilla for the icing so

Jeff poured in some vanilla VODKA instead.

They were really good!”

Our first week living aboard the Buena Vida was magical.  Sailing, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, and Sea Life.   


Week Two:
We Continued south to Newport Beach and enjoyed the reciprocity of Bahia Corinthian, Balboa and Newport Harbor Yacht Clubs.  Wow, talk about amenities.  Pools, private beaches, fine dining and lots of staff.  The only thing missing was the welcoming membership that we enjoy at Ventura Yacht Club.
After four days of walking around Balboa Island and Newport beach we were ready to visit our good friends Jane, Josh, Garret and Heather in Dana Point then on to Oceanside for a Baja ha ha rendezvous.  What a nice group of people who worked hard to provide a fun and informative event.  The Oceanside Yacht Club hosted a safety at sea seminar, a presentation by some cruisers who sailed to Tahiti and wonderful dinners.  We were invited by some members to BBQ on the docks with them and we had a great time.


We are now in San Diego in Cabrillo Isle Marina because they offer a big discount to Baja participants.  Our dock is full of boats heading south with little green burgees most of which have originated from Canada.  We have met lots of great people and joke that we have been adopted by the Canadians.

Jeff and I seem very busy  accomplishing only one thing a day.  Everything takes a little more time aboard. What kinds of things need to be done?  Insurance coverage from a US provider to cover the Buena Vida in Mexico.  Mandatory Mexican insurance for liability in Mexico. Mexican fishing license, purchasing fishing gear purchasing used scuba gear and getting it bench tested.  Last minute additions and changes to the boat. It seems like every day we tear apart the boat and put it back together in search of more storage space.  We have finally come to a mutual agreement that we can not buy one more thing except possible a XM radio.

We have been happy to have family come and visit us in San Diego to say a final Bon Voyage.  Jeff's Brother Mike from Arizona spent three nights then my parents and kids came down for 3 nights.  How lucky are we to have such great support.


This week is Baja ha ha week.  There are lectures every night and different events around town.
We are done with most of our work so that we can relax and enjoy the events.


To be honest, I am ready to move on.  I am tired of being in marinas.  I can't wait to be on the hook in a cove with lots of birds diving and fish jumping.  I crave a gentle roll to lull me to sleep at night.  
I am a bit apprehensive about the first leg of the Baja as it is 302 km and will involve three overnight passages but I am looking forward to having that experience, learning a lot and developing a comfort with overnight sailing.

We never expected this to be so hard

Jeff was so exhausted by the time we cast off our lines that he needed a quick nap en route.  

 Destination Pelicans Cove, Santa Cruz Island Sept. 17, 2011

We were completely unprepared for the stress and anxiety that we felt leading up to our departure.  After all, this is something that we wanted to do, had planned for two years, physically worked toward for the last year and now that the final month arrived we were experiencing a huge amount of stress. 

         

 I (Julie) often broke into tears when talking to the boys, my parents and close friends about our departure and plans.  The reality of leaving those so dear to us behind was incredibly hard.  I was also surprised by how attached I had become to our home and the comfortable life we were enjoying.

Finally we had time to relax and fully experience living in Ventura and now we were leaving.  Does this make sense?

Pictures from Jeff’s retirement Party 

aboard the Scarlett Belle in the Channel

Islands Marina.

Hosted by Connie our dear friend, 

and Jeff’s long time office manager.

Thank you so much Connie, Al, Tim, Nada 

and the entire staff and all of our guests.

As our departure day neared our "to-do" list grew.  It was so tempting to keep pushing back our date one more week or maybe next year.
We just kept working through each task one at a time and little by little things came together.

Jeanne and I sewing sun shades
for the Buena Vida.
Thanks Jeanne.

Will we ever get this all packed
into a 42 foot Sailboat

We were bolstered by the encouragement from our friends and with the support of each other we continued packing the boat and preparing our home 10 hours a day until it was time to leave.  

Well, not quiet 10 hours a day.  We were blessed with many invitations to dinner with friends and

family as an opportunity to say “good bye”.  The thoughtfulness of our friends has truly touched us 

and we can not express enough how much the kind words and loving gestures have meant to us.

Our Last Supper at the Ventura Yacht Club with great friends.

                                                                        Hasta Luego Amigos

How We Prepared

Anacapa Island off the coast of Ventura, CA

The past four years; how we prepared 

Cruising the Channel Islands has been an amazing experience for us.  We love the Channel Islands' wild side and natural beauty.  They have also proven to be great training ground for our sailing skills.  As new sailors we wanted to learn as much as possible about the art of sailing so not long after we sailed the Buena Vida home we took sailing classes, a navigation class, the Power Squadron safe boating class and joined the Ventura Yacht Club.  We have been fortunate to have great friends that have mentored us and helped us prepare for this voyage.

We did not set a three year timeline to prepare but that is about what it took to get our personal, financial and professional lives ready.  The summer of 2010 was a cold and foggy summer in Ventura and boating was not great so we took advantage of that time to work hard on the Buena Vida.  We thought that we would be so far ahead of our timeline. Ha!   We are still tweeking systems with only a few weeks left to departure. 

We also hoped to wind down our careers in a meaningful and effective way.  We both retired from long term careers in the medical field in the spring of 2011.  It took about a year to transition Jeff’s practice to a new physician and about 6 months for me to extricate myself for Community Memorial Hospital.  We both loved our careers and the people that we worked with, leaving was harder then we ever expected.  We retired about 6 months before our departure as we wanted time to travel abroad, visit family and finish transitioning from our home to our new life afloat.   

When do you know that you have a dream?

Buena Vida moored at Two Harbors, Catalina. 

When do you know that you have a dream? 

We did not know this was our dream.  

One day on a whim we went to the Ventura Harbor to look at sailboats and that was the first step in the ruin of our lives, we were hooked.  A year of research and boat shopping later we finally purchased a Catalina 42 Centerline two cabin and aptly named her the Buena Vida.  We bought the boat with the intention of long weekends with our friends at the Channel Islands and surrounding marinas but quickly our eyes where opened to what the Buena Vida could do.  Without talking about it,  Jeff and I both started imagining that this boat could really take us places, we could cruise to the warm waters of Mexico and beyond if we wanted to.

I never thought that my very rational husband would consider doing such an irrational thing as quitting our jobs, leaving our family, our friends and our home but he was thinking the exact same thing!

Now, four years later we are preparing to embark on the dream we did not know that we had.  

We have quit our jobs, rented our home and will be leaving our family, friends and everything that we know to cruise south.  We plan to spend a month and a half floating around Southern California then we will cross the boarder to Mexico as hurricane season ends.  We have no defined plan except to continue to head south at what ever pace seems good to us.  In March we plan to turn around and head north to experience the Sea of Cortez at it’s finest in the Spring.  

We have a few weeks left to finish a year of intensive preparations.

We have added a new heavy weight bimini and solar panel array, a water maker, a freezer, a SSB radio, an extra fuel tank, an electric toilet (my 14 year anniversary present!) a new stereo, a TV for movies, two Kindles, an ipad and a macbook.  Almost every day a box arrives at our door with some extra filter or spare part that we will hopefully never need.  We are now reduced to shopping at Walmart for various and sundry items that we think of at two in the morning.  

Will they have our favorite candy in Mexico?