The day after Christmas, 2005, my husband Jim and I left the United States to move to San Carlos, Mexico after a year of discussion, planning, arguing, more planning, more arguing, dreaming... Our goal for some years has been to live and have our boat in the same town, which required some doing since the boat has been in Mexico since 1997, when we sailed her down here with the grand migration known as the Baja Ha Ha. Since sailing north is much more difficult than sailing south, it made sense to move south instead of bringing the boat back to California, where we couldn't afford coastal rents, slip or mooring fees anyway. All that required was the complete and utter uprooting of our entire life.
We were living on the northern California coast, where it seldom gets above 70 degrees, and Jim was spending half the year away on the boat. He hates being cold. I hate being hot. This must be a case of true love, for here I am now, sweating. He says sweating is good for you. We'll see.
Part of the grand plan was to retrieve the boat, the S.V. Bliss, from Barra de Navidad where it's been docked for three years, up the mainland to San Carlos, one of the few remaining affordable marinas with adjacent anchorage. We wanted to be near enough to the Nogales border (a 5-hour drive) that we could get occasional packages of mail forwarded from California to a U.S. address since Mexican mail is so unreliable the utility companies don't even accept mailed payments. The other part of the grand plan was to rent an inexpensive house where we could continue for a year or two more to operate our print-and-web publishing business, producing Cochran's Collector's Guide (www.cochrans.com). Since there are at least three months when it's still a bit cooler in San Carlos than Jim likes, ultimately we plan to sell the business and move further south, where we can sweat year-round.
The plan has succeeded so far. We and the boat are in San Carlos. We live in a little house walking distance from the anchorage, where "Bliss" is moored 100 feet from the beach -- swimming distance if you don't mind very dirty water. We've published our Northwest Guide for the year and have started on the California/Southwest edition. It has all cost us considerably more than anticipated (except I privately anticipated considerable more expense than Jim did, taking into account Murphy's Law).
We've made numerous new friends, boat people, CLODs (Cruisers Living on Dirt) and lubbers who'd never think of setting foot on a boat.
An interesting effect of all these changes is that I have fallen in love with my husband, the boat and Mexico all over again. And maybe that makes it all worthwhile.
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