Mexico and our decision to buy a boat!

After leaving our jobs on the Superyacht, Mark returned to the US and I went home to Australia to organize my US visa. We decided to meet up again in Mexico, on the southern tip of Baja California. We celebrated with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot that Mark been saving in his storage unit for 2 years while he was sailing..

We quickly made our way to La Paz, where we were going to be helping a friend, Jim with his boat SV Timoneer. Together we would take the boat back to Ensenada, but first we had a few weeks to enjoy La Paz.

I discovered the Paleta, Mexico's version of the ice cream on a stick. What makes this frozen treat so special (at least at this particular vendor) is that the chunks of chocolate/ cookie/ fruit are ridiculously chunky.

Then there was the Clamato, a meal-in-a-drink, which we tried only once. It consists of octopus, fish, shrimp and calamari cured in lime juice in a tomato, clam juice and optionally beer concoction topped with cucumbers, celery, chilli, salty plum and various other tamarind chewies. Despite what you might think, it was pretty damn good.

With Jim and Ely on SV Timoneer, we sailed over to Isla Espiritu Santo, where we anchored a few days with friends and fellow ketch rig sailors, Mambo and Pioneiro. The water was crystal clear, and it was a wild place. Quiet. Walking along the rocks we found dried up sea creatures- turtles, fish and baby seals.

Returning back to La Paz after a few days in Paradise, we started thinking about THE FUTURE. We had our feelers out for any job opportunities. We talked to people, we put up flyers. We didn't really know what to do once we got to La Paz. Should we keep traveling in Mexico? I couldn't exactly cross over into the US just yet because my visa hadn't arrived. Maybe we could get another crewing or superyacht job? All we could do was enjoy our time in La Paz and hope that by the time we got to Ensenada with SV Timoneer, we would have it all figured out.

One afternoon, Mark and I were having a sundowner at Tecolote beach, talking adventure and boats. We were reminiscing on the good times we'd shared on SV Compass Rosey, a boat we had sailed together from Tonga to Australia- that is how we first met. And we decided, watching that sun set, that we should definitely do it...we should buy a boat of our own. It just made sense for us. We could continue our sailing adventure on a boat, getting to travel the world, in our home.

Mark wrote about his sailing adventures from Mexico to Australia, and his experience hopping boats and working along the way: click here to see Marks blog

Little did we know, but we would end up buying our very own boat about a month later. Turns out we ended up buying the boat we were crewing on at the time, SV Timoneer! Talk about a good test run..

Pancha, Jim's watch dog, watches Mark as he watches the horizon

Searching for potential boats to buy we visited yards that were jam packed, leaning on each other, abandoned by their owners and minded by the yards. We talked our way onto boats and walked the docks in the dry heat discussing different designs, and our preferences. We knew exactly what we wanted and yet were prepared to compromise on just about anything. To every opinion we listened diligently. We heard the same story again and again- people buy boats, put more money into them than they would have liked (because boats are expensive, and require lots of regular maintenance) and when comes time to sell- struggle to get their money back. BOATS ARE BAD INVESTMENTS. We heard it over and over.

Finally, it was time to set sail with Jim on SV Timoneer to Ensenada. It was going to be a bumpy trip, motoring into the wind most of the way.

Captain Jim

A stubborn booby provided some entertainment along the way. Many lemons were lost, no booby was injured, promise.

The boat handled it beautifully, but we were relieved to turn off the engine in Magdalena Bay. We went for a long walk on the beach and discovered a plague of red crustaceans, dying on the shore.

literally a truckload of puffer fish

After a 10 day passaged we arrived in Ensenada and pulled into a slip at Marina coral. Jim said we could stay on the boat while we got our plan together.

our marina

Mark and Layla celebrate by enjoying a margarita at Hussong's

We continued to search for a boat in Ensenada. We put in an offer, but it wasn't met by the owner. One afternoon we were sitting in the cockpit of SV Timoneer, talking to Jim about our boat searching efforts. We had no concrete plan and were realizing that patience would be our greatest ally in buying 'the right boat at the right price'. It was then that Jim suggested we buy SV Timoneer. And that's what we did!