The Dream

This new adventure we're about to embark upon, all started with a dream....my husband's to be precise. 

Almost 8 years ago now, while catering an event in San Diego, CA. my husband, of then 20 years, announced "I've always had a dream, to go sailing!" I don't know why this caught me offguard?  It's not like it was some kind of crazy, earth shattering, life changing information, it just did.  He then explained, that ever since he was a kid, he had always dreamed of sailing the ocean, and going to far away places.  I guess I was shocked, mostly because, after being married for 20 years, this was the first I'd ever heard him say this.  At any rate, I said that was nice, and went about doing whatever it was I was doing.  That evening, while Neil was glancing thru the paper, he noticed an ad, stating that the San Diego Boat Show had started, and that it would be going until Sunday.  "Just for fun" he said, "let's go to the boat show on our way out of town Sunday, what do ya think?'  I was like..."are you crazy!?  we can't afford to look at boats, those people will see right through us!"  He assured me, it was just to look at them, and since this had been his boyhood dream, I figured this was going to be the closest he'd ever get to making it come true, so....off to the boat show we went!!

We saw many, many boats!  Beautiful, million dollars, and upwards, boats!!  Yikes, I thought, well, this dream really never is going to come true, but hey....at least we got to see how the rich folks live, if even just for a day.  It was so fun, we had a blast!  We met some really nice people too, one man, in particular was super nice, and had offered to take us sailing sometime.  His name was Monte, and he was a boat broker (hence the wanting to take us sailing sometime)

Monte called us about 2 weeks later, and mentioned that he and his team were taking some people sailing from Long Beach, and wanted to know if we would like to come along.  Neil and I jumped at the chance, even though we felt pretty guilty, because we knew Monte's purpose was to hopefully sell us the beautiful tri-maran, he would take us sailing on.  We didn't care, we figured we'de just pretend like, "this just isn't the boat for us" kind of thing.  At least Neil would get to fulfill his dream of going sailing, it wasn't around the world, but it WAS the ocean!

This day of sailing, which was wonderful, by the way, was just the beginning! To make a really, really long story short, we became fast friends with Monte.  He had introduced us to another sailer, Joe, and Neil and I were invited to go sailing with Joe and his friends on his boat.  We couldn't believe he was just going to offer to take us sailing in San Diego, for nothing, so we devised a plan.  A spur of the moment thought, really, but it worked out beautifully! We told Joe, that we were chef's, and would love to cook for him and his friends, when we were on his boat, this way we felt we were contributing something.  This was the start of a beautiful friendship!  For nearly 2 years we went down to see Joe, and learn to sail.  He was an amazing teacher!  After two years of "private lessons", we landed the right deal, for a boat of our own, via our friend, Monte. We signed the paperwork on our, 1989 Hunter Legend 35.5, on March 17th, 2006!!

Here we are, 5 years later, and we're about to embark on a new kind of journey. Sailing in the Sea of Cortez/Baja Mexico for 1-2 years!! 

This blog will be our avenue for telling our story, as it happens, during our travels.  We will feast upon the waves of life!  Our goal:  to leave San Diego by Oct. 26th, just before the Baja, ha ha (which is an annual jumping off point for many cruisers.) We prefer to leave just before they do, because there are usually around 300 boats that go, and we kind of like the idea of having a little more quiet time, but it will be nice, in case we encounter any rough spots.     

You are invited to join us in our adventure, please feel free to contact us thru email, or comments on this blog.  We will do our best to reply to each and every one.  We will keep a log of all the wonderful people, foods, and culture we encounter.  We will also be sharing some of our passion for great food, as we are enlightened by the local produce, and cuisine of BEAUTIFUL MEXICO!!!