After quitting our jobs and selling the house, we bought our property on Center Island. We gave away most of our possessions with the exception of a few family heirlooms. Before we could continue our journey to Mexico, we needed to store those items in Washington. This story picks up at that point.

We started down Siskiyou Pass towing a very heavy U-haul trailer. As I shifted our Jeep into a lower gear the engine died. Now the interesting thing is when the power dies, so does the power steering and the power brakes. Of course the trailer and the Jeep continue to obey the laws of gravity and accelerate down the icy interstate. I was able to pull onto the shoulder and come to a stop but it took a bit before Jan could pry my fingers off the steering wheel.

Our adventure officially began on April 1st. We still had to finish cleaning the house but we spent the night in a hotel and finally put Phoenix in our rearview mirror on Saturday, April 2nd. The first night on the road was spent in Santa Nella, California and the second was spent in Dunsmuir on the side of Mount Shasta with a light snow falling. It seemed the farther north we drove the more beautiful it became.

We expected we would have a number of challenges escaping our old life and moving aboard. We just didn’t anticipate what direction they would come from. First, the property we are purchasing on Center Island has a small “sleeping cabin” on it. The “cabin” is only eight by sixteen and while it has electricity, it doesn’t have “facilities” or running water (there is an outhouse). Unfortunately our realtor wrote the contract up as “single-family home.” Naturally the first two lenders we applied to refused to fund the deal. Fortunately Islander’s Bank came through for us, and the deal finally closed.

The next challenge has been much more serious. The day after we left, our son-in-law announced he was in love with another woman and wanted to divorce Heather. We quickly concluded our business in Washington and raced back to Phoenix. It is beginning to feel like Phoenix will never let us go. Heather joined us on board Santa Teresa on our mooring ball in San Diego Bay and is trying to sort out her life from here. It is wonderful to see the healing power of the ocean at work. She is looking for a new job and an apartment here and Heather has become quite the fisherman. There are good days and bad days.

It looks like we have missed the window on sailing to Mexico this year. Unless we can get away in the next couple of weeks, we will have to summer in southern California. After that we may sail directly to Hawaii or continue our voyage south to Mexico and on to Hawaii next spring. After discussing it with Jan we laughed and said, “That’s the bad news? We have to stay in San Diego for the summer?”

Daily life aboard is taking on a routine. In the morning I take the girls to shore and they use the Internet and look for a job and an apartment for Heather. After filling the water can and dumping the trash, I row back and continue working on the ever-growing list of “fix ‘ems.” Plumbing, electrical and rope work fill my day. I haven’t even started on the painting and varnishing yet.

In the evenings, I pick the girls up from the beach. "Cocktail hour" is a high point of the day. The sunsets are lovely and the lights of the city are enchanting. After dinner we play Scrabble or watch a movie on the laptop and go to bed early. Everyone says they get the best sleep they’ve ever had as the motion of the waves rocks us to sleep. Of course the occasional warship steams by in the middle of the night and more than once their wake has dumped us out of bed!