December 8, 2018, Guaymas, MX

We keep reminding ourselves that we purposely chose this lifestyle.

Right now, it’s a just plain HARD lifestyle. Living in a boat yard in the dessert, on a boat 20 feet high.



It took us almost 2 weeks to travel to Mexico, but we took the windy route to Guaymas. First stopping to visit Shay’s family in northern California, then we drove thru Yosemite and made our way to Surprise, Arizona to visit Victoria at a senior park. Which was a nice break. We hiked the dessert and played BINGO and Shay has decided that since they have a humoungous wood shop that she could live at Happy Trails Retirement Village happily. 

We drove south to the Organ Pipe Cactus Monument dessert area to camp before crossing over the border and it was very pretty. We are starting to be able to ID the dessert plants. I would love to see all the cactus flowers in the spring.

We crossed the border 5 days ago. It was fairly painless and we didn’t have any “education fee” this time. Plus we are now one step closer to receiving our residency cards.

Since then we have been staying in AirBnB’s while we make the boat livable. When we first showed up at the yard we couldn’t get into the boat as the companionway lock did not match our key. We had a neighbor grind off the lock for us. (We latter found the correct key inside the boat in a drawer.)We were greeted by diesel and mold fumes wafting out from below. It was so bad we coldn’t stay below more than a few minutes at a time. We took turns going below to open up hatches. That and the inch of red dessert dust on every surface outside made for a not so great welcome back.

Every surface below had mold covering it, and it took 3 days to get the majority of it cleaned up and the diesel fumes out. Plus, there was 2 feet of water in the bilge that needed extracting. 

I can’t even talk about the possibility that the batteries are dead, but we need to wait a few more days before we know. 

Since we don’t have eleciricy yet, or water, other than from a hose strung up the side of the boat, cleaning is laborious. Everything below, all the sails, and cushions, and gear had to brought out, aired out, cleaned, or left to dry in the sun so we could get to all the cupboards, ceiling and lockers. By the third day we were so beat up with hauling, ladder climbing and cleaning it was hard to get out of bed. My thigh muscles burned from all the ladder ups and downs, (remember there is no working head, and all our belongings and gear are either in the truck, or in the tent we set up to store the gear until we could bring it aboard.) Ladders suck. 

Today we finally started unpacking and she’s starting to look habital. The galley is almost ready, we just need propane and water and electricity.

We’ll install the water system soon and until then probably dish clean up off the tail gate of the truck. (And you thought this was romantic). 

The electricity is mostly dependant on the batteries working since one 15amp extension cord for refer, lights, fans, appliances, and charging is not fun. 

A couple more days and fingers crossed we can start the project list. I have to admit that today I came close to wanting to give up. Everyting got very overwhelming and when I went to unpack my bags I thought I lost $55,000 pesos. 

But after finding the pesos at the BnB and realizing that Mercury is in retrograde, I’m willing to push on in hope that life on the hard gets a little easier, since this is where we live for the next month. 

Living the Dream