ksanders
Moderator Emeritus
It's amazing how much life changes in just three short years.
In 2021 I was a full timer on my Bayliner 4788 living in Seward Alaska, and planning on retiring to Mexico.
In 2024 I have a wonderful wife I met in Mexico, I speak fluent spanish, and as it seems I own a house and bakery in Mexico.
My wife Vicky had worked hard her entire life, had built a very successful bakery business with her husband, only to find herself a widow early in life.
She had never been on a big boat, but loved adventure, and wanted something more out of life.
Several TF members know us well, and we cherish their friendship, and being part of the cruising community. We love cruising the Sea Of Cortez in the winter, but do not like the summer heat here and the worry of the next hurricane. Vicky BTW now has extensive cruising experience, even having completed both the downhill run on the Baja, and the fabled Baja Bash.
But... It's time for a new adventure. Vicky has worked hard to install a management team to run her bakery, and she this summer finished the process to legally obtain her visitor visas to both America and Canada, no easy task.
We have traveled extensively throughout Europe, Japan, Canada, and the US. We have rented Air B&B's, hotels, and have explored by both rented car, by train, and carless, relying on Ubers and taxis. Here is what we have learned, and this leads in to our next adventure.
We like getting up and having coffee in a facility with a kitchen, where we can make it to our liking.
We like eating breakfast before we leave for exploring for the day.
We like having a car at our disposal even if some days we don't drive anywhere.
We are not fond of living out of suitcases for long periods of time as much as we dreamed we would.
So... how do we incorporate those things into an extensive exploration of the western states of America, BC Canada, and up to Alaska???
Thats easy... We take the perfectly comfortable floating home we have and we use it as a base camp for our exploration.
So... in three short months we set forth on a great adventure. We are going to explore the pacific coast from Mexico, to Alaska and return home in probably 3 years.
Here is the rough plan...
We stop in a port town, and explore that area for a week or so, and then we move on to the next port. Every few weeks we leave the boat, and return to Mexico for a few weeks so Vicky can continue to monitor her business, and we can visit with family and friends. The plan is approximantly 50/50 but that will of course vary a bit. For transportation we will take our Hippie Jeep which being a 2 door model is perfect for city, or rural exploration. Remember this is not just port towns we are exploring. We want to go inland, with a overnight bag from time to time and see the sights. At some point, probably Vancouver island we will park the jeep and just go by boat.
Here is an example...
We rent a slip in San diego for a week, and explore.
On the travel day Vicky drives the jeep to lets say Los Angeles and meets me at the marina later that day. She does some shopping, since I'm slower than her in the boat.
We rent that slip lets say for a month to get a better rate, and we explore a bit, then fly home to Mexico for a couple of weeks. When we return we catch a weather window and head to lets say for example Santa Barbera, and we start the process again.
Here is our rough schedule which is of course based on seasonal weather.
March, April: Southern California
May: San Francisco Bay area
June: Northern California
July: Oregon Coast
August: Washington Coast
September: Puget Sound
October-April: Winter slip, hopefully in Victoria (we have a line on a winter slip in Victoria, which we Love in the winter)
April-September 2026 Canada to Alaska and return in the fall.
Winter 2026-2027: somewhere in Puget sound, probably Canada
Summer 2027 slowly work our way south, seeing things we missed the first time, and re-exploring places we loved.
Fall 2027 return to La Paz.
After that who knows???
What are your thoughts???
In 2021 I was a full timer on my Bayliner 4788 living in Seward Alaska, and planning on retiring to Mexico.
In 2024 I have a wonderful wife I met in Mexico, I speak fluent spanish, and as it seems I own a house and bakery in Mexico.
My wife Vicky had worked hard her entire life, had built a very successful bakery business with her husband, only to find herself a widow early in life.
She had never been on a big boat, but loved adventure, and wanted something more out of life.
Several TF members know us well, and we cherish their friendship, and being part of the cruising community. We love cruising the Sea Of Cortez in the winter, but do not like the summer heat here and the worry of the next hurricane. Vicky BTW now has extensive cruising experience, even having completed both the downhill run on the Baja, and the fabled Baja Bash.
But... It's time for a new adventure. Vicky has worked hard to install a management team to run her bakery, and she this summer finished the process to legally obtain her visitor visas to both America and Canada, no easy task.
We have traveled extensively throughout Europe, Japan, Canada, and the US. We have rented Air B&B's, hotels, and have explored by both rented car, by train, and carless, relying on Ubers and taxis. Here is what we have learned, and this leads in to our next adventure.
We like getting up and having coffee in a facility with a kitchen, where we can make it to our liking.
We like eating breakfast before we leave for exploring for the day.
We like having a car at our disposal even if some days we don't drive anywhere.
We are not fond of living out of suitcases for long periods of time as much as we dreamed we would.
So... how do we incorporate those things into an extensive exploration of the western states of America, BC Canada, and up to Alaska???
Thats easy... We take the perfectly comfortable floating home we have and we use it as a base camp for our exploration.
So... in three short months we set forth on a great adventure. We are going to explore the pacific coast from Mexico, to Alaska and return home in probably 3 years.
Here is the rough plan...
We stop in a port town, and explore that area for a week or so, and then we move on to the next port. Every few weeks we leave the boat, and return to Mexico for a few weeks so Vicky can continue to monitor her business, and we can visit with family and friends. The plan is approximantly 50/50 but that will of course vary a bit. For transportation we will take our Hippie Jeep which being a 2 door model is perfect for city, or rural exploration. Remember this is not just port towns we are exploring. We want to go inland, with a overnight bag from time to time and see the sights. At some point, probably Vancouver island we will park the jeep and just go by boat.
Here is an example...
We rent a slip in San diego for a week, and explore.
On the travel day Vicky drives the jeep to lets say Los Angeles and meets me at the marina later that day. She does some shopping, since I'm slower than her in the boat.
We rent that slip lets say for a month to get a better rate, and we explore a bit, then fly home to Mexico for a couple of weeks. When we return we catch a weather window and head to lets say for example Santa Barbera, and we start the process again.
Here is our rough schedule which is of course based on seasonal weather.
March, April: Southern California
May: San Francisco Bay area
June: Northern California
July: Oregon Coast
August: Washington Coast
September: Puget Sound
October-April: Winter slip, hopefully in Victoria (we have a line on a winter slip in Victoria, which we Love in the winter)
April-September 2026 Canada to Alaska and return in the fall.
Winter 2026-2027: somewhere in Puget sound, probably Canada
Summer 2027 slowly work our way south, seeing things we missed the first time, and re-exploring places we loved.
Fall 2027 return to La Paz.
After that who knows???
What are your thoughts???
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