CRUISING AGAIN
Puerto La Cruz, Mexico
December 10, 2019
Never say never! We are back on board after a year off the boat, a much-needed break after 9 years of full-time cruising and almost 55,000 NM. But it’s a strange feeling to be back on the water: everything moves!!! How quickly did we forget!
SO… what happened, where have we been, what of DOMINO?
After 13 years of vagabonding, we realized we were getting a bit older (well, not JP, just me) and that it was time to plan for the next 30 years or more. That was a very hard decision. JP would love to finish his life on the boat, cruising around, but I was starting to miss “something,” didn’t really know what, but life on board had suddenly become “short” — short on family and friends, mostly.
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| Fooling around with grandchildren in Vanuatu |
Company on board is an issue on which we were totally mistaken when we started cruising. We should have been talking with seasoned world cruisers instead of landlubbers and would-be-cruisers. We thought we would be swamped with visitors, friends, family, guests who would love to spend a week cruising exotic waters. It all looked so romantic, extravagant, somehow “special!” It turned out that visitors were quite rare. Even now in Mexico, close to home, visitors are not showing up. Why?—and this is a point to consider when you buy a boat and decide to go passage-making.
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| Grandaughter Zoe and her best friend Q: thank you. parents, for trusting us and giving your kids this amazing time! |
We can think of several reasons:
- Young people are still working, kids have school and sports activity, and in general have very little vacation time;
- Offshore destinations are far from the mainland. It often takes a day or 2 to get to the boat, and another 2 days to get back, 4 days of travel out of a 10-day vacation? A waste, in many people’s opinion;
- Cost of an airline ticket… for sure!
- Planning: do we know for sure where the boat will be in 3 or 6 months? Can we guarantee that we will be on time at the rendezvous point? Most people plan their vacation way ahead of time;
- Retirees - We still have hope for them to show up!
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| In Fiji: These girls will never forget that Grandpa can actually provide coconut milk! |
We have been lucky, though. Our kids have made the effort to send the grandkids over, parting from $$$ and the emotional ties that bind the mother to the child.
- Will my 7-year old be OK without mom and dad?
Many of our guests were on-the-spur-of-the-moment happenings:
Or planned... thankfully,
- and 10 days in The Tuamotus and Marquesas with our Tahitian friends, good sports and great company.
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| Celebrating our 47th anniversary, all alone, in Rongelap, Marshall Islands |
But overall, we were just a crew of 2, "Passagemakers" as R. Beebe had described in his first book, and validating the need for a simple boat, with only one head and one stateroom. It all makes sense now. Is it just us? Do we smell? Is my cooking awful or our bunks THAT impossible? Not really… we have met the similar comments from our world-cruising buddies. Cherish the visits, because they truly are few and far between.
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| Walking the rim of a live volcano in Vanuatu... unforgettable! |
But back on land… pointedly, where were we going to land? We left the boat on the hard in Marina Guaymas, Mexico, and took a bus to Tucson AZ where we bought a car and did the only sensible thing: go cross-country to find a landing spot.
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| Boat was sold... we thought... and off we were to our new home, The Villages.. oops... shouldn't have counted our chickens! |
California? Our old stomping grounds of Huntington Beach had become too pricey and too crowded; Prescott, where grandchildren are oh-so-sweet? Too cold in winter, too dry; Houston, where quilting friends would be fun to hang out with? Too big a town; Louisiana? Alabama? North Carolina? No appeal; West Palm Beach, where we already had ties? Oh, no appeal there either. A bit discouraged, we turned around and stopped in Orlando, had heard of this retirement community, The Villages, and I suggested it to JP… “Old people? No way, not for us!” But it was a cold and rainy January day, I was tired of riding in the car for so long, and JP indulged my whim once more: The Villages was our next stop. Well, it didn’t take long for us to jump into the lifestyle with both feet: heated pool in the heart of winter, golf carts all around, entertainment, and… PICKLEBALL!!! And friendly people, most retired, all transplants, all eager to meet new friends… this was for us! But not yet; we had to go back to the boat in Mexico and do the yearly maintenance.
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| Kiribati (AKA Gilbert Islands)... so remote! |
DOMINO’s Maintenance for 2019.
It didn’t matter that DOMINO passed our potential buyer’ssurvey with flying colors. After so much time on the water, JP had decided to give our girl a good make-over. This was the perfect spot to do it: the Mexican state of SONORA is “Zona Libre,” a region where there is no import duty on goods from the US. So, we loaded our Acura MDX to the max, and off we were.
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| Family in Tucson helped us load the MDX with a full load! |
- New ODYSSEY batteries: 6 x 1800 house bank= 1280 AHR @ 12v or 640 AHR @ 24v. and and 3 starting batteries (2xPC 1200 for engines & 1x PC1200 for Genset);
- New solar panels with 70% more power (4x280 Watts);
- Complete maintenance of all engines, pumps, impellers, oil change, etc..;
- HRO water maker: complete inspection by HRO dealer. Change ceramic seal on booster pump, no other service needed;
- SureSeals: install 3 new seals on starboard shaft; port side on next haul out;
- Refrigeration: professional inspection and service of freezer and fridge;
- Windlasses Maxwell 4000, both of them entirely refurbished; new seals, bushings, inspected and cleaned. Like new, now good for another 10 years or 800 anchorages!
- Anchoring: galvananize-paint both anchors, install additional bow roller for better stability underway;
- Cabin sole: re-finished the wood floor;
- Stove: all new burners (yes, I cook a lot!)
- Fridge-freezer: Re-finish lid insulation, re-paint;
- New displays: MAGNUM inverter, SIMRAD autopilot;
- Tohatsu 18 HP outboard: entirely inspected and refurbished;
- Bottom paint, of course!
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| King JP in the Marshall Islands.... |
Does that seem like a lot? Well, JP thought we would cruise another 20 years and really wanted Big D. to be ready for it. And, if we don’t find a buyer, maybe we will be cruising another 20 years, half-and-half, sun-birds in Florida in the summer, Mexican Riviera cruisers in winter… who knows? But DOMINO is ready for anything!
We are taking her along the Mexican Riviera for the season, and how sweet is she!!!
Our Mexican broker is still Marisa Velasco (marisa@unitedyacht.com)
https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2009/malcolm-tennant-domino-20-3495698/
Our Mexican broker is still Marisa Velasco (marisa@unitedyacht.com)
https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2009/malcolm-tennant-domino-20-3495698/
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| Marshall Islands, Rongelap Atoll - JP confiscated my paddle and is towing me back to the boat... our 47th anniversary celebration |
And many of you ask… “Didn’t you sell her?” We thought so… our broker thought so… our buyer really wanted to own her until, 24 hour before close of escrow, the buyer changed his mind. Why? we will never know for sure. It’s all conjecture at this point. We knew the buyer and knew he loved and wanted this boat, we had trained him for several days, he even had ordered the bottom paint. So, why? We have been mulling this over for several months now and we have a few thoughts we’d like to share with would-be cruisers.
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| 47th anniversary celebration... all by ourselves |
Questions to ask yourself before buying a Passagemaker*
- Do I want to cruise the world? Am I willing to cross oceans?
- Do I have time to do this? If still working, even part time, can I really commit to it, knowing that any Transpac will take 10-15 days?
- Am I ready to swing at anchor on most days or do I want the support and relative/perceived "security" of a marina?
- Do I have the financial resources? It’s not just buying the boat, but also maintenance and budget for the cruising time. In other words, am I financially independent or do I need to work to support this lifestyle?
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| Our adventurous grandkids in Vanuatu - |
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- Is my spouse OK with this? This is a team adventure.
- How much of a handyman am I? Mechanics, electrical, electronics, fiberglass, paint… am I ready to slide under an engine and get my hands oily or do I rely on specialists for an oil change? Can I read a technical manual and make sense of it?
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| We never had a wedding cake-cutting ... on our 47th anniversary, it was a must! |
We have seen many wannabe cruisers be unable to actually manage a boat once far away from home. So, the question is, “are you able and ready?”
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| So many sunsets! |
Perhaps this has been a sobering post. Perhaps we’ve tried to convey what we have learned in the last 13 years, our errors, our dreams, our successes, but we wanted to share, once more, absolutely sure that building this powercat was the right choice, that cruising the way we did was a total success and our lives have been richer in the process, wishing all of those who dream of such a life to go ahead and do it… do not wait, go cruising, with the right boat and the right partner.
In closing, these are JP’s words (and you know he rarely posts anything…) “DO NOT CONSULT WITH PEOPLE ON LAND FOR ADVICE, NOR TO MARINA/PARTY/BAR BOATERS BUT TAKE ADVICE FROM PEOPLE WHO DO THE CRUISING YOU PLAN TO DO. IF YOU PLAN LONG-RANGE OFFSHORE, FIND THIS KIND OF FAR-AWAY CRUISERS. THEY ARE FEW BUT WILL BE ALL-WILLING TO TALK TO YOU.”
Remember, life is short… live your dream… NOW!
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| All 45 flags out... feeling the joy in Majuro, Marshall Islands |
Until next time…
dominomarie
* PASSAGEMAKER definition - A simple power boat, with economy and range, capable of crossing any ocean, simple enough to be operated by a couple who is not necessarily a professional mariner, with enough room to accommodate occasional guests.