Thursday, November 10, 2011

The name says it all

And the name is Poco Loco, which aptly describes our boat buying experience, because both George and I went a little crazy during the whole process.


Our adventure started with a boat show in San Diego and ended – after much nail biting, anxiety and trepidation – with an awesome boat. It took almost two months of searching from San Diego to Newport Beach until we finally settled on our 37-foot Cruisers Yacht and she’s everything we wanted in a boat.

But the adventure wouldn’t really begin until we got our Poco Loco to Puerto Escondido, so we contracted with a shipping company, crossed our fingers and hoped like hell that all would go well. The Poco Loco was trucked from San Diego to the mainland of Mexico and put onboard the ferry in Mazatlan for the trip to La Paz. (If you’ve ever driven down Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway 1 you’ll understand why the shippers took the route they did.) Then it was back on the highway for the remaining 200 miles from La Paz to Loreto. Talk about stressful! But she finally arrived – with only some minor damage and lots of dirt – at Puerto Escondido. I’ll never forget our first sight of her on a trailer outside the marina with a pair of boxer shorts and a towel waving from the stern as we drove up. (See photo above!) It was awesome.


And it’s been awesome ever since. We spent many hours cleaning (something experienced boaters have told us we'd better get used to) and having her prepped for a life on the Sea of Cortez and finally this past week we were seaworthy and ready for a spin.


We were lucky to have our good friends, Tom and Sue and her cousins, Helen and Pam, on our inaugural voyage. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm with just a little bit of choppiness, but Captain George handled the swells like a seasoned pro.




People are always asking us what it’s like living in paradise. In many ways, it is paradise here, but for us it’s home and all that comes with living a life anywhere. In other words, it’s not a vacation for us and it can be tiresome living here. The heat is oppressive in the summer and it’s hard not to miss super-clean, super-stocked supermarkets and the convenience of malls and big box stores. And let’s not forget movie theaters!


But with the addition of Poco Loco we get to take advantage of the most wonderful part of living Loreto – the beautiful, magical, life-affirming Sea of Cortez. And that makes up for the lack of all of the aforementioned and more. So maybe we haven’t gone a little crazy after all. Maybe this is the sanest thing we ever did!

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