As the new year of 2020 began with the promise of perfect sight,

clear visions of an aspiring future were the harvest of Dreams to come.

Our biz was doing great, but not great enough to buy a house or a condo

 and renting in Maui for another 30 years is not inspiring.

Then Bobbie Jo had the perfect solution...

"Why not buy a sailboat that is comfortable to cruise and live on"

We figured to spend at least a few years

making the transistion from land to boat life.

We had no idea what 'life' will throw at us as this ride unfolds.

So by the end of January, we began to seek out our new home.

After literally searching the world, we started limiting our search to

how far we'd be willing to sail a 'new to us' boat back to Maui...

We found our Dream Boat in Mazatlan Mexico.

The sail back to Maui would be around 3300 miles, basically down wind.

Covid was not yet a concern when the boat hunt started,

but by the time I flew to Mazatlan to inspect the boat and put down a deposit,

masks were starting to appear at airports.

Not long after arriving back on Maui, reports around the world of

countires locking down all travel...

Almost 3 weeks before we had planned to fly out to the boat

for the major sail back to Maui,

we moved our flight up 3 times in less than 2 days

then left land life for our boat in less than 24 hours,

just a day ahead of being locked in Maui and locked out of Mexico.

Originally we had planned to get the boat ready as fast as possible,

take about 10 days then sail her back to Maui to cover

a full calender for the busy wedding season.

Once we arrived at our boat on March 10th

we felt we may have a bit more time on our hands than we thought we'd have

on account we may not be allowed to leave Mexico or re-enter the US ...

Which indeed was the case for some time.

A few days later it was apparent that our Luv Biz waz gonna tank for a wee bit...

That wee bit is still on going nearing the end of the year

as this pandemic will take some time.

Our world was literally crashing in all around us but,

we felt quite lucky to have landed a world away

with the promises of an adventurous life ahead.

We indeed felt lucky and opulent

as we scored an awesome condo for only $19/ day

in view of our catamaran in the marina Mazatlan.

We'd work all day on the boat,

then retreat to the jacuzzi for happy hours & hours;-)

We enjoyed the opulent condo for over 2 weeks

then moved aboard our new floating home...

we still enjoyed the jacuzzi happy hours for another 10 days.

On the 10th day as we walked back to the boat we got the news ...

the Mexican harbor masters are instructed to close all harbors Monday am.

It was Saturday evening... we'd be stuck for a countless eon...

but an old salty sailor next boat over told us to

"just leave before sunrise."

So that's we we did!

He also told us;

"If the Mexican Navy catches up to you,

Just act like dumb Americans.

They'll be expecting that and already have pity on us...

Use that pity... it's well earned."

This was our very first experience of moving the boat from the dock.

Now we felt the adrenalin of escaping the Mexican harbor master

just before the sun rose that faithful day.

The seas were a bit rough as waves were building up in the

tight channel that led us to the open ocean.

Once we bashed our way out into the open sea,

the adrenaline began to calm down to an exciting feeling that

we did it!

We ended up anchored off an adorable little isle just a mile off shore.

We spent the day "learning the ropes", sorting out the lines to control the sails.

The Manta 42 MK2 is very easy to sail as

all the lines come to one powerful electric wench for easy 1 or 2 crew sailing.

Once out of the marina's constraints we thought we had all the time in the world...

then we realized that we had to be gone before the hurrican season starts:-O

We enjoyed cruising to a number of spectacular anchorages and cute villiges

on our way to Puerto Vallarta where we would depart for Maui on May 7th.

I captured the essence of our travels throughout Mexico,

all along our 24 day passage to Maui on a GoPro.

Once back home I took over 5000 high resolution photos with my professional cameras with a 28 to 300mm zoom and a 11 to 28mm very wide angle lens.

Allow these slideshow videos to take you away to Nautical Bliss.