So, after living on a boat in the Pacific North West during wintertime, most boaters begin to dream about sunshine, surf and warm waters. We are not exempt from this dream. For those of you who are not familiar with the climate in the Pacific North West, it is VERY wet, cold and windy. Did we mention wet? When you mix these with the natural dampness that a boat already has, it is very drippy. Everything drips! So, we decided that we would make it our goal to sail South to warmer waters. Since we cannot live in the USA for more than 6 months at a time (as we are Canadian), we began looking into the option of Pacific Mexico and learned that La Paz in Baja California is a fabulous destination for sailors. There are a lot of expats living in Mexico, and there are also a lot of ‘kid boats’ (aka families living on sailboats) down there as well. We decided that since we only need an internet connection in order to continue working, that La Paz would be a fabulous destination and a wonderful adventure to embark on as well!

So, for the past year, we started making these plans official. We have begun a lot of upgrades on our boat- a new chartplotter, AIS receiver, solar panels, heavier anchor and more. We are also taking a TON of courses as well; Offshore Weather, Safety at Sea, Wilderness & Remote First Aid, Radar as well as Tides & Currents. We are still debating the ideal route to head South, but currently we are leaning towards harbour hopping the whole way down. We have lots of time and are not in a rush, and we’d like to explore the various ports along the West Coast. We may bring one or two crew members on board with us to help as we are pretty green, and perhaps also to help with night watches when needed.

Our son, Carson will be doing Grade 5 via distance education (aka home schooling/boat schooling/world schooling) and is excited for this new change! He is also extremely excited about exploring the ports on the way down and Mexico as well! We’re doing some Duo Lingo, but certainly will not be fluent in Spanish when we arrive. This will be a learning curve for the whole family!

We are continuing our preparations and educating ourselves and plan to leave to head South in July of 2016. Yup, that is in 3 and a half months. Yikes!!! Stay tuned!