It has been just over a month since we left Miss Miranda at Marina CostaBaja in La Paz and returned home to our condo in Anacortes, WA… and the “Stay at home” order. The photo above shows the view of the Skyline area from our condo, pleasant save for the empty slip in front of us!
Catching up
To rewind a bit, we returned to La Paz from San Diego at the end of March, having decided to leave the boat and return to Anacortes. That left us with less than a week to find a slip for the season and prepare the boat for our extended absence.
Fortunately we were able to secure a slip at Marina CostaBaja, which we have paid for through the end of December. At first we were worried that the slip might be too tight to get into, but it turns out to be a great fit, with fingers (and cleats) on both sides.
Next, we starting going through preparations for long term storage, helped tremendously by a checklist from friends Laurence and Penny on MV Northern Ranger II, another N50 that lives at CostaBaja year round. This included things like emptying the refrigerator and freezer, closing through hulls, filling the water tanks, shutting down non-essential systems, etc. Fortunately(?), our SubZero freezer failed in Mazatlan (no, we are NOT kidding) so we had less stuff to give away.
We arranged to have a boat watch service along with regular diving and boat wash with La Paz Cruisers Supply. They check the boat at least once a week and wash and dive on the boat monthly. We are fairly confident that the boat will be in good shape when we return, though we have been warned to expect that something (things) will fail over this long layover.
As an aside/update on the fuel delivery system, we did get a warranty replacement fuel manifold delivered to us in San Diego, thanks to outstanding effort from our guy Ian at Philbrooks and terrific product support from Racor. Unfortunately, we wound up having to pay import duty when we brought it in as checked baggage at Cabo, in spite of showing the Temporary Import Permit. We were under the impression that the TIP is supposed to exempt us from duty on replacement/repair parts. Apparently not. Anyway, the manifold is on the boat, but not yet installed. That will be job one when we return.
Life at home – Larry
I hit my “official” retirement date the week after we returned home. I have to admit that I was not at all pleased that we came back from Mexico and not happy that my entry into retirement coincided with the quarantine order. With (plenty of) time for reflection, I have realized that I have much to be grateful for. We are safe and healthy. We are fortunate not to have to expose ourselves to the virus, unlike all of the people out there that are doing the critical jobs – obviously the healthcare workers, but the folks that work in the grocery stores, restaurants and all the other folks doing things that we need but take for granted. I am grateful for the beautiful weather we have had and the ability to out for walks, bike rides, and even play the occasional game of pickleball (exercise is NOT forbidden by the stay at home order). I am grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with friends, even if it is virtually. I am very grateful for the opportunity to see Miranda.
In terms of keeping busy, I have started roasting coffee again and have even done some batches of homemade half sour pickles, reminiscent of Gus’ Pickles in New York.
I am not sure what I am going to do over the summer. Gwen will tell you about her job prospects, but I need to find some way of keeping busy in retirement. I was hoping to find something in the boating industry, but obviously, the pandemic has shut that down. I have signed up for a combined ABYC/NMEA certification course (on Marine Electrical Systems and Electronics) that I hope will still happen – it is scheduled for November. In a bit of good news, Fishing (and therefore, I assume, recreational boating) is reopening on May 4th. My hope is that if/when the boating season opens, I can put my Captain’s license to use, perhaps helping people move their boats, doing deliveries, etc. I am also hoping that some of our boating friends will take pity on us and invite us out on their boats!
And in a bit of a midlife crisis moment, there are conversations ongoing with unnamed friends about buying an inexpensive sports car to use for “High Performance Driving Experiences”, which is fancy for hauling ass at a racetrack.
Of course, there is always the thought of filling the empty slip with a little boat for fishing/playing.
Life at home – Gwen
I am relieved to be at home, although sometimes get wistful at the thought of what we have missed the last month in Mexico. But I know I would not have enjoyed the uncertainty of being there during this time, even if in a beautiful place. Fortunately, I seem to be able to fill my time easily with cooking, reading, working on Spanish, wasting time on a game my brother introduced/addicted me to, naps, and finally taking up yoga.
The job I thought I was coming back to suddenly dried up right before we came home, so my plan to work for most of the time we are home was suddenly upended. The healthcare industry in the US has taken a big financial hit due to shutting down revenue generating procedures like surgeries, etc. My field, primary care internal medicine, is generally a money loser in healthcare, so believe it or not, many places are laying off primary care doctors. (I know this will sound extremely strange to any reader from outside the US. I am more than happy to talk about this off the blog to anyone who wants to know more!)
Luckily, I am part of the Public Health Medical Reserve Corps for King County, and this has provided me with an outlet for my desire to help. I’ve been doing one or two shifts a week providing telephone medical coverage for the isolation and quarantine centers in King County. Some of those shifts have been quite busy with numerous calls, others very quiet, but I feel a little bit useful. It’s actually fairly competitive to get shifts, since so many physicians want to find a way to help, so I it hasn’t kept me as busy as I thought it would!
Fortunately, I was recently contacted about a new need for an internist on the Olympic Peninsula, so I will be working there 4 days a week for about 6 months. This is a real positive for me since I want to stay clinically active, and if Larry is going to buy both a car and a boat, I guess I need to keep my nose to the grindstone.
Concluding thoughts
We hope that everyone stays safe and survives this pandemic. Under ideal circumstances, we hope to return to Mexico in December to spend a season exploring the Sea of Cortez before bringing Miss Miranda back up to Washington in May of 2021. Of course, all of this depends on how the virus impacts Mexico. We just learned that the Port Captain of La Paz has prohibited all boating, save for commercial fishing in the region. It is also pretty clear that Mexico has limited capability to manage the crisis, both from a healthcare and general economic perspective.
We have friends that are still on their boats down in Mexico. We hope that they stay safe and healthy.
OK, as is often the case, each of the blog contributors took a rainbow photo. We need your help deciding which is best. Feel free to leave a comment voting for the first or second. We may reveal who took the “winner”.
MV Miss Miranda 