Pura Vida - What we’ve learned in 6 months of cruising!

Malecon in Zona Romantica (Puerto Vallarta)

It has been more than 6 months(!!) since we left the Pacific Northwest to undertake this new and exciting adventure about which we’ve been dreaming for so long. So, while we originally intended this blog post to highlight our trip across the Gulf of California, we decided it would be fun to share what we’ve learned so far about full time cruising. We’re sure there are many more lessons to come!

For the disclaimer part, these lessons are not intended to sound “whiny” or “woe is me” because we are so blessed to be living this life. And the hardships we may face on this journey pale in comparison to the hardships faced by many people in their day to day existence. What we are trying to do is highlight the differences between life on a small boat and “terra firma.” We are grateful for the opportunity to share this journey with you!

1.  Water management tops this list. We have about 190 gallons of water capacity (divided into 4 holding tanks) which is a lot for a small boat. But compared to land capacity, it is not much. Because fresh, clean drinking water is not readily available in Mexico, we rely on our water desalinator to produce water that we can drink, use for dishes, and for showers. It takes about 5 hours to produce enough water to fill ONE tank. As such, we are conscious about water consumption. That means showers come usually once a week, twice at the most! Other times we sponge bathe or jump in the ocean. We promise to use one of our shower allotments prior to visiting you!!

2.  Sewage management comes second. On land, toilets are plentiful and few of us think about what happens when we flush. On a small boat, we are always thinking about how to manage our sewage. When we are out in the ocean far from shore, we are able to discharge our waste directly overboard. However, when we are in a bay, it’s not cool (and in some places, it is illegal) to discharge your waste where people swim, fish, and desalinate water. We have 2 heads (toilets) on our boat with 2 holding tanks; one is 40 gallons and the other is only 11 gallons. So we have to consider when and where we can empty our holding tanks.

At anchor in Cuastecomate

3.  Trash management. Packaging, packaging, and more packaging. We have a small trash can in our galley (kitchen) that is about half the size of a standard kitchen garbage can. We have found in Mexico that there is an abundance of trash cans in the cities. This is surprising to us since in many Mexican towns and cities, trash litters the sides of highways, yards, and city streets. Nevertheless, we are sometimes self-conscious about taking trash from our small boat and putting it in a trash can in a small pueblo (town). In some places we have paid a few pesos to dispose of our trash. So, when we provision (usually in large cities), we try to get rid of as much packaging as possible to reduce the burden on the smaller towns we visit. We avoid plastic as much as possible! In most of Mexico, they have done away with plastic shopping bags. So we use our cloth shopping bags and mesh produce bags whenever we shop. We expect trash management to become an even bigger challenge when we start visiting island nations.   

Trash cans are plentiful in most places

4.  Laundry. Most people have a washer and dryer in their homes or easy access to a laundromat. We do not wear a lot of clothing and the clothing we do wear typically consists of the same 3 or 4 outfits! If we are in a marina, we have access to laundry facilities but when we are anchored out in a bay we resort to doing laundry in a bucket (see item #1 above!) and hanging it to dry. We recently went 6 weeks without doing laundry at a laundromat.

5.  Provisioning. So far, we have had pretty good access to good food. Surprisingly, some of the best fruits and vegetables we’ve gotten in small towns at very reasonable prices. Also surprising is the number of items that are the same or similar to what we find in the US. We’ve done MAJOR provisioning in the Pacific NW, Ensenada, and Puerto Vallarta at Costco in each of those places. The one thing that we REALLY had been missing was access to good micro-brewed beer. However, last night while exploring Old Town in Puerto Vallarta, we stumbled on an amazing microbrewery called Los Muertos Brewing. Their beer rivaled some of the best in the PNW!

Los Muertos Brewing in Puerto Vallarta

6.  Boat Mainteneance.  The sun and the sea are hard on EVERYTHING on a boat. When we finish an ocean passage, the entire boat is covered in salt. You literally wipe salt off of the decks, canvas, and your body. The sun fades canvas and lines. Running rigging becomes stiff. Metal rusts. Teak grays. Bottoms and strainers grow gardens of algae. Fiberglass oxidizes and becomes chalky. Barnacles invade. It truly is a never-ending job trying to keep things looking nice and in working condition. Then there is the maintenance on the engine, sails, and all of the electronics. 

Sun and saltwater 

Troubleshooting the start battery…12 years old and had to be replaced

Racor fuel filter…this is what got plugged off  of Pt Reyes

7.  Boat friends. Not the biting, stinging, or creepy crawly kind but the people on other boats who you meet again and again along the path. There are so many people out here living the same dream and because of that, relationships with unique bonds are formed. Unless you are traveling long distances with another boat (“buddy boating”), people quite literally sail into and out of our lives. We have enjoyed the company of a lot of people over the last 6 months; eating good food, listening to good music, playing games, sharing stories and plans, waving goodbye, waving hello. Some have become lifelong friends. Others we may never see or communicate with again. But all of them have touched our lives in a special way that we will not soon forget.

Sunrise in Barra de Navidad with about 3 dozen other boats

Friends playing Bocce at Tenacatita

8.  Land friends. The Mexican people we have met are incredibly genuine, loving, warm, and friendly. We have not felt afraid or wary in all of our time in Mexico. We have walked at night. We have ridden on buses at night. We have entered some of the poorest, run-down neighborhoods in Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas and have found nothing frightening. We wish the whole world was like this. By far the best experience we’ve had was with a Mexican family we met at the pool at Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta. The family was extremely sweet and humble. We enjoyed their conversation even though our Spanish is elementary and their English only slightly better than elementary. We shared the language of smiles and true joy. We invited this family (mother, father, 2 sisters, husband and baby of the younger sister) to go sailing with us. None of them had ever been on a boat before. The conditions that day were PERFECT and we sailed for about 2 hours. The family enjoyed every minute and could not stop talking about how happy they were. They wrote a lovely tribute in our log book. They said they were blessed to meet us and have that experience but WE were the ones who felt blessed. It is truly awesome to bridge the cultural gap with simple acts of kindness. 

Our new amigos!

Traditional music in Punta de Mita 

Children at their mother’s street food stand…he’s studying the cards, she’s peeling onions!