In 2010, John discovered that cruising full-time on a boat was even a thing while vacationing in the British Virgin Isles with his folks. By the time he met Tess, he was adamant that he was going to retire to said life of leisure and she apparently thought it wasn’t a bad idea because she agreed to marry him and come along!
The dream became reality when we bought FKL new in 2018, finally taking delivery in May of 2019 after serious drama with Bavaria having gone bankrupt just days before they started our build! In the end, the boat was delayed about eight months but we took the opportunity to add several upgrade options that we had not done in the original contract. Some new gray hairs appeared but it was worth the wait. In January 2019, we got to see the boat half-built at the factory in Germany and took in the incredible Boot Düsseldorf boat show.
We spent the next three years sailing around SoCal and adding all the goodies needed to live aboard full-time such as solar panels/arch/davits, lithium batteries (and a lot more of them), a whisker pole, portable water maker, washing machine, upgraded alternator, scuba compressor and a bunch of electronics. We initially went with a folding dinghy that we could store in the “dinghy garage” but upgraded to a much bigger one just before we left. In late 2020, we sailed to Ensenada and upgraded our folding canvas dodger/bimini to a solid fiberglass one with larger windows, lights and speakers (a four month build). This has probably been our best decision in terms of upgrades as the cockpit is truly a livable area now.
John retired from LAPD in 2021 and we sold everything, house included, by early 2022. With Alex the last to graduate from high school we FINALLY bid bon voyage to California on July 15, 2022! We sailed to Ensenada once again for some additional upgrades and then took our chances with hurricane season (mid August) and quickly got down to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja and on into the Sea of Cortez.
Alas, here’s what I wrote shortly after we departed Ensenada for Turtle Bay: “12 hours into this blissful retirement dream and we are ready to sell the boat or simply call mayday for a rescue and let the boat sink! Does the Mexican Coast Guard do sea rescues? OMG. I think I’m dying, the cat has actually vomited herself inside out and Theresa has the full Montezuma. We’ve had about eight hours of 3 to 5 m swells coming from the north, northwest, west and a few smaller from the southwest. Hurricane Howard, though short-lived, seems to have really played havoc on what we expected to be just from the northwest. Winds are as expected and the code zero has had us flying along at about 8 kn average for hours. Sustained winds got a bit too high so we brought in the code zero which just about did me in. Been sleeping with our lifejackets on in the cockpit. Realized we did a poor job of setting up the boat for this offshore run as we hadn’t even rigged the jack lines. Oh yeah, did I mention that several waves have broken over the starboard side and soaked Theresa and the cat? The cat is so dehydrated and near death she didn’t even flee. The auto pilot has kicked off a couple times and once when I took the helm I managed to negotiate a 180° turn without even trying!”
