On this week's episode of Onboard Lifestyle we finally start to talk about our past. You asked for it so we decided to start talking. Part one of this series...

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hey guys welcome back to SD basic we're

gonna do something a little different

today and share with you a little bit of

our background our ceiling and a little

bit about us yeah channels really

focused on project after project after

project but we're gonna take a little

time and start sharing so we're gonna go

back to 1999 with our first boat

purchase and our I guess foray into

cruising life yeah so hang on this will

be exciting yeah so at this point Jill

and I have been married for six months

and there's a great six months it was

but we were just broke kids young kids

we didn't know what the heck was going

on and we would try to find fun things

to do on the weekends that didn't cost

any money so we've been sailing with a

friend on Lake Washington when afternoon

and it was so nice it was relaxing and

on the way home I said to Teo I was like

why don't we get a boat and that was the

light bulb moment that's when our lives

changed because all of a sudden I swear

to God I felt like I I heard something

click in your brain I know from that

that night we went back and I started

looking at boats I was so excited I mean

I had the I wasn't even on our radar

this was just a comment it was not like

I really wanted to I just said oh this

was so nice we should get one too not

realizing that that was just a trigger

for teal you didn't know how to swim I

didn't I didn't know a swim that was my

first time on a sailboat what was I

thinking so we looked and we looked and

our dream was to buy a 45 foot catamaran

and it was no way not in the budget

not at all I mean we were in debt at the

time yeah

just married we had to work ourselves

out of a hole we worked hard and we

searched and searched and we found above

we did find a book this is what got

world was just it was really new and we

found a boat down in San Francisco

salomina yeah and I looked at it Tim was

showing me pictures no like there's no

way there's no way I I don't want it but

we end up taking a road trip that

weekend yeah we did and we drove down

there we got lost we did and the broker

just did a wonderful jobs

thank you Helms yacht sales he handed us

the keys and just said go take a look

and we wandered to that boat and it was

not our dream but I'll tell you that

but what sold me was a toilet the head

had never been used it was a it was a

brand new boat has been launched and it

was a 41 foot Lauren Williams tremor in

1999 and this was in 1999 and it only

had 20 hours on the engine yeah so it

was a brand new boat that was just

launched it was a home build and we made

an offer and got it and that's when our

cruising really changed yeah Chris and I

started right there so now we have the

boat we do have a but what do we do well

it's in Alameda in October and we have

to get it to Seattle because the only

way we're gonna afford this is to live

aboard yep and try to chunk out those

payments so we're talking October on the

Pacific coast going north and that self

on a brand new boat so I took a little

time off work and took off out of San

Francisco Bay and started heading north

and if anybody's done that stretch of

coast they know Cape Mendocino Cape

Blanco Punta Gorda all those that's ugly

oh I didn't actually do that part of the

trip with him I I met till halfway on

the trip and did the second half that's

the second half but it was cold and

missed

well I did have something I told teal he

didn't have to do which was shape yes

when I got on board I did not even

recognize him he was this big burly mass

ya know burly can I guess it was early

it was ugly it was so it was yeah so it

was fun but that's once we got to

Seattle

we knew this boat wasn't our dream boat

but it was a good it was a good starting

place and our starter boat yeah so we

started our big refit in Seattle waited

up getting a mortgage on Lake Washington

yeah and we started stripping the boat

down and building it the way we wanted

okay so girls ignorance is bliss I had

no idea what was happening

teal says I'm just gonna do some

cosmetic work it's gonna be great we can

live on it and we can work on it and no

problems I can't tell you how many times

I went to work with 5200 or epoxy stuck

to my hair yep good good times good time

after one winter in Seattle it was time

to hit salt yes I took a transfer with

my job

there was a management position opening

up in Sacramento and we said let's go

south so the next spring we kind of

buttoned up our lives in Seattle and

took a journey yeah we brought the boat

to Stockton California we were both

still working at the time and we refit

the boat over the next two years Cheers

yeah and really prepared it for our

cruising life there's a lot of fun a lot

of work but we made the boat our boat

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so the tail end of our refit in Stockton

we had to move the boat to Rio Vista for

the haul out and that was a reminiscent

time for me because 20 years earlier I

had hauled with my father's boat a

40-foot victress Piper victress trimaran

in that same marina

so same owner same owner he remembered

us and he was great how are you

Klaus love you class old German guy he

was awesome hope you watch this hope

you're still around buddy

so he hauled out in his facility spent a

couple weeks there did all the finishing

details new bottom paint new transducers

yeah we get everything everything kind

of buttoned up we launched and that was

now official we were cruisers we took

off from Rio Vista and spent some time

getting out of the Bay Area it started

and it was fun and we started heading

south and now the real fun began so we

are officially in our cruising life and

I got to tell you it is a lot

overwhelming and intimidating

I had only sailed kind of coastal II and

in lakes and now we're officially out

there on our own and learning all the

ins and outs of our boat so we went from

port to port taking our time down the

California coast and it was so much fun

we learned how to anchor in all

conditions and there's not a lot of

Anchorage's out there along the west

coast but it there still is and we took

advantage of every every opportunity to

do that we met a lot of people going

down the coast and it's a small

community so you kind of start meeting

people along the coast and then they

start talking to other friends down

there so when you go into port or you

pull into port somebody already knows

that your

that way so everybody kind of looks out

for each other and our starting point

for our next chapter is down in San

Diego we had signed up for the bahahaha

which is a rally that is spearheaded by

Richard Spindler and lad 2:38 at the

time and it's a great rally one to meet

like-minded people that are doing the

same thing the other thing is is that it

kind of gives you a kick in the butt to

just go because there's always going to

be a project or something that holds you

back that there's a reason why you're

holding off and not taking off and this

one when you sign up it's not that you

have to but it gives you a reason like

okay let's do it

October we're out so no matter what the

projects are we gotta go and that is why

we signed up for it and I will never

regret it because we met wonderful

people that were still friends with and

we still keep in touch with that are

cruising all over the world

the bahahaha 2004 that was fun

it was fun okay but it's it's a Boston

it's a blur isn't it when you think back

in so we decided not to have crew it's

just the two of us yeah in our dog

Belton Dalton and as much as it was

great to learn how to do this it was a

pretty fast-paced rally it was you spend

basically you do from you leave San

Diego with about a hundred and eighty

votes and 700 800 people and everybody

checks in and talks and works together

but it was just a two of us it's a rally

you're you're humping it to get to the

next next checkpoint the first

checkpoint was but he uh Tortuga and

everybody hightails it there on the

first took about two days and then you

get a day of rest

we just fine except it was just the two

of us so we took longer and you remember

we did on our day arrests we did repairs

oh yeah we got hit by a whale yes and

what it ended up doing was hyper

standing

one of the Amoz and put about an 8-foot

crack in the wing but we didn't know

because we weren't going down in the

Alma's during this time cuz our rule is

is that we stay out with the other

person while someone is is on watch so I

would sleep out in the cockpit when Tia

was on watch or he was sleep in the

cockpit while I was on watch so we

didn't come down below very much well he

found out we were taking on water yeah

it was interesting so we ended up doing

the repair or a makeshift repair sitting

at anchor and it was a lot of fun and

and it worked it held until we could get

to a better place yeah but we had to

continue the rally so the next next

checkpoint was but he has santa maria

and we also slept yes we were so tired

we were tired and everybody else's party

on the beach because they have ten crew

members which that was the probably the

one thing we will do if we do this again

we'd pick up more crew so you guys

standby we may mean crew if we do this

again we might need care actually we

will and then the last leg was on to

Cabo San Lucas and that's where we got

to really relax and kind of think back

about this whole quick journey down the

coast but before that let's rewind a

little bit on our first trip from San

Diego to bahia tortuga is it was a

really black night that was oh yeah yes

I am I'm going there so it was a really

black night and it was my first time we

were just screaming down the coast

everything is we had the main down were

reefed in the gym we're doing 14 knots

going down these waves and it was really

tough as so teals like you know what I'm

gonna kick on the engine try to get a

little control we could not use an

autopilot we had two hands near past

year and we are sleep-deprived it's

black pitch black out and what happens

but our engine dies engine dies it was

really rough that night so we're at Isla

Centro's well that's where we ended up

going into but right outside of said

Rose yes it was really rough so teal our

engine is right underneath of our helm

station

so teal opens that up and he is trying

to he's upside down trying to bleed the

Jets trying to get all the bubbles what

was happening is we were we were getting

tossed around so much that our fuel was

getting a lot of air mixed in with it

and I had to believe that out so the

engine kept dying and here I take over

at the helm and I can't see anything and

all he says she's got your lies on the

compass yeah and he's like make sure you

keep at this direction and keep when

you're going down the waves stay

straight

why are we talking about this because

this is quite tail cut slack okay the

one time in my life okay you had to

bring it up okay I'm upside down I'm

bleeding the Jets I've got diesel all

over and yeah I did it

teal got sick and I was I was frustrated

I was and you're like I don't know I

like sailing oh man we i second-guessed

everything we had worked for but you

know these things happen when when it's

like it's really stressful conditions

you're sleep-deprived things are not

going well and teal is just like you

know what I don't think I like sailing

and I was like suck it up because I just

threw up both our phones in the water we

are done we are gonna do this no matter

if you like it or not

and and you know what the next day we

cleared our heads or I cleared my head

and got some sleep

and we were back into full cruising mode

but I did have my little meltdown yes

hey thanks for bringing it up I had to

share it was a good one okay

fast-forward Cabo San Lucas the sun's

out we're in bikinis and shorts and

swimming and and life is much better it

is okay

so now the haha over it's over it's over

but we made a lot of new friends they

did it we met great friends and you know

this is the point where the Hawkeye kind

of splits up into multiple groups about

three yeah

so someone will just go back to the

states because they use this as a

sailing experience yeah some will use

Cabo San Lucas as a jump point over to

the South Pacific whereas there's the

other third that will use this as that's

what you need to explore yeah it's their

start of their cruising yeah career yeah

there's no rush there's the sky and

that's where we were at we decided to we

had some friends we met on the on the

rally and we all headed up to La Paz and

that was kind of the lovely' pause that

was where we used it as our home base

along with a lot of others it's a huge

cruising hub that's where you can get

things taken care of if there's repairs

there's haul up facilities there's great

marinas there's Anchorage's yup marine

supplies everything's there a ton of

expats kind of have after cruising

settled there yeah a lot of people

cruise to Mexico go to La Paz and never

leave and you know what my father's one

of them he's been there since the

eighties so it was nice to catch up with

my dad yeah he lives in La Paz and has

for a while but we wanted to get going

and it's now late in the year we decided

to head over to the mainland side and we

do that for a reason it gets a little

blustery and windy up in the sea Cortes

not really but yeah we wanted to go into

warmer climates because at this point

it's cooled off to like 70s yes and we

need to put on a jacket so you head over

to Mozilla and you spend the whole

winter kind of work in that whole Coast

there's so much to see so many

Anchorage's and a lot of cruisers go

from mazatlán down the coast to all the

way down to like Zihuatanejo that's the

big Cruiser strip right there you

Peavey's in there you've got

so many I I didn't really the big cities

it's not something that draws me in but

I love the little towns like Jamila

jacala tena Katina well yes so you Lena

to me that all these little hubs in la

Cruz it was just great because there are

just little villages you anchor out you

pull your dinghy in and you just explore

and wonderful people there

I love the islands and god I could just

live there you could and but the trick

is get out of that whole strip before

hurricane season starts because you have

not much noticed the hurricane turns

into those areas you you don't have a

much protection so most cruisers use the

the winter for cruising those grounds

and then head up into the Sea of Cortez

for hurricane season and you can do land

travel at that point too but we were

just kind of getting in into the

cruising life and so we weren't really

interested in that we were just just

being along the water doing the little

rallies and races and doing jungle tours

on our dinghy good time um yeah there

were really good times and so we can't

wait to do it again and share it with

them know every she's gonna love it

she's gonna love it but she'll had this

annoying thing at the time I thought it

was annoying what now so every Anchorage

that we went to any time we drop anchor

he would take stats so he would do the

coordinates he would do water

temperature the wind direction

everything you could possibly think of

and he'd log in him hey that's a noble

information yes I know that now so at

the time it was super annoying because

he was spend about half an hour just

looking up stats and I'm like come on

let's jump in the water

and he's like I got to put all the stuff

down looking back now I can almost

visualize and imagine exactly where we

were at based on his coordinates and all

of his information in our log books so

thanks for being in there and thanks for

finally realizing that it's something

worthwhile I knew it was it was just

annoying at the time okay dig away so

over the next three and a half years we

really enjoyed ourselves you should get

the heck out of cruising Oh see Cortez

is beautiful wait islands are gorgeous

the people are amazing yeah we never

felt more comfortable

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we really enjoyed ourselves you like the

heck out of cruising sexy Cortez is

beautiful gorgeous the people are

amazing yeah we've never felt more

comfortable but the downside is you know

we're here we are cruising it's good

yeah we were kids in your 20s and 30s

living off our bank account so it's not

gonna last forever we knew that going in

but we wanted to see if this was

something that we wanted to do long-term

and it is it is and so so we had a great

game plan when we went back we said

we're gonna go back and we're gonna work

hard we're gonna get another boat start

a family family and do this again so and

counts at my house the new generation of

cruising yes and we cannot wait to show

her and share with her share with her

what life is about love the water are

you excited yeah so so fish on yeah

that's right game on new chapter in our

life is coming up yeah and I'm excited

for it that's right so stay tuned and

we're gonna show you we're gonna share

more and hope you guys enjoy the right

team basic

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