Life aboard a 24′ sailboat and the random thoughts, observations and feelings that come with it…bumped heads and all.

Solitude, my old friend.

22 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by Sailing Sine Metu in Random Thoughts., Writing

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I’m a conditioned athlete when it comes to solitude. Since 2010, not to mention since I was ten, I have been gearing up mentally, financially, and physically for long-distance, singlehanded sailing; where I would be solo and independent for 30 to 45 days at a time while crossing oceans or simply island hopping the Sea of Cortez for six months—that was the plan anyway and you already know how that went. Fast forward to today, where we are all being told to self-isolate, practice social distancing and being told to remain calm…

And I am thriving.

The solitude that I am referring to is not the standard definition of the word, being alone, going solo, or being quarantined; but having a mindset that time spent with only yourself and your thoughts is a great thing! It is something to be cherished and embraced. It is such a simple thing to achieve, yet damn hard to find these days: endless news cycles that focus on drama and conflict are addictive, but you need to ween yourself off it or you’ll develop self-imposed PTSD when this is all said and done.

I am not a ‘Prepper,’ but, inadvertently and understandably, I can see how I could be confused as one. A Prepper is trying to prepare for an unknown, future event (plagues, government collapse, war, zombies, et cetera); I was readying myself for a planned adventure. Now, all of that planning, training of a mind-set that enjoys solitude, being stoic when I can, accepting that I am human when I can’t, has evolved to where I am today: Trying to help those around me, mentally, in passing the time until these days are just a story we will recall like front-line troops back from the war.

These times will test us, and we will be victorious. I also hope it brings the world closer together when these days come to pass and we will all be Covid-19 veterans. I truly hope that will be remembered when made-up divisions are thrown at us by those who crave power, deflect blame and only want adulation.

So, the advice I would give is simple: Choose to Embrace Solitude. It is a companion who will always be with you, there for you and a safe place to recenter yourself. It is time to say hello.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” –Victor Frankl

A website that I really enjoy reading and fully recommend to everyone is Daily Stoic. One of their great articles should be read by all:

Remember: You Don’t Control What Happens, You Control How You Respond

“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…” — Epictetus, Discourses, 2.5.4–5

Tuesday, November 19, 2019, 0900 hours, Baja Naval Marina. Day 13 of the voyage, Day 11 in Ensenada.

19 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by Sailing Sine Metu in Pacific Sailing Plans, Random Thoughts., Singlehanded, Pacific Sailing Plans

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Prepping to leave on Friday morning, most Do-Along-The-Way projects have been checked off, except for a little more painting, replacing the starboard side’s registration numbers, organizing the cabin some more—little things like that.

My tactic to get to that magical moment known as Cutting the Dock Lines was to reorganize those never-ending pre-departure To-Do lists into two main categories; What Is Holding Me Back and What Can I Do Underway. Obviously, I completed the first list with a caveat: That column was further broken down to What’s Good Enough vs. Must Be Done. Things like being able to dog down hatches fell into the former (they only need to stay shut if the boat rolls, they don’t need to be secured and armored to prevent thieves from gaining access (also, less damage to fix later)) while the latter was non-negotiable (stern anchor, a means to tow the dinghy, getting the tiller pilot installed, et cetera).

Currently, I am charting a course that will take about 24 to 30 hours to sail from 162C139F-D06E-474A-8F47-31AF42975E3A Ensenada to Isla San Martin (for which I assume a 3 to 4-knot average speed, and it’s about 100 miles). The weather looks nice, but the wind might be on the nose a little, and a little light (under 10 knots) which simply means tacking instead of a downwind run. There will be a nasty storm on my heels, so I might depart Thursday. Either way, I will be hunkering down in Bahia San Quintin until it blows through.

Departing Friday at 0900 hours, I should get to the island somewhere between 0900 and 1500 hours on Saturday. A waxing crescent (11%) moon will rise at 0300, so I hope to catch some of the Leonids Meteor Shower even though it peaked on 17 NOV. Once the anchor is down, and I’ve cleaned up the deck and myself, I should be able to enjoy a sundowner overlooking an extinct volcano! I will have to sail over to Bahia San Quintin Sunday morning and find a good spot to anchor as a 30-knot blow is currently predicted to come through late Sunday afternoon. It will be a quick front, but I am currently too far north and if I don’t skedaddle out Ensenada I might get locked in with winter storms from up north.

Today’s To-Do List:

Laundry
- I found a little laundromat where I can do my laundry. I am actually there right now, kicking back in their, actually nice, lounge. No wifi, and I should have brought a Spanish-English dictionary or the Spanish for Cruisers notebook. It would have helped. A lot! DONE! it took about an hour and cost MX77, or about $3.97.
Make my final decisions on grocery items.
- I’ve been sampling a lot of canned foods (with Spanish labels) and fresh veggies to see what I might like and I think I’ve come up with a 14-day menu. Keep in mind that I have a 30-day supply of freeze-dried lunches and dinners, too, for emergencies (or the deep desire for beef stroganoff!). Today, after laundry, I will make a small pot of chili for lunch and dinner.
  - I am only trying small items as I can only make what I will consume in one or two sittings. I prefer things like thick stews and chilis, things that I can cook and store in the wide-mouth, 64-ounce Nissan Thermos. Again, all breakfasts have already been taken care of.
Rain and some good winds are expected here soon so I have battened down the canvas tent I lounge under at dock. While anchored out, I plan to fold it in half and throw it over the boom for some protection over an open companionway and maybe even a little over the cockpit, too. My version of a poor man’s bimini. While sailing, I have one of those giant, straw lifeguard hats, or I go into sun ninja mode
between 0900 and 1500 hours. I’ve also folded up the dinghy and put it out of the way. I didn’t want to find that it sank at the dock if the predicted rains are heavier than expected.

The Cabin’s Sole.

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by Sailing Sine Metu in Galley, Random Thoughts., Singlehanded, Pacific Sailing Plans

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Cabin Sole, Lonseal, Throeau

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” J.R.R.Tolkien – The Hobbit

If chance favors, and an invitation to come aboard Sine Metu is gladly offered, then a trip down into my cozy cabin would mean that a first impression is about to be experienced. When you first view my little 1963 Columbia 24’s interior, it should be a surprise, a pleasant surprise, I hope. But, when I first bought her for $800, that experience could only be seen through my eyes: Covered in a mosaic of glued-down, beige vinyl tiles from the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, and covered again with a cheap blue carpet and covered still yet again by a beige throw rug, too! Thankfully, I don’t have any photos of that visual cacophony, but this is what it looked like when I ripped all of that out and threw it away as fast as I could.

In my mind’s eye, this is what I envisioned the cabin sole should and determined to look like (click on the photo for a link to Defender.com):

It was an expensive investment as I had to buy a 7-foot long section to get the length I wanted, but as they only sell it with a width-wise pattern 6-foot wide, I have a lot left over to this day. So, out of 42 square feet bought, I only used 15.75 sqf. The rest I am thinking of using in other locations, including on deck and exposed to direct sunlight and weather. I did have a large piece covering the top of the old foredeck hatch for about a year, and it held up without issue, but in the lifetime of a 53-year old sailboat, that was just long enough to cut my teeth on the idea.

So, with Stephen Covey’s second habit in mind, I went about rebuilding the cabin’s sole — which was appropriate as I’ve been rebuilding the sailboat from the keel up since buying her. The first thing I did was to rebuild the cabin sole’s foundation and to widen the bilge access for a new hatch. The original lip being dry rotted, wobbly and unable to be secured down. Cutting along its circumference, about an inch in, revealed good, solid, wood, which I then heated with an electric cabin heater and applied epoxy resin. A friend told me that, as the wood cooled, capillary action would absorb and draw the epoxy deeply into the wood’s grain. Which, it eagerly did! I then went about drilling small holes just into, but not through the sole, and applied the same alchemy to the rest of the cabin floor.

A couple of days after the epoxy had dried I painted the bilge, the empty engine compartment and along the cabin’s edges (to cover up the old paint that was there). I also painted inside of the lockers.

It was then time to cut a template of the sole, which was kind of fun I have to admit. Lots of brown paper, a straight edge, scissors, a razor, tape, and a Sharpie to scribble all sorts of notes.

Next, I unrolled the Lonseal on the dock and carefully lined the template up knowing that if I got the angles wrong, the teak and holly pattern would be skewed off to one side or the other and not be parallel with the rest of the cabin. Not wanting to go for a psychedelic experience, I spent a significant amount of time getting the pattern lined up as perfectly as possible. Finally satisfied, I installed a brand new razor blade in the box knife and commenced to committing myself to the task.

Satisfied with my tailoring, I dry fitted the flooring and trimmed off some of the extra material I left along an edge or three.

Finally, it was time to apply the Lonseal adhesive to the floor. I did the port side first with the material rolled width-wise. Working from the middle to the far side, I troweled on the adhesive, making sure to use the proper grooves so as to spread the glue thoroughly and evenly. Then, after letting it rest for the appropriate amount of time, as per the instructions (yes, I do read those from time to time), I slowly unrolled it and wiggled it into place. I then repeated the process and did the starboard side.

I then covered the floor with a multitude of hardcover books and other weights to press it down. I wish I had a picture of that process because it amused me to no end to see all of those James Patterson, Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, Clive Cussler, Ian Fleming, and Tom Clancy books radiating out from a centerpiece of J.R.R.Tolkien and Henry David Thoreau. “Did I do that by accident?” I had to ask myself as I sipped some well deserved single malt whisky. A Glenmorangie port wood, now called the Quinta Ruban, if I recall.

In the end, I’m proud to show off Sine Metu’s interior as I think even a Hobbit would feel comfortable having a bite to eat and relaxing in the main cabin. Yes, it’s a small cabin, but it’s my cabin.

My dwelling was small, and I could hardly entertain an echo in it; but it seemed larger for being a single apartment and remote from neighbors.” Henry David Thoreau – Walden.

Reflections of dreams on a Sunday’s Morn.

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Sailing Sine Metu in Random Thoughts.

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I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

~ Henry David Thoreau

As I’ve spent the last two days at the annual San Diego International Boat Show, dreaming dreams built in the air and floating on the water. With almost 100 boats catching my eye, I hop from boat to boat looking at things that shine, things that are meticulous in their build and things that are simply simple. There are over 150 vessels at the show, but those with Fiats on their decks, staterooms and crew’s quarters are castles I don’t care to climb aboard. Even if the if was no longer an if, such needs to impress have never been in me.

No, the lover that bewitched me was the Leopard 44 Catamaran…oh my! What a piece of work is this craft! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel with her wings spread! in apprehension of the waves how like a god! The beauty of the world open to her! The paragon of sailing vessels! Sorry William, but your fine words were all that I could think of as I walked her decks and remembered where my castles were.

I went back again this morning, their last day, and took some photographs of her so you will know what I mean by this plagiaristic praise!

My dreams of sailing started out when I was young, very young to my mind now. I was maybe eight or nine when I was infected with the ocean blue bug, and, admittedly, I will try to infect you, the reader, with it too.

Today, my dream is to get this damn little boat untied from the dock and get this thing called life started! To get this done, I need to find a person who will, in exchange for my time, sweat, intelligence or whatever they find of value provide me with enough of an income to pay for these stalled repairs. In between the endless résumé and cover letter rewrites I have been polishing up an old manuscript that I hope to finish within the next 30 days and self-publish as an ebook here on this website and various outlets like Amazon, Apple and so on.

Finishing the book is more about finishing it and moving on to other writing projects than allowing myself the vanity of hope that it will be a best seller and the tonic for all my troubles. Life doesn’t work that way, but I have to finish it to just be able to move on. It has been a guilt on my conscious, leaving it unfinished for all these years. A victim of a weakness of character on my part, that if something cannot be done perfectly it shouldn’t even be attempted… I know that such perfectionism is so off target as to be laughable, and that’s the joke: I have been and will always be, my own worst enemy!

Sailing alone through the water is, for me, a wondrous and spiritual moment in my life. Every time. With only the music of the wind in the sails and rhythm of the water flowing over the hull I am home and I find contentment. But, through writing, I find myself; I get to meet and converse with my better and lesser angels and get lost in thoughts both deep and whimsical. After days on the sea, I find my inner-self so relaxed that I wake myself up from dreams laughing. Oh, what a great way to wake!

…but for now, Sine Metu will carry me and my dreams across that horizon!

Acquiesce? It isn’t a choice.

15 Saturday Jun 2013

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lofty thoughts and dreams of..., Love, Sine Metu, writing

Problems are as inevitable and expected as knowing that rain is wet. How you handle those problems is the only thing that matters. Will you use them as bricks, adding to the breadth and weight of the wall before you, or will you use them as stepping stones to line your path?

As Bob Bitchin says, “The difference between an ordeal and an adventure is attitude!”

Still sitting on the shore

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by Sailing Sine Metu in Random Thoughts., Singlehanded, Pacific Sailing Plans, Writing

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It has been a while since I’ve updated the blog, but it has nothing to do with the dream, which, by the way, is alive and well! Yes, I’m still sitting on the beach looking out onto the water instead of spending the weekends being anchored out in Mariner’s Cove (32°46.089 N, 117°14.959 W)

Instead of working on the boat, I have been busy trying to make and save money, replying to an IRS Tax audit from back when I was unemployed for 1,000 days. Wells Fargo, it seems, discharged my debt after two years of harassing phone calls, threats of lawsuits, thrashing and trashing my credit score…

OKAY! Enough of that bad juju. Anyway, I survived the audit and I am moving on.

So, anyway, I didn’t mean to go off on a rant as this was meant to be a quick post about sitting on the shore and looking out onto my favorite anchorage. If I ever needed motivation to sail Sine Metu across the Pacific then this is the place to come. A morning walk along the shore, watching the rays and fish swim by, feeling the warmth of the sun and the coolness of the morning breeze as I walk along the shore. My pants legs rolled up, shoes in my hand and splash the still-brisk water as I stroll along, sipping a cup of coffee.

The project is about over, extended another eight weeks until mid-July, and my budget is pretty sound, but tight. Pride aside, if you can Donate to the Dream and help me make this writing hiatus a reality, please do — and thank you in advance!

Fog is Magical

22 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Sailing Sine Metu in Dance with the Sea, Random Thoughts., Writing

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Autumn, Sailboats, San Diego

The first day of autumn was foggy and gray and I loved it. Walking along Shelter Island’s edge, ships would materialize out of the mist or vanish from sight and mind like a fading dream. Silvery tall shapes ensconced in the foreground with only misty gray for a background reminiscent of a painting in the Abstraction style; where only the essence, the etherial soul of the object, catches the eye and is assembled by the mind as being moored sailboats.

Of course, sailing in fog brings other emotions too. Your eyes plays tricks on your brain when there is a moving deck beneath your feet and every sound is strange and untrustworthy. And if it’s also dark, then you truly begin to wonder if you will fall off the edge of the world. Fear, at times, becomes your crew, especially if you solo-sail as I do. But, and this is only an educated guess as I have not done this yet, with an electric drive pushing you silently through the fog, it will be easier to hear the muffled engines of anything nearby, it will be easier to hear waves breaking on rocks, and it will be easier to relax and enjoy the shrouded world you find yourself it.

I am oh-so looking forward to getting this seaborne sabbatical underway. In fact, in my mind, I am already doing it when it comes to being a consumer. Whenever I start to pull out my wallet to buy anything, and I mean anything, I find myself whispering my little mantra to myself: Can I use this on the boat and am I taking it with me when I go? If no, my wallet gets put away. And so far, it’s not only helping me save money, I’m also loosing weight.

I can’t wait to ghost through the fog of a distant shore aboard Sine Metu. To feel my way through the gray mist to find a safe port to anchor in. To start doing and to stop dreaming.

As Bob Bitchin of Latitudes & Attitudes fame and author of Letters from the Lost Soul says, “Don’t just dream your life, live your dream.”

Alone doesn’t mean lonely.

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by Sailing Sine Metu in Dance with the Sea, Random Thoughts.

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relationships, Sine Metu, without fear

Being alone isn’t a simple equation where one plus none equals…

Sometimes, it equals freedom. The ability to do what I want, when I want, without worrying about other peoples’ agendas and timelines.

Other times, it means that I have no one to share my surprises with. No one to call when I’m happy and want to enjoy it with – sharing a great joke, a great sunset or a great life… As Gordon Sumner (a.k.a. Sting) sang in one of my favorite boating songs, Valparaiso, “…how will she know of the devils I’ve seen.”

Then there are times that I feel real, centered and alive…and yet, sometimes, that makes me feel a little guilty. I question if I am selfish, self-centered, or greedy? Yet, I always come to the conclusion that I am not.

I am a loaner by nature.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve known that I was an individual long before I knew what it meant to be part of a team. If wanted to hike out to my favorite lake to go fishing, about three or four miles away, through the woods behind my elementary school, I would do it without hesitation. If someone wanted to tag along, great! No problem… Let’s meet at 9:00 AM at my house and we’ll take off. Oh, bring lunch and something to drink as there is nothing…nothing…out there. It only took a couple of times of being stood up or worse, having my agenda changed due to their whims/lack of planning/inconsiderations/them being themselves to realize that, “Screw this! I’ll give them 15 minutes. After that, they can catch up to me.”.

Again, I was somewhere between 8 and 10 years old when that epiphany hit.

A couple of years later, when I was 11 and in love with the outdoors, I wanted to join the Cub Scouts, but they wouldn’t let me join their organization. Their reason? There were no uniforms that would fit a 5′ 6″, 150 pound pre-teen (oh-yeah, I was a big boy). I took it hard, sure, but I also read their manual and went out and did it all by myself in about a month. I then moved onto the Boy Scouts manual and cruised through it…

What did I learn from that little life lesson? That ‘organizations’ that promote teamwork have no problem excluding those who don’t fit in with ‘their’ uniformity…

One of my favorite authors, Anneli Rufus, wrote a great book titled Party of One: the Loners’ Manifesto (http://www.annelirufus.com/partyofone/) which I find defining; “Maybe we’re not holed up in caves all day, or in submarines like Captain Nemo in his Nautilus. But alone we feel most normal. Most ourselves. Most alive.”

Those are the thoughts that are running rampant through my mind these days as my girlfriend and I have split up after being together for more than two years. There wasn’t any drama as it was planned heartbreak: She as going to go off to another college to work on her degree and I was supposed to be casting off on my Pacific Cruise aboard Sine Metu about two months later. But, and here’s the rub, she turned down a couple of scholarships so that she could shift majors at her current school and the cutting of my dock lines was delayed since the project I’m on was extended to next April; so, we are both in town and yet, we’re both single.

She’s an amazing young woman and I love her oh-so many wondrous qualities, but I wish we were together. She’s great, but she’s gone and I miss her.

This is also a not-so subtle reminder that I won’t have anyone with me while sailing for weeks at a time except for those who read this. And while that doesn’t scare me — being alone doesn’t equal being lonely — it’s a sad reminder that I will not have her to share a perfect sunset with, or to share our mutual amazement with when a pod of dolphins swim by with even if it’s just via email or the occasional phone call from some random South Pacific island.

Yeah, I think I’m guilty of wanting to explore the limits of what a long distance relationship can withstand.

I have always known that this would be the case and I need to look at this as my emotional sea trials. This is where I steel myself emotionally for the future voyage. To fortify my soul by embracing my goals and to truly advance confidently in the direction of my dreams, and endeavor to live the life which I have imagined to paraphrase Henry David Thoreau.

Alone doesn’t mean that I’m lonely…and for now, I have to keep telling myself that.

Rush hour on San Diego Bay

14 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by Sailing Sine Metu in Random Thoughts., Writing

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That morning started off this morning with a Navy ship, a yacht and a small speed boat all passing in the background of this beautiful ketch moored off of Shelter Island. Dawn never really rose that morning; black night and fog wearily melded into a fine gray mist which slowly burned away as the growing brightness painted the world in color — of course, when your day starts before dawn and you haven’t had any coffee, you notice these things.

That was how my morning started. Later that morning, and the reason why I was up at 4:30 AM: flying to Vancouver on Air Canada for work.

During the flight, penned the following:

We have reached our cruising altitude of 32,000 feet, traveling at Bob Seger’s 8 miles a minute. This trip is to Prince George in British Columbia…actually, this is week two of this project as I was there last week. This week’s schedule will be lighter as I only have to deliver one day of training and then provide technical support as needed. This is the week I use to conduct teleconferences, plan future trips and to set myself up for success for future training locations.

This is also the week that I use to plan repairs on the sailboat, which I am painfully behind on. Being my own worst enemy, I beret myself constantly like a good Catholic for all the things that I have not done, for the things I have done and of course, for things out of my control (if I were one…don’t really do religion). As a child, I went to Bible School, got baptized and thought of myself as a Baptists until I was thirty-something. Guess I didn’t pay too much attention in class, eh?

Anyway, before moving on I would like to clarify and espouse upon my religious beliefs as I feel that my little quip about religion might irk some…especially the girl I love with whom I have had the privilege to have dated for the last two years — who is, by the way, religious. Let me get to the heart of the matter right up front and answer the only question that matters; Do I believe in God? My honest answer is… I don’t know. It’s not that I believe or don’t believe, I just simply don’t know. They say there are no atheists in a foxhole, and I’ve seen plenty of evidence that points to the latter more than the former, but any example I give as to God not existing begins and ends with man. Of course, every time I see a gorgeous sunset, feel the caress of the wind with my face or the warmth of the sun I have no doubt that there is something more to this thing we call life than we can or ever will understand by living man. So, I try to keep an open mind and I search for my own answers. Answers without labels, without established dogma, and without preconceived attitudes. I truly believe in my heart that my religion is life. Those who embrace it and live are my brothers and sisters. Is that why I love the cruising life so much? Where people are living their dreams instead of dreaming their lives as Bob Bitchin of Latitudes & Attitudes fame so eloquently proclaims. Or, as Jimmy Buffet may have once said, sailing is the religion of wine and women, of wind and waves…

Okay, let’s get back to sailing!

With the weather getting warm in San Diego and my old cotton sheets beginning to show their age, my mind is shifting from my electric drive and rigging issues and to better sleeping conditions. My plan is to install two 12 volt fans in the V-berth area in addition to some of those new, hi-tech sheets that act like Under Armor and help cool you down on those hot, sultry nights. West Marine also sells a mattress topper that also help cool you instead of trapping warmth like memory foam — both products being made by Sheex.

Ferragamos & flips flops.

09 Monday Jul 2012

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While going through airport security this morning on my way to Cabo San Lucas with my girlfriend, the thought of what the X-Ray screener was seeing made me laugh. First bin, my boat shoes and the obligatory 3 ounce liquids – sunscreen, Chapstick, deodorant, cologne, and toothpaste; then my shoulder bag flowed by with my belt, watch, passport, airline tickets, my wallet in one of those RFID shielded organizers, iPad, various charging cables, iPhone and brand new prescription Kaenon sunglasses; and lastly on the conveyor belt was my carry on suitcase packed with swim shorts, t-shirts, a Patagonia pullover sun-hoodie (love those, by the way!), toothbrush, razor (more for my head than my chin) and two pairs of shoes…

Yep, three pairs of shoes for a three day weekend. I know, high maintenance. But, I do have cause and reason and need for such a variety of footwear, I swear!

You see, my girlfriend and I are heading to Cabo for the weekend to celebrate our two year anniversary and she is going to wear this amazing dress when we go out to dinner on Saturday. And since I am not that much of a boating bohemian, yet, despite how hard I try to foster that as my personal mythology, I appreciate an excuse to wear my best — hence the need to polish up and pack along my Ferragamo shoes. I plan on wearing them with (gast!) my Agave jeans and a Hugo Boss dress shirt which, of course, will remain untucked…you can can take me off the boat, but you can’t take the boat out of me.

Oh yeah, the third pair of shoes are my Teva Omnium Sandals. Perfect for when I’m wandering about the hotel, heading out to the pool, sipping margaritas while writing this and so on.

As a writer, I love wandering around and checking out the area, but I have never been one of those tourists that rush from attraction to attraction, from historical or natural marvel to the next in a blind-flurry, all-or-nothing effort to check off some imaginary list of been-there’s and done-thats in order to justify a vacation…

FYI, if you feel the need to justify a vacation then it’s time for an escape!

Okay, it’s now day two of Cabo…

My girlfriend and I are staying at the Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort, which is actually about 25 KM or so to the east of the famous Lands End arches, too far to walk, but this hotel has a swimmable beach, which we enjoyed Friday afternoon after we checked in. And while it was fun getting knocked down by warm waves and heavy undertow, it really sucked having my brand new, $570 prescription Kaenon sunglasses washed off my face and vanish into the depths…24 hours old and never to be seen again.

Okay, time to stop dwelling on their demise. Time for a Romeo Y Julieta, Habana – Cuba and a Negra Modelo…asking for cerveza is about as much Spanish as I can manage. It’s not a mild cigar, but at about $13 American, it was cheap enough to have and commemorate, but I wouldn’t smoke two of these bad little boys. Too damn strong for my mild preference. I usually like cigars that have a more mild, maybe even buttery texture to them like Romeo Y Julieta’s Bully, Connecticut Shade Nubs, or Montechristo White Labels. Lately though, my tastes have been edging slightly higher to cigars like Gurkha 15-year old Anniversary series. I especially love the short one with the pig tail end cap. Fantastic smoke with a straight Single Malt like a 15 year old Glenlivet or Glenmorangie’s LaSanta, Nectar D’Or, or my favorite, a Quinta Ruban with two ice cubes, max, mind you.

It’s 2:00 PM and my girlfriend is napping the heat of the afternoon away in our AC’ed room as I sit down here in La Vista bar overlooking the ocean…

Okay, slipped away there for a while as it is now Day 3 of Cabo.

I’ve talked my girlfriend into coming down with to the pool this morning, before dawn. She was very reluctant at first, but then I convinced her that we’d certainly be able to grab one of those big cabanas and she would be able to stretch out, enjoy the dawn with me and sleep if she wanted to…she slept!

Anyway, this is the view from where we lounged Sunday morning. Overlooking the infinity pool’s edge out onto the Pacific Ocean. There was a palapa on the beach with a white and blue panga pulled up onto the sand beside it. It was visually wondrous to watch the first rays of dawn illuminate that vista.

Swimming this morning, looking up at this gorgeous resort, into the cabana where that gorgeous young woman slept and it hit me; damn I hope my books sell, I really want this life!,