From The HelmsMistress, A Last Summary For Latitude-38 Magazine

Boat To Bus, The Adventures Continue by the HelmsMistress

What now? We said to each other after we transited the Panama Canal.  After some deliberation, family meetings, and soul searching we decided to put our beloved S/V Tulum V up for sale.  Following a long lull of uncertainty, we finally received an offer, finished up some repairs, and officially turned her over to a new owner.  Although our time as cruisers may have ended, we had no plans to stop traveling.  But what mode of transportation could possibly satisfy our spirit of adventure next?  Beep Beep! How about a skoolie (renovated school bus)?  So, we all (Great Dane and cat included) flew back to Florida, bought a skoolie and drove it cross country back to Southern California where we have started to settle back into a new community.  We drew parallels from cruising to living off grid in our new green landship, easily managing solar power, parking (docking), and securing for the road (sea); and no, we did NOT miss setting an anchor watch at night!  We cherished our time on the water: the stillness of a night passage, the anticipation as you round the corner into a deserted anchorage, the liberation of jumping off our boat into refreshing turquoise water, and the adventure-seeking friends we met along the way.  Out on the water however, we also learned to listen to the universe; and for us, it was time to start a new chapter for our family.  As I write, I’m sitting at our in-home tiki bar adorned with weathered burgees, nautical charts, and memorabilia from our time at sea.  Here I can escape the dreadful desert heat of summer and cherish the memories of our 3 ½ years as a fulltime cruising family.  New adventures await us, but I think the salt water will always be in our veins.

Let’s be clear..I’m not the HelmsMistress and I didn’t write the stories about our travels that appeared in Latitude-38 Magazine over the years….she did.  This post is a summary that may mirror other posts on our website but I’m using it as a sort of delayed farewell to that lifestyle  Our trip was huge to us and life changing.  We’ve met life long friends along the way, been out of the US during the heart of Covid-19, sat through tropical storms at anchor and had a myriad of adventures along the way.  

Then we headed into a new chapter as we traveled the US in our school bus (skoolie) before finally making the decision to find an adventure base….Rancho Michad.  Now we’re here, but still traveling slow.

The HelmsMistress has sat down when time permitted for the last four years to write her weekly Weds post.  Sometimes it was writing from a women’s point of view on a sailboat, but other times it was just writing to tell a story or relate to the world around her.  This website is very fortunate to have her writing and hopefully that writing will be a resource for other cruisers and travelers.