The long way home

So, what’s your plan? This is our most frequently asked question these days, from strangers, other cruisers, friends, siblings and parents (of course). I don’t know that we’ve ever really had a plan aside from cruise until the money runs out – or – until we stop having a good time – or – until we start getting antsy to resume careers and start a family – or – until we just can’t bear to be away from home any longer (oh, and don’t sink the boat, that’s always been part of the plan). Each one of those has gnawed at us for various reasons and durations at different times during this trip. There have been numerous occasions where we turn to each other and say, “screw it, let’s just sell the boat” or “let’s put her on the next ship home.” These exchanges usually come on the heels of mechanical or emotional setbacks (the two being very much interconnected).

At one point we did look into the cost of shipping Serenity home. To put her on a barge from anywhere in Central America or Mexico and ship her up to Vancouver BC, would cost us $13,000. To sail her up to Northern Mexico and put her on a truck it would run anywhere from $9,000 to $11,000. When you think about those figures in terms of time, that’s half a year or more of relative freedom (freedom being a funny word, because we are forever tied to the needs of our boat and the constraints of weather). We manage to live on about $1,300 to $1,500 per month…and $13,000 translates to 8-10 more months of cruising. It’s hard, if not impossible, to part with that kind of money. Maybe if our boat was worth a lot more…but she ain’t.

We also entertained selling Serenity, either down here in Panama or up in Mexico. It still appears to be a buyer’s market, however. Boats are cheap right now and Serenity is more valuable to us as a home (for both monetary and sentimental reasons). Selling our boat in a foreign country may also result in all sorts of logistical complications (at least that’s what we tell ourselves). Plus, we both have an overriding desire to bring Serenity back to the Pacific Northwest where she was lovingly crafted. Back to her native waters. So that settles that, we’re not shipping her and we’re not selling her…we’ve decided to take the long way home. This leaves us with a number of potential options that we discuss and debate constantly (almost daily). Remember what I said about life being like a choose your own adventure? I’ll get to those options in a moment, first I must tell you a little about the weather. We need to find a path that threads through different geographies during the safest cruising seasons.

Rainy season in Central America begins in May (sometimes kicking off as early as April in Panama), bringing thunderheads, gusty squalls and lightning storms to the coast. Some people cruise throughout Central America during rainy season, some people just stay put and grow roots, some people put their boat on a dock or on a mooring and go home to wait it out. Our last experience during rainy season left an indelible mark…but we weren’t scarred deeply enough to totally rule out cruising during rainy season (we’ll chalk it up to brazen youth…or sheer stupidity…which may be one and the same thing).

Hurricane season officially begins on May 15 in Southern Mexico, meaning that if we decide to head North we should be past Acapulco by mid-May. We’re not interested in lurking around in hurricane alley while the hot seas are stewing.

The best time to make our way up to Oregon along the US Pacific Coast is between July and September, though the wind and the waves would likely be against us for most of the passage. The common strategy is to wait for calm weather and motor. Not our idea of a good time now that we’ve become more accustomed to sailing.

That being said…here are the options currently on the table:

#1…Panama-Mexico-US Pacific Coast-Home in 2014. As soon as Serenity is ready (i.e. all immediate large problems fixed…namely the prop), head north either by way of the Central American coast or head 100 miles out and turn right on something similar to the Clipperton route. We would need to leave Western Panama by April 15 at the very very latest and watch the weather closely. This option would have us heading up the outside of Baja in early June, hanging out in California until July and heading back to Oregon in August. It would be a lot of travel and we would likely spend the majority of the time motoring (especially given the weather and time constraints), unless we got supremely lucky.

#2…Panama-Mexico for Summer and Winter-US Pacific Coast or Hawaii-Home by 2015. Similar to Option 1, we would leave Panama no later than April 15 and make our way up the Sea of Cortez to hide out for hurricane season. This would allow us a full year in Mexico but we would have less time in Central America. From Mexico we would decide whether to head home via the US Pacific coast or via Hawaii in 2015.

#3…Panama/Nicaragua for Summer-Mexico for Winter-US Pacific Coast or Hawaii-Home by 2015. Rather than holing up in Mexico for hurricane season, we would find a “home base” for rainy season in Central America (Panama, Nicaragua?) from which to do some exploring and maybe some volunteering? This option would also give us another cruising season in Mexico and we would head home via the coast or Hawaii in 2015.

#4…Panama-South Pacific for Summer-Hawaii for Winter-Home by 2015. Head to the South Pacific as soon as our boat is ready for a 4,000+ mile passage (ha!), hang out in the South Pacific islands from May to October then make the passage to Hawaii before hurricane season starts in the South Pacific (November). Hang out in Hawaii until the following July and head home.

#5…Figure it out as we go. Find work that’s either seasonal or let’s us work remotely and get our boat back home in shorter hops when we have the time and the money. We could return home for visits as money allows.

Now we just need to (ultimately) choose between time and money (adventure and security). If we want more time out here, we’re going to come home with less money and with less of a buffer for figuring out family and careers and all that stuff. It will make our re-entry much more…interesting. But, we are here, it took us a long time to get here, and we feel like we would benefit from having more time to sink into this life (metaphorically speaking). So…stay tuned for Indecision 2014!