Monthly Archives: November 2015

Where are you from? It’s a simple question. A question most people can answer within a couple of seconds. A question asked by many when they meet someone new to an area. Or if someone is wandering around  looking lost and asking questions about the area, you might ask the question, where are you from? Your curious about a person you don’t recognize, so you ask, where are you from? Or your at a gathering with people from all over, the most common question is, where are you from?

You may have guessed, this question has come up numerous times recently, and we honestly struggled with an answer. Where are we from? This was easy to answer when we were out of the country and we were talking to locals, the answer was always, we’re from the USA. Or most often the answer was, Estados Unidos.

When we lived in CA, our answer had been California. Even though I grew up in Oregon and Anna was born in Arizona. Then for a while we said we lived in Knoxville, but we were from CA. When we left Knoxville it was back to being from CA, but we had lived in TN.

Now it’s? Well… Our home is in Mexico. Our car is licensed in AZ. Kylan goes to an Arizona school. Our drivers licenses are from TN. Our mailing address is in FL. We’ve been spending a lot of time in SC and TN. We own property in HI, GA and TN??? Where ARE we from????

I guess we’re children of the world. Roaming all over and not staying anywhere long. I’ve lived in five different US states in my life and have had drivers licenses in six. (that’s another story) Anna’s lived in three. Currently we really don’t live anywhere, because we just keep moving. If that’s not bad enough, we have no solid plan to change that in the near future.

Who knew getting Kylan into college would be so challenging. Now we might be moving to NM. What???

I want to get back on Stray Catz in Mexico, and Anna is ok with that. Anna wants to go backpacking through the US, and I’m ok with that. Europe sounds nice. We’ve never been to Australia.

Where are we from? I don’t know. The only thing I do know is, there will be no venturing any further than Mexico and the Sea of Cortez before Kylan gets accepted to a college and lives on campus. Where are we from until that happens? I don’t know. Where are we from any other time? Apparently I don’t know that either.

Do you have to stop and think when you’re asked, Where are you from? I’d love to hear about it.

We managed to motor-sail up the Mexican coast into the Sea of Cortez to a nice little town called Guaymas. Here there are a couple of marinas and boat haul-out yards in the area. One of the yards can handle catamarans the size of Stray Catz. Guaymas is also clear of most hurricanes.

A small problem occurred when we showed up at our boat yard of choice. Their brand new trailer used to pull out catamarans was not yet in service. It also was not scheduled to be finished for another three weeks. Being as I really wanted to attend my friend Ed’s retirement party we needed to park Stray Catz at a marina while we jumped on a bus to Phoenix. This of course meant we would have to come back to Mexico and put Stray Catz in a more secure location later.

We were obviously a big surprise to Ed at his party. He had no idea I would be there, and by the look on his face it was a pleasant surprise.

After the party, the next item on the Phoenix to-do list was to secure a land based vessel that would carry us safely around the USA. Since the trailer that would put Stray Catz on land still wasn’t ready, we made a decision to visit Anna’s family in Lake Tahoe. And of course visit our dogs who Anna’s parents have been so kind to dog sit for us all this time.

Arriving at Lake Tahoe, the reuniting of the dogs with their owners was bittersweet emotionally.  After the brief moment of stranger barking, Panda recognized and greeted Kylan. Diva however was holding a grudge. She greeted Kylan and I just fine, but avoided Anna like she had the plaque.  After a night of coaxing and apologizing on Anna’s part, Diva finally forgave her and they became the best of friends again.

Back in Mexico, the yard and their trailer were finally ready so we headed back to Stray Catz. We arrived on Friday expecting to haul out on Monday. We had a few things to take care of prior to the haul out so we got right to work on them. Now this being Mexico, everything didn’t go exactly as planned. First there was no fresh water at the marina, so washing the sails couldn’t happen. Washing of many other things couldn’t either. Meanwhile across the bay at the boat yard, the new haul out trailer got damaged doing a job, so it was questionable whether our haul-out would be possible on Monday. And the temperature was hot!!!!

As it turned out the trailer was repaired and they were able to haul us out on Monday. We motored Stray Catz across the bay to the storage yard and that’s when the fun began.

Being only the second boat to use this trailer to haul out at this yard, there was a bit of a learning curve going on. In the past they have always used a boat lift to haul boats. Stray Catz however has a 24′ beam and the yard would have to borrow a lift from the shrimp boat facility next door. To avoid that this yard custom built a trailer to haul out the catamarans that are over 18′ wide (most of them). With a brand new trailer and ready to use it, the yard hauled a 50′ cat out that Friday. This damaged the trailer. Minor damage but easily fixed, so the trailer was back in service on Monday.

It took about 4 hours to haul Stray Catz out of the water and securely placed her on blocks in the yard. The job was completed without any incidents, however I believe some design changes will be in order for the trailer.

It took another day of taking sails down, securing systems and various other odds and ends before Stray Catz was ready, and with a tear welling up in our eyes, we said good-bye knowing we weren’t going to see her again for at least 6 months.