After my self-motivating food post, I received the following from a dear sailing friend. The names have been changed to protect the infamous, but the sentiments are the same:

Just read your food blog and am sitting here aboard “Interlude” in our calm anchorage with the warm sweet-scented breeze wafting off shore wondering “What the hell are you doing???” You should be cruising around and writing, ya big lunk!

I cannot emphasize how much you would like it down here. If you are a regular reader of Latitude 38 you will have seen not once, but many times, cruisers, even circumnavigators, say that Baja is some of the best cruising in the world. Put “Nereus” on a truck, splash her in San Diego and get yer ass down here!!!!!!!

Should you be the cautious type and want to check it out first, I cannot stress enough that you will always be welcome on board whatever boat we are cruising around in at the time. “Interlude” the 51 foot Symbol motoryacht we currently spend six months of the year aboard, has plenty of room for you, and Sidonia, too, if you want to bring her.

Although we haven’t met up for awhile, I know you well enough to know that you would so enjoy the cruising community down here, the pristine anchorages, the snorkeling and divng, the food, and best of all, it’s close to home. From Las Vegas you can drive it in about 2 1/2 days. (Obviously flying is even faster.) There are plenty of places to haul out and dry store if you are not using the boat for awhile and it’s the desert, so things don’t get moldy while you’re gone.

The North Koreans have rockets on standby, I was just informed by MSN. What are you waiting for?

What the hell am I waiting for? As near as I can tell, we are lacking two things: a plan and the funding.

Yesterday, the Bingster and I had a short visit with long-time nautical friends, Jim and Aggie, aboard Allegria in Long Beach, CA. Every time I visit them, I think of dropping Nereus into the Pacific and getting started on the refit while weekending aboard.

On the flip-side, I often dream of returning to Florida and living the life I should have lived when I lived there last – but perhaps that’s just “unfinished business.” Either way, work (both on the boat and ashore) will be required, so it’s really a matter of cost effectiveness. Add in our familial situation plus the fact that Nereus is already in the region and Florida makes more sense.

However, Bing doesn’t want to move at all, as she wants to remain close to her mother, so California works, but the realities of cost and time (it’s $400/month for a slip and a four hour commute each way) make it seem a less effective way to go.

I dream of sailing the Bahamas, scuba diving, New Years in Key West, sailing up the eastern seaboard when it gets too hot, and being accessible to my parents. California has the option of sailing south – a one way trip, for sure, and doing a canal transit to the caribbean, which does sound very nice, but then we’d ultimately end up in Florida again, so why not just go there to begging with?

Either way, it all comes down to money. This year is going to be a good year, business wise, so I hope to have the funds available to do whatever I want. Just deciding what that Is, exactly, is the issue. Could I be over analyzing? Perhaps I should just go – go anywhere, but go.

Feel feel to add your own two sense worth.

– Steve