To bring you up to date: The last newsletter was about me cheating death climbing the mountains around Ajijic. Some of you probably don’t remember receiving a newsletter in October, while others are probably thinking “who is Pipe Dream?” and don’t remember ever getting a newsletter. Well, age plays strange tricks on us all. I act like I’m 40, Jutta treats me like I’m 12, and when I get out of bed some mornings I feel like I’m 70. You figure that out.
There have been big changes in the lives of these vagabond sailors, Jutta and Ferdy. We sold Pipe Dream! As I told you in my last newsletter, Jutta and I bought a home in Ajijic, Mexico. Pipe Dream was put into dry storage in Fernandina Beach, Florida, for the hurricane season. We had plans to sell her in the fall of 2008 when the economy went belly up. After considering all options, Jutta and I decided to leave Pipe Dream in dry storage for another cruising season (November thru June) and keep playing in Mexico. The end of 2008 was not a good time to sell anything.
In 2009 we started our careful planning for the sale of our sailing yacht “Pipe Dream”, our beloved home for nine years
Our house in Mexico needed to be rented during our absence. A gardener was hired to take care of the yard. Our housekeeper had to be paid while we were gone. Someone needed to manage the property, hand
out keys to the renters and pay the bills. Our plan was to live aboard Pipe Dream for six months and try to get her sold. At the end of six months we would either put her back in dry storage for the summer or sail her through the Panama Canal to Puerto Vallarta. Then we would have a home and a boat in Mexico.
We literally prepared for months so everything would go according to plan.
At the end of October 2009 we made our move. Everything had been taken care of. We had renters for six months and we were worry free to return to the United States to put Pipe Dream on the market. We spent two weeks in the shipyard getting Pipe Dream ready to go back in the water. Jutta briefly dashed off to Chicago to witness the birth of her second grand child, while I struggled alone in the bilge and engine room. Once in the water, we sailed south on the Intra Coastal Waterway to Titusville, Florida, and checked into a marina. We had listed the boat on the internet and in several sailing magazines and had quite a number of inquiries. The weekend after Thanksgiving we sold the boat to a very nice couple from Vermont who promised to take good care of her. So much for our well thought out plans for the next six months. Now we were not only boat less but also homeless. So what do homeless sailors do in a situation like this? You guessed it, they mooch of friends and family.
Paul and Frances invited us to spend Christmas and New Year’s in their beautiful home in the mountains in North Carolina, making this my first white Christmas ever. We dodged the biggest snow storm of the decade, then had an ice storm and lost all power on Christmas Day.
The margaritas cut the chill in front of the fire. What an experience!
Tree limbs were breaking everywhere around the property. One fell on the front porch and tore off the railing. I have never experienced anything like this growing up in Yuma, Arizona. My only memories of snow are a snow cone with syrup.
To give Paul and Frances a break (you know, fish and visitors start to smell after three or four days), Jutta and I drove to Piney Flats, Tennessee, for a visit with Ray and Kath Bouch, long time boating friends we met in the Bahamas. They took us to see the Christmas Lights at the Bristol Race Track and, of course, the best bar in Kingsport.
After four days we returned to Boone, N.C., Paul and Frances, and temperatures in the teens! How is an Arizona boy supposed to survive this arctic cold!
On New Years Eve Day I prepared my world famous Pozole for a gathering of revelers at Paul and Frances’s home. Most of those Southerners couldn’t stand the Mexican heat. No wonder those bunch of sissies lost the war! We were told to eat 13 grapes for luck in the coming year. One grape for every month and one more for luck. I thought tequila always brought me luck.
We will be traveling back to Ajijic in February. If the house is still rented, we’ll grab our backpacks and head to Colombia and the Amazon. Since we didn’t get a raise from Social Security this year, a dollar from each of you to the “Help Ferdy Live The High Life Fund” would be greatly appreciated.
Happy and Prosperous New Year and the Best of Luck to you all.
By the way, today, as I finish this newsletter, it is sunny outside and 15 degrees at 11 AM. Much too cold for a desert rat!
From the mountains of North Carolina
Ferdy and Jutta
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