Back aboard Fiesta in Florida

Greetings again!   It's been four months since we last blogged an entry, so here's a quick update:

Back a year ago, in July 2014, when we first left Taos, we had vague dreams and ideas of what we wanted to do or pursue.  Bucket List was to travel across the US in a camper van---check mark. And then, to buy and live aboard a sailboat --- checkmate.

All the while, we were also looking, searching, exploring for what is next in our lives.  Would something pull us in and say "Turn left and live here!"  or "Hard to starboard and drop anchor here!"  We kept an open mind, totally widened our perception so we wouldn't miss that potential fish hook, all the while following our heart, living the dream.  When we left Taos, we didn't want any responsibilities (i.e., hot water heaters, roof leaks, frozen pipes, etc.); after all, at the BnB we had eight hot water heaters and 72 faucets for 25 years.  We knew that living on a floating home on the water would have enough of its own leaky issues. But in the back of our mind, we wondered if the "all-water-life or nothing" approach would be the path for us.  

My life's motto has been----everything in moderation, including moderation itself. So sometimes ya have to tie one on with a bottle of rum to realize just where that middle line is. I guess it's my Libra thing to strive for balance.

The point of all this philosophy is that we had decided to revisit the idea of establishing a balance in our life with some roots back in Taos.  Half a year as dirt-dwellers and the other half (or more) on the water?  It sounded pretty good, but in the back of our minds, we reserved the right to follow another dream (even over a rainbow into the for-sea-able future :)

So in May, after six months on Fiesta, we left her contentedly tethered in a slip for the hot-hurricane months of June-Oct at Regatta Point Marina in Palmetto, FL (west coast Tampa area).  Our first stop was up to Burlington, VT for Krista's UVM graduation celebration. 

Reeves sisters :)

Krista, Krystina, Moriah

So proud of her success in securing a job at the University Hospital as a Mental Health Technician.  Afterwards, we headed back to Taos for some high-altitude adjusting; love and miss those mountains too.     

Northern NM was chilly, with snow still clinging to the mountainsides.  We dug up our jackets and flannels from the storage unit, covering up the Florida tans we had acquired and settled in for a while with our daughter, Malia (moving in with the kid---a reversed situation for wayward parents).  But we had a mission; we were dog-sitting our boy Rusty while Malia left for six weeks for her job in Costa Rica. 

She had set up a cozy home in an old adobe house on the Yaravitz ranch way up in Des Montes overlooking the Taos Valley. It was an old childhood stomping ground for her with family friends. Not to mention the convenience to her job up in the Taos Ski Valley. 






For four months we visited old friends, picked up a few odd maintenance jobs here and there (to feed the cruising kitty), including a couple of inn-sitting jobs.  The July 4th weekend found us filling in for our old job back at the Old Taos Guesthouse for the new innkeepers who had a family emergency.  

Good times...good friends with Ric Speigel and Mary Collins at the OTGH

Lo and behold, there were several of our old friends staying there, like we didn't miss a beat.  It was a time warp and I had to ask Tim, "Didn't we buy a sailboat? or am I just dreaming?"  No problem jumping back into it with a July 4th backyard party and 24 guests for breakfast the next morning; don't even have to think about it after 25 years of doing it.

  

  We took hikes, played disc golf and seriously explored the idea of owning a little house in Taos; but alas, it did not grab us.  The roots/responsibility thing weighed heavily on us. All we could think about was being carefree on the ocean with Fiesta.  For now, Taos has not drawn us back into her power; maybe in the future.

 We "strayed" long enough to catch one of our favorite annual music festivals, "Michael Hearne's Big Barn Dance"----a three-day event of nonstop music and songwriters---as a matter of fact, here's Tim's latest video:

 Afterwards, we said ADIOS! to Taos

and its amazing sunsets. We said adios to Malia and took a bus, rode a train, and flew in a plane back to Tampa. Then we took a shuttle to Regatta Pointe Marina and Fiesta--it felt so right!

We took a bus...

                                                    

we took a train....and then a plane

                      

Ahoy! the gang is still (mostly) all here!!!

                    

back to Fiesta!!

 

Our plans have us here dockside for a couple of months as our list of "to-dos" is long, but not too arduous. We had the bottom sanded and painted, reefing system adjusted, and now we'll look at a new tricolor light atop the mast, lazy-jack mainsail system, new upholstery for the salon, SSB receiver, new Bahamian paper charts, new Garmin Platinum Chartplotter chip, rebuild the head system (ugh), basic maintenance on our 35HP Yanmar engine, etc etc. By December, we will be on our way south again to the Florida Keys and then onward to the Bahamas and then perhaps far-off island destinations beyond, to the dragons and pirates of the ancient Caribbean lore. 

 We'll keep on going as long as we're having fun!