Bud Brown leaves town... and how!

Hello everyone, this is my first blog and my first post.  I wanted to give a little history, so I hope I don't bore you too much.  It will set a basis for how we got where we are and why.  I promise the next ones won't be so long.... Really.. I promise...

My hubby, Bud Brown, has always had a affinity with the ocean and is a natural athelete and expert mechanic.  I always loved being in the water (was a water survival instructor for the Marine Corps and a PADI Scuba Instructor), but when it came to being "on" a boat, or car, or airplane...well you get the picture... something in my brain tells my tummy to get rid of whatever might be in it and "right now!"  But, the year I met Bud (2009), I had gotten a bug to learn to sail and had just completed a couple of beginner sailing classes.  And at that time, Bud had a 37' sailboat on the Sea of Cortez.  When we met, I touted how much fun I thought sailing was (hehe) and he offered to my friend Lisa (who introduced us) and me an invitation to come to La Paz and go sailing.  Well, we didn't do that and by the time I saw him again, he had brought the boat back to San Diego.  He invited us to the boat one "gloom June" day, not to sail, but just to sit and have cocktails.  I got car sick on the way to the boat... not a good start.  Then a week or so later, when we did sail the bay, I was just fine...until we left the bay past Point Loma.  Those swells (small as they may have been) were just enough to cause me to ask him to turn around.  He was good about it, but you know, in his head he was thinking that this was going to be a problem.  Well, problem solved... He sold the boat, so we got interested in other things like riding our Harleys, running his Jeep in the desert with his son and family.  Just tons of fun things. 

Then last year, Bud and I took the big plunge ... we got married (cool!) and our first official order of business...buy a sailboat.  Like I said, Bud has had tons of boat experience and I'm prone to full blown seasickness....  But, I have always been a water rat, so I figured I'd just have to buck up and get used to it.  Her name (Bud's sense of humor) is "Passing Wind", she's a Hunter Passage 42 - that's 42 feet long and 14 feet wide.  She has two staterooms and 2 heads, a washer/dryer, a watermaker, airconditioning, and now TV/Radio/Satellite... really a neat vessel.  We took our maiden voyage in Sept 2011 out of Marina Del Rey to Catalina Island and I was just fine...for about 4 hours.  Then I could lie down, but not sit up without a problem.... poor Bud... what had we gotten into?  But, we made the 26 mile crossing and in the morning, I was just fine and over the weekend, I did amazingly well and made the trip to San Diego in style!  We found a nice Marina just south on the Pacific side of the Baja, made a few changes to suit our styles and then we took off for our "honeymoon" Nov - Dec 5 weeks.  We motorsailed most of the time and traveled with our friends Leonard and Marie (they have a 40' Hunter - "Mi Casa").  We ended up in La Paz, and unfortunately we were consistently hit with head on wind and often times rain.  But, we did have many nice days and overall, the experience proved to me that I could actually get to like this lifestyle afterall.  My "MO" is to go below and sleep while Bud battles the sea... works well for both of us. I'm not bugging him about "are we there yet" and he doesn't have to watch me turn green. 

We came back to San Diego but Leonard and Marie stayed "out" for seveal more months.  We lived vicariously through Marie's blog (that's what inspired me to start this one).  After they came back this summer, Bud was just itching to go out again.  I still had till 2015 before I could retire, so we figured maybe we'd get a slip further south on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja and we'd go there from time-to-time and have mini vacations.  Then...he started acting funny... you know what I mean?  I realized he was in some sort of bee line to get things "done" - "now".  I found out that Leonard and Marie were planning to head south again, for parts unknown and for who knows howlong...  You KNOW Bud needed to be a part of that!  Well, I couldn't tell him "no".  Go live it while you have the time and energy.  I'll figure out where you are and meet you as soon as I can get clear of work and take some time off.  So, there he was... ready to go around Thanksgiving.  We had Turkey day at home with the clan and the talk was all about the big trip!  The Friday following Thanksgiving, Bud's friend, Doug and I drove with him to the Marina and helped him prepare PassingWind for the journey "south".  We stood on the shore and watched with envy as Bud sailed out of the harbor, waiving his hands like a schoolboy, "Bye........Bye".... !   Big grin! 

So, I get home that evening and on my email from the day I get a notice that I'm eligible for early retirement!  Whoooo hoooo!   Hey, Bud... Waiiiitttt for meeee!   Oops... too late!   I couldn't even tell him for several days until he got a cell signal and called.  So, I'm scheduled to retire at the end of December and he's off the coast of Punte de Mita right now (Dec 21) and spent his day scuba diving and of course it's 80 degrees where he is, vs the rainy gloomy, cold days we've been having here.  But, I'm not there yet... I'm going to my parent's place in the Ft Worth area (Benbrook TX) for a few weeks to help out and I will meet up with Bud in February...have a flight out on the 9th for Puerta Vallarta.  In the meantime, his friends Doug and Larry are headed down to PV on Jan 6th for a month of "guy bonding time"... I say "don't ask, don't tell".  Truly, they all love to fish, scuba dive and plain ol' hang loose. 

I'm just starting this on these notes, so you can appreciate how we got to where we are. 

We have no plans after February.... none.  By the time I get there, he will have been gone from home for almost 3 months and may be ready to come home.... wouldn't THAT be a bummer... But I don't think so.  He's been gone "out sailing" for long times before and he simply LOVES it.  So, I'm looking forward to shorts, tee shirts, no shoes and a pony tail everyday!  Can't wait.    Will catch you later! 

Here's a pic of Mi Casa tethered to PassingWind... that's us on the left.  Oh yeah!