If you are a fan of Arrested Development you know just the voice to read the above line in, as sun sets on our third day out, and we finally look at each other and break down how we've each been feeling inside. The realization we've come to is that this is not the time or the place for us to try our hand at long distance passagemaking. Acceptance of this reality is how we find ourselves here at 4:15AM, doing about 4.2kts (close hauled as we have been the last 70 something hours) headed back towards Mexico.

Let me start by saying that we are both really happy, and this decision sits much better than any of the quasi-decisions we've kicked around over the last month or so. Pisces is sailing great, we are having a great time, and are looking forward to the several days it will take for us to close back with land. So this is certainly not a story of regret, we are feeling great!

Unless you happen to have been in the La Cruz area over the last several weeks, we realize that you probably have no background on our thought process, so I'll try to give you the extremely brief synopsis of many a long evening spent walking around the marina and town trying to reason out what we should do. Essentially our options fell into two main camps: 1) Offshore to Hawaii and back or 2) Ship/Truck. The offshore route had several big things going for it, including (apparent lack of) cost, the opportunity to gain experience at offshore cruising, and the general bad-ass factor of pulling into the Puget Sound after 6000 something offshore miles. The shipping method had its own advantages, including the fact that it maximizes the fun value for our last several months, allowing us time to go back into the Sea of Cortez and then spend some additional time exploring the NW before starting 'real life.' There were many nuances to the arguments but essentially that is how it broke down, do we do the thing that is way out of our comfort zone but a major achievement, or do the thing that we know we enjoy?

Looking back at it, I think we both wanted to do the shipping option, but felt we ought to do the offshore option. The boat is ready, we have the time, and it's the right time of year to do it...sounds like the perfect combination right? Actually wrong. One of the lessons we've learned is that its not enough for the external factors alone to be in line, all the internal factors have to be there too. Are you excited about your destination? Do you feel 100% committed to the passage? Questions like that need to be discussed in a completely honest manner, because they are critical to the success of your passage.

As the first several days of our passage progressed, we both indepently and then jointly came to the conclusion that our own answers to the internal questions were frequently 'no.' What we really wanted was to get a bit of offshore time (say 10-14 days ideally) so that we'd have a sense of whether it was something we would want to do more of later down the line, and then to spend the rest of our summer exploring, hiking, snorkeling, etc.

Another important turning point for us was a day or two in when we realized that there was no way in hell...and I repeat, no way in hell, we were going to sail to Hawaii and then turn around in one months time and sail back to Seattle. We know people who have done this passage, and another of our friends perfectly sums them up as being 'total Vikings.' Since we were sure we would not be doing the return trip the financial picture of the different options changed, with Hawaii becoming the most expensive of all the options (due to the need to hire a delivery skipper or ship from Hawaii to Seattle). Not to mention how strange it would feel to hand over the keys to your home, vehicle, family member, etc to three random people to go bash through the North Pacific for a month...

As we closed with the Socorros Islands we knew it was really decision time, given the way the winds shift, and the distances involved, we would soon be passing a point of no return, where it just would not be that feasible to get back to Mexico without battling contrary winds the whole way. Together we came to the conclusion that we could be totally happy with the 5 days to a week that this shakedown sail will give us, combined with the shipping option. We've had the opportunity to get back out into bluewater with Pisces, shake her and us down again, and yet we still get to do the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Northwest, it feels ideal.

So, in a nutshell that's the story of how we find ourselves doing either the world's shortest passage to Hawaii or the world's longest passage between La Cruz and Punta de Mita (depends on your perspective):) Currently we are aiming as far North as the winds will allow, which at times is Mazatlan, and at times Banderas Bay. No matter where we make landfall we will most likely try to make it over to Baja relatively quickly, as we want to revisit some of our favorite anchorages before our time in Mexico is up.

Lat 19 46' N, Long 108 11' W