Corona Run 2020
As we were finishing up our boat projects, the Corona Virus situation had ramped way up in the States, and was starting to do so in Mexico. It was on my birthday, March 15, that I noticed a few bottles of hand sanitizer on the tables of a couple restaurants. Within a week schools had been shut and more people were wearing masks, and by March 30 the government began ordering, and then enforcing shut-downs, including the boat yard. We started receiving increasingly strongly-worded notices that we would soon need to vacate – by land or by sea. The boat could stay; we could not. Three options surfaced at that time: 1. Drive home, drop off our stuff and pick up Tuxie, get back to the boat as fast as possible for a few months of cruising around Mexico until summer, then go home. 2. Drive home and stay home through summer (largely doing little-to-nothing due to the virus) and resume plans in the fall. 3. Don’t drive home, store the van, launch the boat, leave Tuxie at home, cruise until summer, then go home. We were pretty set on Option 1 for several days… until the border was closed to non-essential travel, with the guidelines of essential vs. non-essential very vague. We knew we could for sure get home as US citizens, but had significant doubts we’d be permitted to return to the boat, and it seemed the situation was changing on a daily basis.
Meanwhile talk around the boat yard turned to security. If the yard was shut down, would they / could they maintain a security staff for the boats? Petty theft is a known issue around Guaymas even in normal times (our outboard was stolen last year). With businesses shuttered for a month or more, what would desperation drive people to do, with literally millions of dollars sitting unguarded in the yard just in parts, motors, electronics, stainless, and accessories on all the boats? The thought of returning to Solla in October to find her stripped of years of our work was unbearable. Yard management made assurances, but other locals in-the-know said there would most definitely be banditos (yes, that word was used). And it was that word, banditos, that tipped the scales for me. This and the very real possibility of endangering our loved ones at home by bringing the virus to them, not necessarily back from Mexico, but by being at home and shopping for them, etc.
The “pros” side was stacking up: practice extreme social distancing in the Sea of Cortez on our boat purpose-built to be fully self-sufficient, ensure it isn’t stripped/looted, keep our friends and family safe by staying away, avoid extreme boredom, enjoy the prime cruising season.
“Cons”: be without Tuxie, be away from friends/family in this difficult time, leave the van and all the equipment inside up to the security of the yard.
Several phone calls were made, as you might imagine. The Toschi’s were especially gracious as they both own the van and were taking care of Tuxie – they were fine with whichever choice we made. Our moms said to take care of ourselves and the boat, and our friends said, “What are you nuts? Why come home and sit inside for months? GO SAILING!”
As I type this around 2 weeks after dropping in the water (April 20), I can still feel all the angst of that decision, and to say that I miss Tuxie like crazy is a gross understatement. But we’re in a beautiful anchorage in central Baja (San Jaunico), it’s 73 degrees and sunny, Harry is off fishing for the fresh fish we eat nightly, the solar panels are easily recharging our batteries, we’re drinking water-maker-made water, and the only Corona in our lives is the new Corona-Cero (Corona Zero) – the Corona beer w/o alcohol that is surprisingly tasty (I’m not drinking this month). Best-case scenario, by late-May the COVID situation will be somewhat managed, we can haul the boat in Guaymas for hurricane season, and drive home in a non-stolen van June-ish. Tux will forgive my extended absence despite being put on a diet (reports are that she’s fat now), and of course that all loved ones are safe and sound. We feel extremely fortunate for our relatively minor inconveniences in these unprecedented times, and hope that everyone reading this is coping as best they can.
