January 24, 2017 La Paz, Mexico

For years if you asked me about seashores, my response is one of great joy. Seashores are one of my most favorite places to be. While growing up it was the place of glee and great adventure. We camped there, visited tide pools, and enjoyed special sites along the Pacific Coast. The smells are lovely. The sounds are amazing. There are all sorts of treasures on the shore from the sea, some living and some not. A seashore is so diverse in what might be observed or questions to be asked. What is the tide doing? What is the sand like? How big or small is the surf? How far can you wade out and still be knee deep in the water? Is the water warm or cold? On and on for endless hours of curiosity! These questions and more still circle in my mind on the shores I am walking now. 

While pondering the shore this week, the seashore becomes an interesting metaphor about life. Think of all the different ways a shore is described: life is a beach; like grains of sand; shipwrecked; the water is fine; the tides of life; waves of life; and on you may go. For so long my perspective has been of me on the shore looking out at the sea. It seems while I stand on the shore and look out, that my perspective is full of questions that beg me to discover something great or new. It causes me to wonder and imagine. It feels so alive! So full of positive potential, comfort, peace, rest and refreshment.

Since Tim and I have set sail upon the sea, the shore is different now. We see the shore and what lies beyond, inland. The view is different. The questions feel different. From the sea, a shore can be a place of danger. Coming too close can mean shipwreck or peril. Many questions have to be clearly answered before going ashore. What is the water depth? Is it high or low tide? Are we anchored well? What is the wind doing or forecasted to do? The shore beckons and calls for discovery and daylight plays a part. Life is a little more complicated upon the sea near the shore.

When you leave the shore and venture out into the sea you enter an arena of the unknown in the sense that you have little to no idea what you might discover, see or encounter. Nearly all the information you have when leaving are maybes. The winds may be 10-15 knots from the northwest, the seas may be 2-4 feet building to 6 feet, etc. You simply adjust to whatever comes along the best you can. We have equipment, plans and/or training for most situations we may encounter. There is cause to wonder, but I don’t like to think about the negative what-ifs. There is plenty of potential for good or bad. It feels so powerful and intense!

You may have heard that life is safe on the shore. It’s a place of security and safety. Maybe even a sense of control in what you do on the shore. If you don’t like what’s on the shore you make decisions freely to remedy the situation. Does that seashore grow you and stretch you? Being at sea means staying away from the shore, abandoning control in many ways (you can control your responses but not the sea), and tuning in to the moment, the right now. There may be peril and great adventure ahead.

I still long for the security of the shore, that regular paycheck and my life routines. To drive my car instead of a dinghy. Dreaming about what if and working in my gardens still calls to me like a siren’s song. Obligations from the shore still come due. Oh, that we might become completely free just to live on the sea! 

In pondering the shores of life this last week I was thinking about how the shore can be a bit like a trash can for the sea. Dead and seemingly useless things are expelled and left to nature to recycle. Living things wait on the shore for the tide to return and wash over them again. As I look at my shore of life, I wonder what is dead and what is alive? There are so many questions that have stolen my rest. Some cannot be answered, others will be answered at the change of the tide, and some will not have an answer until I lose sight of the shore. 

My biggest challenge is to let go of my thoughts so I can discover new thoughts; let go of who I’ve been and all I have accomplished to embrace the new me with new accomplishments waiting for me. I can’t cling to what’s been, I have to embrace the new in the current moment of my life. To enter the picture frame of my view from the shore looking out into the sea leaving the shore behind to fully enter the sea of life.

What is your biggest challenge between your shore and the sea of life?

​Lynette Jenne 

January 14, 2017 La Paz, BCS, Mexico

I can hardly believe that two weeks have already passed! Tim and I have been playing with some different media ideas and have posted a few videos on our Facebook Page. I wonder how many of our readers think we are living in paradise, in the lap of luxury? I will not deny that we are in a spectacularly beautiful place! What is life really like? You must want to know. Our boat was built in 1979 in Hong Kong. It boasts teak both above and below deck. The teak on the top side needs to be refinished and sealed before we are going to be heading out again. This takes time to complete. Tim is tired of being tied to the dock, he’s ready to get out there in Sea of Cortez and see more of this amazing area. Some of you may be thinking, then get out there! Easily said!

Here is our average day: 
For Lynette:
After sleeping, or being in bed for about 10 hours, I finally emerge from the v-berth about 0800 or so. I make my coffee and enjoy drinking it, followed by making breakfast which usually consists of oatmeal. After breakfast the dishes have to be washed and are left to air dry. Then comes tidying the cabin and completing various chores that need doing. By now it is usually after 1000. My next tasks are usually planned the night before with Tim. For the last week it has been sanding the teak for 2-3 hours. Then comes lunch followed by more dishes. Next is my afternoon coffee break. I sit down to do an hour of DuoLingo to improve my Spanish. Once it’s about 1630 or so Tim and I walk down to the beach for sunset. Some days we go to the club with friends for drinks and maybe the pool or hot tub. We work our way back to the boat to have dinner, after which there are more dishes to wash. We then spend the evening in various ways such as visiting with our friends, watching a movie on my 13” laptop, playing games, working or cleaning. Finally, we plan what we hope to get done the following day and I head off to bed sometime between 2030 and 2230.

For Tim:
Tim sleeps less than Lynette does. He is usually up much earlier in the morning to catch a faster internet signal to complete his work. Tim spends about 4 or so hours each day working, as in working for dollars. Tim then begins his boat tasks of the day. The tasks can include sanding, applying epoxy, fixing rigging, adjusting other items to work better, repairing things that have broken, and on the list goes. Tim often calls it a day at lunch time and other times he gets right back to work for a couple more hours before we head to the beach. Some days he’s the jack of all trades and forward progress is halted for other repairs.

There you have it a day in the lives of the Jenne’s! Our friends Steve and Janny have a motto for La Paz: “Every day we work, we play, and we take a nap.” We are aspiring to be like them for sure. This last week I had the word linger go through my mind. According to dictionary.com it means: “(verb) loiter, delay. It is synonymous with: amble, dawdle, hang out, hang around, goof off, mosey, dilly-dally, drift.” It is the opposite or antonym of: “go, hurry, leave, rush.”

If you are personally acquainted with us, you already know how focused and driven we can both be. This drive is not in the sense of running people over, but in accomplishing things we want to get done or achieve. From June to the end of December there has been this internal pushing and pressure to hurry up and get our boat ready to just get going again. Hurry up and get out of bed, go! Come on! Get moving! I have been asking myself what is this go-go-go thing? I believe somehow I grasped the idea that my time is going to run out and I have more to do. I am not talking about my life being over, I’m talking in general about my day-to-day journey. Or we have to hurry up so the cruising kitty doesn’t run dry.

If I truly want to enjoy and experience different cultures it will require me to linger, enjoying the moment in its fullest while experiencing the absence of a pressure to go towards the next moment. We have decided to embrace lingering. It has brought us more rest and we are actually making more progress on our boat projects than before. As I sit here at the beach club, watching the sun setting as I write, I’m ready to embrace a life of lingering in all that I do, even the cleaning and sanding projects. This means I will no longer feel pressured that time or money are going to run out. How about you? Tell us what you think.