On our mission to sail and surf around the world, six months ago Tyler and I made the biggest mistake of our lives. We bought a neglected and broken boat in a foreign country and thought we could fix it up and sail away. We didn’t grow up near boats, we didn’t know anything. We never got the boat surveyed, and it wasn’t in any shape to take a test sail before we bought it. What were we thinking? Every day for six months we put our heart and soul into that hunk of junk, and often it seemed like everything we touched broke.
Being in Mexico didn’t help anything either. Many of the Mexicans saw young gringos with a boat and thought about all the money we must have, and there were plenty of times we got pushed around and walked on. What were we supposed to do, we aren’t from the country and who knows what kind of connections these people have. Better to dish out a bit of money than to make enemies. Even some of the other foreign sailors down there sold us junk that didn’t work, but they assured us we would need it. We were new to the game and had a lot to learn.
We took out my masts and found that the main mast, which is one of the most integral parts of the boat, was littered through and through with termite damage and worthless. Did the sellers of the boat know this? Is this why it came so cheap? Here we were, stuck in the Mexican 100 plus degree heat, just trying to get out of Mexico without having to throw our cards in, forget about all the money and time we lost, sink the boat and come back to the states with our tail between our legs.
We stuck to it. Every week we made a list of the things that had to be done and every day we crossed things off. We made decisions not knowing if they would be right or wrong. Many times we did things solely based on hunches, and just messed with things until they worked. We wouldn’t take no for an answer.
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