Baja Slow Life

They say that it takes six months to really slow down and enjoy cruising. Or maybe it’s a year. Whatever it is I think we are finally there.

I realized this while making lattes this morning. It’s our second day of hunkering down in Ensenada Grande while the fierce northerly winds buffet the other side of the island. We haven’t been ashore in two days and talk about the idea of putting the outboard on the dinghy today and venturing to the beach.

It’s 11 am and I am tidying up our oatmeal breakfast dishes, which consists of piling them into the sink to wash sometime later in the day. “A latte sounds really nice today,” Michael mentions from where he sits on the settee, watching the girls color and draw at the table. It’s sunny and warm, not a cloud in the sky, and I’m still feeling awake from our first cup of joe hours ago. “Yeah, that does sound good,” I reply and start getting out our coffee paraphernalia: our Aeropress and filters, the coffee beans, the grinder, the soy milk, the chocolate soy milk, my vanilla syrup, the frother, our latte cups. I set a kettle of water on the stove to heat.

Meanwhile both girls take note of the action in the galley and pop their heads up above the sink. “Chocolate milk! Chocolate milk!” they chant in unison. “How about some Mexican hot chocolate?” I ask. “Yeah!” they declare with glee.

I get out another pan and measure two cups of milk into it, light the burner, then drop the Mexican hot chocolate tablets in to melt. Meanwhile, I pour some chocolate milk into the frother for Michael’s mocha, set it to heat, then grind the beans.

An hour later, I am sitting in the cockpit with my hot vanilla latte and a book. People are now clamoring below for a snack. “Twenty minutes!” I tell them. “I’m going to enjoy my coffee now!” For the next 45 minutes I sit with my feet up in the sun letting Michael handle the deluge of requests down below from the girls while I read a chapter in my book and sip my frothy hot drink.

When I am done I get up and stretch and go back inside to get started on lunch which we’ll need to power us for an afternoon of digging holes on the beach, writing practice in the sand, searching for shells, climbing on rocks, and watching fish dart through the shallows. We have a full day ahead.