When I bought the boat, I had gone down there over a weekend, expecting to be back to work Monday. Once I bought it I had to stay and go to the DMV that Monday and have it transferred to my name. The lines at the DMV were very long as usual and I almost missed my flight home! My boss was not amused. “well I guess you gotta do what you gotta do” he said, in that tone of voice your mother uses when she is very displeased with you…..

I had not yet decided to keep my boat in Dana Point. Rick, the guy I bought it from, allowed me to leave it in his slip there in Dana until I could make other arrangements. There were several other marinas I wanted to look at before deciding.

After a few weeks Rick called and said he was buying another boat and needed his slip ASAP, so much to my bosses displeasure I went back down for a week in February 2010 to get her into a permanent slip of my own. I had thought I might be able to recruit a buddy to help sail her up the coast to one of the other marinas I was looking at , but once down there again and realizing that there was more to do than I had thought, and that everything takes 3 times longer to get done, I decided to get the work done that week and get my own slip there in Dana. In order to qualify for a slip, I had to pass a coast guard inspection, which required certain safety elements. Mostly electrical stuff. I was studying up on all this but this was over my head so I hired a boat guy to get it done fast and right. We pretty much rebuilt the entire electrical system, both the AC 110 volt plug in, and the 12 volt DC systems, to make it updated to modern safety standards. It was really a mess, and quite dangerous. I planned to eventually run the whole boat on 12 volt solar panels and not need the shore power plug in, but I knew I would need it for the short term so I went ahead and did it all right from the start.

Mid week while the electrical guys had to go work on some other project for a day, I hired a sailing instructor to take me out for a sail, and I got my first chance to sail her. She performed perfectly, every bit as good as I had hoped. It was a gloomy day, blustery, rainy, big grey seas swelling, and I loved every minute of it. She has an easy helm, meaning she sailed well without requiring a fight with the tiller to keep her on course. Any boat can be rigged to be that way but it can be a pain getting it all dialed in, and I was thrilled to know she was so well balanced from the start.

When we got back and I went to pay the guy, my wallet was missing! I admit I wasn’t sure if it had been in my pocket or on the shelf in the boat, I could have even lost it at the store for all I know. It could have fallen out while I was leaning over to trim the jib or something. I am still not sure how that could have happened. My wallet pocket has a velcro flap, and I have never lost a wallet before. I half suspect that the instructor dude could have lifted it off the shelf. He did go below once to tie down the dock bumpers while I was steering. He had been recommended to me by my neighbor George , who takes me sailing all the time and who seems like a very nice guy, but I don’t know how well he knows this other guy. I confess I was too shy to challenge him since I can’t be sure where I last saw my wallet.

Anyway, it was gone. I was in a pickle. I was sick. All my cash, credit cards, checks, ID, all gone. I had nothing, and here I needed to pay this instructor guy, pay my slip fees, pay the contractor, buy gas to get home. I called my bank to see if they could wire me some money and they said sorry they don’t do that!. You are freaking kidding me. I called another bank I had just happened to deposit some emergency money into just the week before , as a “fall back on just in case” fund that I would not have easy access to. It turns out they would wire the funds but I needed ID in order to pick it up and I had no ID! I was really in a pickle! After about 3 hours of going nuts with bank people, I finally got a manager to agree to wire it to me in small bits each day, with me giving an answer to that secret question “what is my mothers maiden name” at the Western Union place. I had to keep going back 3 days in a row in order to get enough cash. Enough that is to pay my slip fees for the boat and get home. I had to convince the contractor dude that I would Fed EX him the money on Monday as soon as I got home. I know he didn’t believe, but he had no choice. “Fine” he said in that tone of voice …

I completed everything just in time for the inspection at 4:00 on Saturday, ran to the marina office just before they closed, paid them and got my slip assigned right next door, and since I still didn’t know how to drive a boat with an engine, I used lines to move her out and over to mine as the sun was going down. It was raining the next morning at 4 AM as I closed her up and took off for the 14 hour drive home. I wasn’t exactly sure how soon I could get back down here, but one of my neighbor, Kevin, promised to keep an eye on her for me.

PS: I moved all my money to a bank with branches in California. I also scanned all my important ID stuff and emailed it to myself so if this ever happened again I could at least print out a copy of some documentation of who I am.