A 16 Year Sail around the World
As Margaret, a teacher, wife, mother, sailor, and a writer grew up in Alhambra, California, she enjoyed many outdoor activities and was an avid sports fan. She liked to travel and see new places, but had absolutely no idea that she would ever go sailing, much less sail around the world. She graduated from UCLA's School of Education and became a high school business education teacher; met and married her husband, Ken, a CPA; and together, they raised their two children in the Los Angeles area.  For the first 20 years of marriage, Ken and Margaret worked at their careers and at raising their family. Ken learned to sail and entered long-distance races, and Margaret spent her spare time playing tennis.  After Ken and Margaret celebrated their 25th anniversary by chartering a sailboat in Tonga, Margaret began to warm to the idea of doing some long-distance sailing. She had absolute confidence in Ken's sailing ability and gained confidence in her own seamanship through successful completion of U.S. Power Squadron Courses including celestial navigation. As the date of Ken's retirement drew near, she became intrigued by the names of many places on the globe that she knew she would never get to see any other way.  With a great feeling of accomplishment upon the completion of our circumnavigation in Ensenada, Mexico, we began to think about what to do next. We had just completed such a lengthy, eventful sailing voyage and learned about so many places around the world and met so many wonderful people, local inhabitants well as other cruisers, it was somewhat of a letdown to realize that we didn't have another specific goal.  First we decided that our days of long distance sailing were over. Also, day sailing was not appealing to either of us so we decided not to keep the boat. We looked for housing in and around Ensenada while living aboard Tomorrow, but we couldn't find anything that fit our budget and our living requirements.   Ken said that since Margaret had agreed to move on a boat and sail around the world with him, she should select where to live after sailing. She preferred to live in Southern California to be closer to family and friends and excellent medical care, but didn't have a specific area in mind. When our son, Carl, told us about a newly developed area about 60 miles northeast of San Diego, we took a look, liked what we saw, and purchased a small two-bedroom condominium in a community called Murrieta.