Mika in Mexico

Surfing?

Is it on???

Back to the S.F. Bay Area to build up our cruising kitty.

Dominga went up to Washington to spend some well needed time with her family for a couple of months and James went back to OCSC sailing school to work. 

Here James is teaching the Offshore Drakes Bay class.

Great time circling the Farallon Islands

American won't let me go!

America won't let us go!

I thought when I left the shores of the U.S. I'd be done with all the debt and payments of life in America. Before we sailed away for our slow-motion tour of the world, we made sure we had no monthly payments and all of our debt was paid off. 

But the long arm of the "American Dream" won't let us go. It started with a notice from the IRS after we have been in Mexico for a year. They wanted to let me know that H&R Block made a little mistake in my 2011 taxes and I now owed $3900 in back taxes. Oh ya, the interest and penalties were adding up, so pay soon. 

Then Alameda county sent me a bill for 2014 property taxes for our boat. We were there in 2012 and 13 , and did pay the property taxes for those years. But we were in Mexico for all of 2014 , so owed no taxes for that year. I thought this must just be a oversight and thought a quick email would straighten out the issue. Oh no, that would be to easy. They informed me that I had to prove I wasn't there or they were putting a lean on my boat. I emailed them the only proof I had, which was the Temp. Import Permit (which you get from Mexico to allow you to keep you boat in Mexico for 10 years). And we did spend a total of 10 days in marinas, which I had receipts for. I didn't hear back from them for 5 months. 

Then, California found out about the H&R Block mistake and I now owed them $1500. 

And Then, when I tried to renew my expired drivers license they let me know I had two unpaid traffic tickets and that both had failure to appear warrants! One in Oakland, which I remember getting and thought I paid. The other was in Fairfield for not having a registration, which I don't remember getting. These were both for the last few months we were in the states.

5 new bills?! I thought I was done with this crap! 

I called Oakland, about one of the traffic tickets, and was only on hold for 30 minutes before a very nice man talked me through the bill of $467. He even let me know that if I wrote a letter to the judge he sometimes will excuse the $300 for the warrant and I could only pay the $167 for the ticket. I was pleasantly surprised. He was very nice. 

So I was hoping for the same when I called Fairfield........ not so much. 

This guy talked like a robot and informed me that they sent out a notice to the last known address, (which was a address that I haven't used in 6 years). When the noticed was returned they filed it and now there were penalties and interest for a total of $597 and it had been sent to their collections dept. so now there was nothing he could do about it and I had to call them and pay them. He said all this like he was reading from a script. For some reason that set me off. 

I went on a 5 minute rant, during which time he never said a word and just listened. I won't go over all the details, but I did say things like, how I had updated my address with the DMV 4 years ago and why couldn't they get my updated address from them!? Where did they get my address? Do they work from paper files!? Or did they use micro-fish!? I said I'll pay this extortion money because the system didn't allow me any choice, but I hoped they use part of the money to update their systems to the twenty first century! "I know you're just a drown with no decision making power and your job was just to deal out the misery, so you don't give a crap about anything I am even saying, do you?!" This semi-abusive rant went on for 5 minutes. After, there was a short pause like he was making sure I was finished. And then, in a monotone voice, said "yes sir,....... would you like the number for the collection department now"?

So when I called the collections department, I wasn't in a great mood. 

She was just as mechanically toned as mister personality from Fairfield. She was just as patient as I repeated my rant to her. She also couldn't care less about anything I was saying. 

I asked her if I could set up a payment plan and how much did I have to pay every month. 

"Sir, as long as you make a payment every month, you can pay any amount you want". 

Even a dollar? 

"Yes Sir". 

Ya, but the interest is so high that I'll be paying forever, right? 

 "Sir, as long as you make a payment every month, there will be no interest charged". 

So, I went right to the website she gave me and set up a payment plan for $1 a month for the next 597 months. That's a little less than 50 years.

Somehow I felt like I won that one.

Now I had to deal with Alameda county. I started a email campaign until I got a email informing me that a "supervisor" called me to ask if I filed taxes in California in 2014 and because they didn't get a call back they closed my file and put a lean on my boat! 

I got no such call and we have been communicating via email the whole time, why now the call? Now I'm pissed! I looked up every email I could find in the Alameda county that had anything to do with marinas, taxes, collections and ALL supervisors, in every department.  I sent then all a email outlining the entire history of how I was being illegally charged and their process for charging taxes was a scam and how I have tried to get help and everyone there acting like I was wasting their time. The next day I got a email from a supervisor letting me know that they have reviewed my file and they agreed with my stand on this and would reverse the lean on my boat. 

Three issues down. 

For the IRS, I sent them a request for monthly payments and didn't hear back from them for months. So then I started the campaign to talk to a person. I made 3 calls where I was on hold for over 45 minutes and all of the calls ended with them (their phone-bot, at least) hanging up on me. I tried email also with no luck. I then decided to go down to the IRS office in Oakland, to talk to them face to face. The lady at the front disk gave me a number and said its going to be about 2 hours before I can talk to someone. Or, I could call the IRS office and if I did it between the hours of 6 and 7 pm, I would get through. She said it was some little known secret. 

She was right! I was only on hold for 20 minutes and was talking to a person! And she was nice! Amazing, isn't it. Blow me away too. Also, some how the total dropped from $3900 to $1890! I was to afraid to ask her why. That's the total she gave me, and I was going with it.  She also said I could make payments as low as $28/month with no more penalties and only 3% interest. Again, somehow I felt like I won that one, even though I'm still paying. I think state agencies have figured out this way to just make us think we've won. 

So we're stuck back here in the states until we pay off all these, what I call 'American Dream' bills. Hopefully just a few months, and then back to Nomatia. We can't wait. 

Why we cruise on a sailboat

I have had people ask me why I enjoy the cruising life style and why I'm not afraid of sailing on oceans and living a "risky" life style. They somehow think it's a dangerous endeavor. I must really look at things differently then most people. 

When most people watch something on the news or a movie about a sailboat sinking offshore, they look at that and think, 'that must be dangerous'. But when I see these movies, I think it must happen so rarely that when it does it's noteworthy enough to be on the news or make a movie about it. But thousands of people die driving down the streets every year. It happens so often that you almost hear nothing about it even though people die in car accidents about every minute in America. 

It must be safer out in the ocean then living in anyplace on land.

The other thing I hear is ' what about financial securely, aren't you afraid you'll go hungry?' This stems from their false sense of job securely they have about their jobs. You can easily be fired, companies go out of business, funding runs out, economic melt downs (a big one is coming very soon) etc....etc. on the other hand we have many skills that we know will always be in demand and we know we will never be without work when we need it. Which is another thing, " when we need it". Living in the states there is a never ending parade of bills. Rent, cable, health insurance, car insurance, car payments, gas for the car, electric bills, property taxes, income taxes, life insurance, cell phone, Internet, tolls, etc..etc.. It never ends. We, on the other hand have no monthly bills, produce our own electricity, can catch a lot of our own food, have no rent, live in countries where health care is cheap or free and don't pay taxes. We don't need much money and only work about half the time and 'vacation' half the time. While in the states most people are lucky to get two weeks vacation a year. 

All this is without even mentioning the best part, we get to travel and see the world.

So the real question is why would anyone want to live in the states when life is so much safer, more secure, mind opening, and just plain better, cruising on a sail boat.