Gentle Seas

Am on my 3-5 a.m. night watch as I write this. The seas have been gentle and pleasant and my seasickness patch has been working wonderfully. Last night on this same watch with an almost full moon, we saw a pod of whales - we've been trying to identify which kind but we think they were false killer whales or melon-headed whales due to the fin we saw. While the sight was pretty spectacular, it was also a little unnerving: During the first night of the Baja Haha Rally, a very experienced crew had to abandon their boat which had been attacked by a whale. The crew waited about 2 hours in their dinghy but were rescued by the coast guard. Their boat, however, sank. While this type of thing is incredibly rare, when you are sitting in the middle of the ocean, 20 miles offshore, you feel rather vulnerable. For more info on the Baha Haha and the whale incident, you can go to their website at http://www.baja-haha.com/index.html (thanks for that link, Mimi).

We've now reached warmer climates. It's 75 degrees at 3 a.m. and we hope to swim tomorrow if we get into Bahia Santa Maria before nightfall. We've been covering a lot of ground (or should I say ocean) and even overtook a monohull in the rally yesterday. We all dashed onto deck to be able to see other humans. We are no longer in last place! As for the rally, there is a party in Bahia Santa Maria today at 1. Not sure we'll make it, but the rally leaves there at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning, so we'll have caught up (even though we left 3 days after everyone). The kids are ecstatic about that.

Interestingly we haven't really had a dull moment. There are always things that need to get done. Yesterday is was pumping water out of the port engine room and sealing a leak. We've also had to trouble shoot issues with our water maker. Another day it was the battery charger. The list goes on. In addition, I spend at least half the day home schooling the kids (actually, we learn for only about 3 hours, but there's a lot of time getting ready for school - some things never change :) . At this point we've completed 4 weeks of school so will need to do school on Sundays for a while to catch up.

Harrison is feeling much better. Still a cough, but fever free for the last 36 hours. Feeling very relieved.

You'd think on such a small boat that Michael and I would spend loads of time together but it's actually been like two ships passing in the night (literally). We are on opposite watch schedules, nap at different times, and attend to completely different tasks. Am grateful for the smooth division of labor though.

Had pasta with sautéed onions, broccoli rabe and swiss chard, plus salad for dinner. Yum. Produce has been lasting very well.

More later.
25 degrees 16.315 minutes N
113 degrees 14.183 minutes W