I forgot to mention a "man overboard" drill that we had to do during our passage from Puerto Don Juan to Alacran. We were sailing along very nicely and John was bent over in the companionway futzing with the fish finder. The main sheet must have caught his rod and reel and popped it straight up enough so that it then slid right down through an opening in the pushpit (stern pulpit). It wasn't in use at the time, just stowed resting in the pushpit. He saw the pole floating for a few seconds so we immediately got the engine running and did an about face to try to find it, but the reel must have sunk it soon after it hit the surface. It was so sad because he had purchased the rod and reel at a fishing show that just happened to be running in San Diego when we visited there in April. Fortunately neither item was very expensive, but it will cost twice as much to replace the set down here. Oh, well, it's just money. Needless to say, he will be mounting a clip of some sort to secure the pole to the pushpit so this doesn't happen again.
John's out fishing as I write this. He has a backup pole, but he came home from fishing with it the other day and said he remembered why he didn't like it. It's so light that anything he catches feels like a huge fish. Not only is this a lot of work, but he would be in big trouble if he ever caught anything really sizeable on it!
We are still in San Francisquito where, other than the first windy day and night, the weather has been very mild. The water temp however, is down to 73 degrees and it was 68 degrees in the cabin this morning!
Linda and John