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Monday, February 07, 2011

HI to MX Day 25

Yay, wind! After slatting around for hours last night, we finally got enough breeze to make progress in the right direction at 0500 today. Who would have thought our biggest problem would be no wind?! We have about 950 miles to go to Manzanillo and are really hoping we don't have to make a pit stop in Cabo for fuel. That would just drag it out as far as I'm concerned, but on the other hand I'd like to motor when we need to instead of drifting along listening to the sails bang back and forth! When John got up this morning we dropped the drifter and put our big "Mexico" jib on the furler. We call it the Mexico jib because that's where we got the most use out of it before heading south. It's perfect for all the light air sailing along the coast and up in the Sea of Cortez.

Putting up the big jib seemed to work like a magnet. We got some nice wind all afternoon and even hit six knots once or twice. But the biggest charm in conjuring up the wind has been John's ukulele practice. Twice he's gotten out his uke to play in the cockpit and twice we've had wind afterwards. And we had dolphin visits again! That uke is worth every penny John paid for it.

If I made it sound like Ziggy is now a sweet kitty climbing into bed with us, that is dead wrong. He's just a heat-seeking wild child, and you better not stick your hand out to pet him while he's curled up in that cute little ball or you'll get your skin sliced. John and I both ignored the obvious signs this morning that he was beyond playing and lost in the zone of terror (huge black dilated pupils and swishing tail). John came away with a bloody stump (never use the hand as a toy!) while I was ambushed from behind and got bite marks on my calf through two layers of clothing. John grabbed him and put him outside for a timeout, after which Ziggy had the nerve to come join me in bed! His eyes were a little wide as we looked at each other, but I ignored him and he settled down. Why, oh why, do we keep this crazy cat?!

The San Diego voices on the VHF dropped off last night and we've begun hearing Spanish now. [Later: San Diego came up again late this afternoon. Must be propagation. Same thing for the PacSeaNet. John's been able to check in there the last couple of nights.] Just can't believe we're still so far away from even some place as far north as Cabo. Feels like we should really be farther south by now!

Linda

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