From: John Barbie [jbarbie11@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2003 11:24 AM
To: rutharras@yahoo.com
Subject: Merry Christmas

Ahoy from Cabo San Lucas or otherwise known as the
little America in Baja.  We arrived on Christmas day
after a 5 day trip from donkeyville.  We were
pleasantly surprised to get wind on our first day and
to make matters better, John finally caught a 30 inch
fish.  Of course in all our preparations we forgot a
fish book and had no idea what the thing was so we
threw back what turned out to be excellent eating
thanks to the digital camera translator.  That same
day the winds started picking up and with it the
waves. Having no wind meter other than our flag, we
had no idea what we could call the conditions.  After consulting a few books we decided we had been in a gale.  Add another notch to our belt.  We took turns sailing all night preferably not looking behind us where swells were reaching 10 plus feet with whitecap breakers.  We named our autopilot Allan after our friend who once took the helm and managed to take the boat in five consecutive circles (Allan, you have trouble sailing downwind which happens to be our course for the next 5 months -- thanks.)  Otherwise sailing has been easy going with Spot ( now translated to Manchito or little stain) continually marking his
(our) sail  -- thank god we are still giong downwind. 
In Cabo we docked next to an array of fishing boats
each costing 1mil plus so we look a little out of
place especially with our quarantine flag announcing
us as illegals.  Fortunately Spot clears us of most
peddle pushers around town and even gets the quirky
stare from tourists who haven´´t seen a dog on a leash
yet.  

Our best wishes to all and Happy New Year.  From here
we are on to a more tropical coast line and hopefully
more fertile fishing grounds (despite Cabo being a
fishing tournament capital....John).

Ruth, John and Manchito.


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