From: John Barbie [jbarbie11@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 1:43 PM To: rutharras@yahoo.com Subject: across the sea of cortez Greetings from Mazatlan, We haven't made it all that far since our last email but it took us forever to wait out the weather. We tried leaving Cabo over a week ago but after hours of water plunging into the cockpit, we decided it might be best to wait it out. So we returned to anchor and spent the nights slapping against waves at night and bombarded by cruise ships and jet skis by day. The one advantage of staying in Cabo longer was that we met a lot of fellow cruisers most of whom had spent Christmas together further north. We were delighted to hear that everyone has approximately the same route, southish, and same schedule, when the weather is good, as us. We were also startled to learn that we aren't totally under-prepared or at least when compared with the other 6 boats who left too late in the season (coincidence?). Of 5 boats, 3 of us have autopilot 2 of which work, 2 have chart-plotters, one has radar, none has the "essential weather fax", 1 has 4 anchors (us), 1 has one anchor. We decided to buddy up with two Irish and their dog, Rufus, now a good friend of Spot's. We promptly decided to take different routes to Mazatlan after departing Cabo leaving John and I wondering what the buddy system actually is. We arrived in Mazatlan after an exciting 2 day sail. According to some techie in Seattle via shortwave radio, we experienced 30 knot winds and 10 ft waves (probably not). According to the Mexican nautical reports, we experienced the same 10 knot wind that had convinced us to turn around a week earlier. So who knows? We are glad to have arrived safely and found a local restaurant that filled out tummies with marlin and pork chops for $2.50 a piece. Not to be overlooked, John became twice the man by catching a second fish -- this time a tuna. Yet again the seas were up and unless we decided to eat sashimi 3 days in a row, I wasn't mentally prepared to kill, splice and dice the fish in a tiny leaning kitchen. Our major boat repair this week was not the burnt out anchor light courtesy of my wattage error, but rather how to rig up our AC powered TV VCR so we could watch a movie at anchor. Seeing as I had cold and could think of nothing more pleasurable than watching a flick, I worked some wires and by New Years eve we were merrily watching Office Space (thanks for rewinding it Kim) and eating Ramen noodles, a perfect way to end the year in a sailboat off Mexico of course. Best wishes on this new year. Please excuse the verbiage but after reading a book a day, words don't matter... Regards, Ruth , John and Spot __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Find out what made the Top Yahoo! Searches of 2003 http://search.yahoo.com/top2003