The night shift watch - Sean, Sara, and Briana - thought they had left Will in good shape to finish in just a few hours, with an idiot proof course and lots of wind. Everything was fine until 2AM, when the wind decreased a little and the boat slowed to 5 knots. Okay, no worries, we'll finish at 4AM instead.
Sean and Briana were up and awake for the second shift from 1-6AM. They maintained some radio and visual contact with Sausiego (who would play another role a few days later in our Baja Adventuring) as the wind built. They were in for a much more exciting shift this second night!
While Sean and Briana were fighting with the flogging sails and trying desperately to maintain some boatspeed, Sara and Will were fighting with the noise of the flogging sails and trying desperately to get some sleep. Neither group was very successful.
We were all excited and up early. As the sun rose we prepared to cast off and push back from our slip. Today was the day we would leave the US and sail to Mexico!
On October 30th, 2006, we cast off from our slip in San Diego, clustered around the starting line with 150 other boats, then raced South out of the US and into Mexican waters. It was the beginning of our two-week journey down the Baja peninsula with the Latitude 38-sponsored Baja-Haha cruiser's rally / race.
We organized the ship's log day by day. The rally consists of three legs (two intermediate stops) and was a ton of fun.
If you've been following the last few entries, you see that I've been joined by Sean and Sara in writing the web logs! I love to write, really enjoy telling stories, but my therapist tells me I need to share more. Plus this way I can get outside and get some sun too. They'll be writing more for sure.
[ written by Sean ]
I was the first awake that day. Something about the excited screams from the boat off our port bow told me it was a good idea. Almost too late (goddammmit!) I saw the rich Gals on the sweet giant Beneteau in front of us enjoying a giggly early morning skinny dip!
[ written by Sara ]
One of my favorite places in all of California is Santa Catalina Island. But, up until recently, I had only visited Avalon during the day. Visiting Two Harbors and being able to stay until we grew tired of it was my idea of paradise!
It was a slow start on Wanderlust without Sean. We were both up with the sun and spent the morning chilling out, reading our books, having a nice slow breakfast, and we didn't get going until 10AM. Awesome! Sean's great, we're all getting along as a crew, but it's nice for Sara and me to have some time alone sometimes.
