On the way to Bahia Santa Maria three milestone events happened: we caught our first dorado/mahi mahi, Carol had food poisoning and our friends hit a whale. And at Bahia Santa Maria our third milestone: flipping over a dinghy with its outboard engine on while surfing into shore.

The first is a milestone for obvious reasons. Dorado = Flaky white fish, perfect for grilling or making ceviche.

The second was a milestone because we had to deal with the fact that one of us was ill on passage. We were just starting our second night of a two night passage when Carol went down hard. I had to find a way to stand watch from 22:30 until we anchored at 08:30.

After handfuls of dark chocolate espresso beans (thanks Mom and Dad!), I enjoyed a hard earned glorious sunrise at the entrance to Bahia Santa Maria. The experience has me thinking about how to handle such events in the future, or what to do if we both were sick. I’m glad that I had rested well the first 24 hours and also that we had some mild stimulants (caffeine) and symptom alleviation meds aboard. I’m also glad that Carol was able to helm while I dropped anchor. I’ve done that singlehanded before but not while sleep deprived.

We’ll let Bella Star tell the whale tale.

Bahia Santa Maria was beautiful but we were pinned down by our recovery (Carol from illness and me from lack of sleep) and also by strong winds for the first 48 hours. The following morning we had Aaron and Nicole aboard for post-whale-mashing crepes and made plans for a day on the long sand beach at the North end of the bay. Unfortunately, instead of pictures of us cavorting in the sand, I have pictures of us working on outboard engines because while making our landing attempt, we turtled. No one was hurt and we quickly hauled all of our kit to the beach, except part of a pair of sunglasses which remained AWOL.

I’m thankful that all 4 of us are good sports and team players. Otherwise, the experience could have moved from “epic” to “extraordinarily painful” quickly. As it was, we got the dinghy relaunched with the guys in it so they could row to our boat and get a dry outboard and come rescue the remainder of the crew (clearly a blue job, eh?). They came back in, staying outside of the surf line, and Nicole and I swam out to the dinghy.

Dinghy maintenance was paired with cervezasand the planned but uneaten picnic aboard Estrellita . Both engines were purring (or at least running as well as before) by the time the afternoon was over. Good job guys!

A big thank you to the owner of Trilogy Yoga who runs yoga-by-donation classes daily on the bluff overlooking Long Beach, CA. Although I was rained out of the opportunity of taking more than one class I enjoyed my sunny day of vinyasa while watching boats sail below and it motivated me to do yoga more often.

While kiteboarding at Long Beach, Carol decided to donate a piece of his toe to a sting ray.

This meant a ride in the back of the lifeguard truck down the, er, long, sandy beach, Baywatch style. A big kudos to the Long Beach lifeguards. They soaked his foot in hot water until the sting went away and then dropped us and our gear at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club where Dr. Livia treated the gash.

Before - bloody with wine, after – saline wound wash, peroxide, iodine and pickle bandages.

Sting rays are friendly creatures as long as you don’t step on them. Knowing they were around, Carol shuffled his feet as he went out into the water BUT once kiteboarding, in a moment of beginner confusion, his foot slipped off the board and POW, stung.