the day of thousands of porpoise

What a day! While my crew still sleeps i am trying to keep up here with a posting...before setting sail for another day. Yesterday was the kind of day that makes me look forward to today. Who knows, maybe today will make me wonder what tomorrow will bring. Do you remember that feeling as a kid? You didn't want to take a nap because you didn't want anything to happen without you? Kinda like that. When the buddhist in me appreciates the morning light pouring in and the sound of peaceful sleepers and the luck of this next breath. Not the kid, not the monk, always somewhere in between...where we all belong.

We started early enuf to admire the "sky on fire" as the sun rose. The weather was light yesterday as we made the 40 miles from Oxnard to LA. And for only the second day so far, we sailed up wind. The seas were small if not downright calm, more like a bay or sound than an open ocean. By the end of the day we had motored about an hour, and we finished on the full main and drifter.

In the morning Cody got our fishing career off to a good start catching a small tuna. We haven't had any "keepers" yet, but we figure we're learnin' as we go.

Then the porpoise showed up! I looked up ahead and saw a few splashes and fins, only to realize

that there were more beyond them, and more closer than them, and more beyond those...to the horizon. "Porpoise!" i called to Ty and Cody. "Hundreds!" Not yet able to imagine... "Okay, maybe a thousand"...."Okay, make that plural, thousands..." Beautiful creatures. What is it about them that seems joyous?

In the transition between the morning's southeast wind and the afternoon's west wind, we...dove off the boat. The water (about 400' deep) not warm, but not PNW cold either. Just a quick dip, and then warm rinse with the back deck shower. Perfect! "That" feeling arrived - "there is no place else i would rather be than right here right now."

Dinner? Grilled blackened tuna (from the freezer this time), sauteed vegies, rice and salad, wine and a big Cadbury bar busted up into lots of pieces. Thank you very much.

Today? (Halloween?) We're aimin' for Catalina. Thinkin' tomorrow San Diego - where we'll go to the Mexican consulate and take care of paperwork. Then Ensenada - my crew is champin' at the bit to get into MX.