Saturday, 6 December. I love being at sea! Deb & I had the 4:00AM watch this morning. When we got up the Southern Cross was shining bright in the sky, but soon dawn began to streak the Eastern horizon. By the time it was light, we decided to raise sail and motor sail (we had been just motoring all night) in light NE winds. After the sails were up and set and the sun had officially risen, we were visited by a pod of at least 12 spotted dolphins who played in our bow waves for 15 minutes or more. By the time they were gone, water was boiling for coffee. It promises to be a great day with gentle seas (2-3' from the NE), light winds building to 10-15 throughout the day and beautiful sunny skies. Life doesn't get much better than this! We left San Pedro yesterday about 9:30 AM. Motor sailed in moderate breeze until we dropped sail just before dusk as there were lots of clouds and rain on the horizon and we did not want to deal with a squall with sails up at night. We got a bit of rain, but no bad wind. About 2200 we saw a light astern of us growing rapidly. I checked the chartplotter and sure enough Carnival Miracle was steaming toward us at 20 kts. Closest point of approach was just over a mile, which is pretty close in the open sea at those speeds, so I picked up the VHF, "Carnival Miracle, Carnival Miracle, this is s/v Always" "Vessel calling Carnival Miracle go ahead." "We are a sail catamaran about 3 miles ahead of you and I just wanted to be sure you were aware of us." "Yes sir, we have you on our radar." "Thanks and have a good night. Always standing by 16." Aren't modern electronics wonderful! The AIS identified several other ships during the night none of which came close enough to warrant concern . At our current speed, we will make Isla Mujeres ahead of schedule - about 1800 tonight. I would prefer to speed up or slow down to arrive in daylight, but we will see what the day brings. It is a well buoyed harbor in any event.