Julie Mays
01/27/2008, Balboa Yacht Club, California

We left Dana Point at about 2pm on Saturday, again expecting terrible weather, but instead got no wind and just a bit of rain. We had my sister and our friends Paul and Ulrik aboard, so we had a fun, but slow, motor up the coast.

As we had planned, we entered the Newport Beach breakwater at 5pm and were greeted by Keith, a friend of Chris' from UCSB, in his Duffy and our family friends Taylor and Steve who came out in Chris's little Avon to take photos and escort us in.

We had dressed the boat with the proper sequence of flags and arrived at the BYC where the dock was filled with our family and friends. Chris and I lit some flares and popped that bottle of South African bubbly that we've been saving for this very occasion.

After we got tied up, we all had a champagne toast on the dock followed by a casual party at the Yacht Club. Mexican food, of course, was on the menu. We showed pictures from our trip and had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends - many of whom we had not seen since we left three years ago.

It was a really emotional, exciting and all-around wonderful evening and I truly cannot think of a better way to end the trip. It is a day we have been anticipating for a long time and will certainly never forget.

We will we have a lot of great photos to post in our gallery soon (thanks so much to Steve Orloff)...so check back in a few days. We're not signing off just yet!

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Julie Mays
01/25/2008, San Diego, California

We left Mission Bay this morning fully prepared for gale force winds, but the forecast was wrong and we have not seen above about 18 knots and it's dead behind. So, what else would we do than put up the spinnaker that has been packed away since Antigua Race Week last spring. It's great sailing (especially after the last few months of beating) and we're averaging an easy 7+ knots. Oh, and it's almost warm out.

We are about seven miles from Dana Point where we will spend the night at the Dana Point Yacht Club before our final sail into Newport Beach tomorrow afternoon. Friends and my sister are coming down for a pre-celebration tonight which should be great. The forecast is calling for some pretty awful weather tomorrow just about the time we will be arriving to NB, so we are praying that it will be wrong as well!

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Chris Mays
01/23/2008, Mission Bay, California

We moved from Shelter Island to the Quivera Basin in Mission Bay today. We are 7 miles closer to Newport Beach and the final stop of this cruise. Baby steps or lets play this out as long as we possibly can...I am not sure which is correct. Anyways, we are scheduled to arrive in Newport Beach on Saturday, January 26th. We are planning to stop in Dana Point Friday to pick up a couple of friends before making the last 13 miles to Newport Beach. Friends and family are planning to meet us on the dock in Newport Beach Saturday just after sunset as we arrive. Mother Nature has also decided to throw us a party: high winds, heavy rains, fog, lightning, and cold are forecasted right up to the end. If she wanted to tone down the dramatics, we would not be dissappointed.

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