Chris Mays
01/29/2008, Newport Beach, CA

It seems a stowaway slipped aboard shortly after we crossed the Guatemala/Mexico border. It happened somewhere in the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec. Who would have known that this infamous gale-tossed gulf had a romantic side?

Initially, I knew something was awry as we sailed up the Mexican Riviera. Julie had been feeling sea sick in the mornings. I thought to myself, no one must get sea sick on this coastline as it is the most calm and wind-less as any we have witnessed. Especially not Julie, as she often cooks and bakes in seas and weather that would have even the saltiest of sailors coming on deck for a breath of fresh air or at least a yawn. Moreover her appetite which is normally selective in portions and nutrition had liberalized. It was not until Julie flew home from Puerto Vallarta in early December, when her dad got sick, that we were able to confirm our suspicions.

We are super excited as we had been hoping to arrive home pregnant. We went to the doctor again yesterday and we are due on 08-08-08...what a date. The picture above is our ultrasound from the appointment. Everything looks good so we will keep our fingers crossed.

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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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