Scott:

Hello Quiet Anchorage! We are once again out of civilization and anchored in Los Frailes, a pretty bay on the inside of the Baja peninsula. Getting here was a lovely sail from Cabo San Lucas. We made it a short day Sunday and stopped at Cabo San Jose and anchored off the beach. That afternoon was the first really classic lazy cruising day. Everyone swam around the boat to cool down and then I napped while Mary and the kids read and played. The next day made up for it though. If any of you have access to Mexican marine weather forecasts it has to be better than what we are getting. Our GRIB files (the charts with the barometric pressure and wind arrows like you see on the weather channel) and the local weather guru that broadcasts over the radio were all way off. We had steady 20 kts right on the nose and pounded to windward through a 3 or 4 foot square chop with the sails reefed down and water flying everywhere. We spent much of the day discussing how miserable this would be on the Puget Sound, how the water coming over the boat was surprisingly warm and that our cool polyester sun shirts dried in about 15 minutes if you could just stay out of the next wave. Finn and Timothy kept running out to sit on the side deck and laughing as they were blasted by the flying water. Mary made Timothy sit still while we tried to get a picture of a big wave breaking over him, but she kept reflexively ducking behind the dodger at every good photo opportunity, much to Timothy's dismay. The boat sailed beautifully, but I was reminded again of why I swore that I am never again going to sail upwind. It was a long day and we were happy to arrive here and relax.

Today I was sitting in the cockpit and thought I smelled electrical circuits frying in the cabin, but it was just Mary and Finn engaged in another struggle over whether he was going to be the oldest 1st grader in his class when we get back to Seattle or if he was going to learn something on this trip. (More on that below.) I decided that Timothy and I should leave the boat and we rowed around with the glass bottom buckets. There is great snorkeling right by where we are anchored and it was fun drifting around and watching the action below.

After school was wrapped up, the highlight of the day was spending the late afternoon on the beach. We bundled Mary, still in her straight jacket, into the dingy and walked around the bay. It is a circular bay with vibrant blue water and a rough sand beach at our end that turns into the classic soft silky sand as you walk out towards the point. Sea turtles lay their eggs in nests on the beaches in this bay and we were delighted to see one of the little critters on its way to the water. He/she was really the cutest thing you can imagine, about the size of a box of matches with that clumsy baby animal thing as it maneuvered on its oversized flippers. Unfortunately, it turns out that this was more of a Nature Channel show than a Disney movie. The little guy was clearly one of the stragglers and probably had been trying to make it the water all day; after we saw it safely to the waters edge it continued to be washed right back up the beach with each wave. When we left it was gamely but very slowly trying to crawl back into the surf. Timothy was inconsolable and Mary punched me for musing that it would fit perfectly on a saltine cracker. We have been told that there are two locals that mark all the turtle nests and monitor the eggs and let people know when each set of eggs will be hatching. We are hoping to be here when the next batch of eggs hatch. (Hopefully with the camera this time.)

As we walked back to the dingy the evening wrapped up with a spectacular flaming sunset with streaks of colors over the hills at the end of the bay, very cool.

Mary:

We started school this morning at 8:00 and finished at 2:30. Whoever said that homeschooling takes 2-3 hours was lying. They probably only had one kid -- one cooperative and motivated child. Timothy was actually done at 10:30, so yeah, homeschooling can take 2-3 hours. Finn, however, started at 9:30 and after two five-minute timeouts, one 30 minute timeout, and a 15 minute lunch, finished at 2:30. I can feel my blood pressure rising just remembering our morning. I did at one point threaten to pitch him overboard. Whenever I make this particular threat, Finn always reminds me that he will drown and then "you'll be really sad." I therefore told him this time that he would go over with his life jacket on and would be tied by a long line to the boat. Then I won't be sad that he's drowned, just relieved that he's no longer on the boat. I've had some very bad mommy moments these last few months, but glad to say they are getting father apart, mostly because we are getting used to this new lifestyle and learning what works and what doesn't. For example, we've learned that whenever we have a break in school (and we just spent four days off during our time in Cabo San Lucas) the first day back is a bitch. I'm sure that those of you who really teach school experience the same thing (please don't tell me we're the only ones). Teaching does have its upsides as I received a note from my more difficult student the other day. Decorated with lots of hearts, it read: "I love you Mom vary much. from Finn." Tomorrow is bound to be better. I hope.