We've left our snug berth in Ventura and done a quick overnight passage
to Newport. We're now tied up in front of the Orange Coast College School
of Sailing and Seamanship where Beth will be giving a slide show tonight and
we'll be doing an all-day seminar tomorrow. Then we'll be FREE! We're both
looking forward to heading south to warm weather and tropical waters, to
really cruising again instead of working almost full time on books and
moving the boat from place to place. We plan to play tourist in Mexico with
whales, ancient ruins and lovely beaches at the top of our sightseeing list.

Beth returned to the boat on November 16th, and since then we've both been
very busy getting ready for our next six months of cruising. Evans made
sure HAWK was in sailing shape with a bottom scrub, a trip up the mast and a
look at everything electronic and mechanical on board. The boat was in
chaos for a week with bags of canned goods, teas, batteries, and toiletries
on every available surface while we worked to find room for it all. Beth
canned 20 quarts and 20 pints of stews, chili, soups and veggies. We left
the dock in Ventura with full water and fuel tanks and every locker full to
bursting. It's not as if we don't expect to find almost everything we buy
here down in Mexico, but there is something so intensely satisfying about
knowing we could head offshore and be self-sufficient for two to three
months.

Over the weekend, we had an interesting experience when Steve and Linda
Dashew invited us to test drag devices aboard their 80-foot aluminum motor
boat, WIND HORSE. We set a 28-foot diameter parachute sea anchor in calm
winds and a large swell, and then retrieved it. We then towed several
drogues at 7 knots of boats speed to compare how they performed. We'll be
doing some more testing this week on HAWK before we head south. Overall, it
was even more difficult to retrieve the sea anchor than we had guessed, and
we would not want to do it in any serious conditions. The drogues worked
much as we expected, though the series drogue didn't slow the boat down as
much as we would have guessed. Motoring at 7 knots, the series drogue
slowed the boat down by about 3 knots, while the other drogues (a Galerider
and one similar to a Delta Drogue) only slowed the boat by 1.5 knots. All
in all, the testing was interesting but we've used the Galerider enough in
storms to know that it didn't begin to simulate open ocean conditions in
real waves. We didn't get the shock loading we regularly see on the
Galerider when we're running in front of storm-force winds, and those make a
huge difference in how the boat responds. We'll just have to test them in
real conditions sometime!

We had a fabulous overnight sail from Ventura down to Newport. The first
winter front of the season came through the day before we left bringing
25-35 knot winds, and while the wind had dropped quite a bit, we had 20
knots most of the night. HAWK was eager to go, and we kept reefing her down
so we wouldn't arrive at Newport before dawn. It has been so long since
we've been running along at 8 knots leaving a line of molten gold in our
wake under an orange half moon. It felt so good to be underway again, to be
connected again to the moving sea beneath us and the bright, crystalline
stars shining overhead. We have found nothing quite like it ashore. HAWK
was alive beneath us, tired of being held captive by lines for too many
months. I swear she growled at me when I put in the second reef, and I
don't think she slowed down one little bit!

We'll be heading for Mexico sometime next week, and we'll only be able to
access this e-mail when we're in harbor, so don't worry if we take a bit
longer than we have been to get back to you. Beth very much enjoyed
catching up with many of you on her wanderings around the country. We are
so blessed to have so many wonderful friends in every nook and cranny of the
many continents we have visited. One of the rewards of our vagabond
lifestyle.

Here's to finding your own cruising magic, whatever and wherever it may be.
Beth and Evans
s/v HAWK