Hey Guys!!!!!! I made it! I made it to Cabo! Congratulations to me! 896 miles down - 23,000 and some change to go!

At the moment I'm coming to you live from a swanky condo/apartment thing in the heart of the marina area. The view is insane. Beautiful, clear blue water flanking against the hulls of multi-million dollar boats. Craggy mountains jutting up out of the sand. A warm tropical breeze seeping through the planks in the blinds...

You see, the craziness has already begun. I dropped anchor here around 8PM last night, changed out of my soaking wet clothing, made some warm pasta and passed out cold. This morning I awoke this little slice of paradise and quickly gathered my things to head inland. It was quite gusty as I attempted to row the very large distance into town so after a half hour or so of beating into the wind with my little rubber boat a panga driver took pity on me and gave me a tow into the marina proper. I asked him to drop me near the entrance to the town but as we cruised by some rows of boats I noticed Abby Sunderland's insanely eye-catching boat docked off to one side. Her dad and my friend, Laurence, was camped out on the dock. The panga driver must have thought i was nuts. I had just finished explaining to him that i was not from here and had just arrived as I began shouting at the dock and waving my arms like a loon at Laurence. It was crazy! You dont expect to see people you know when you're a thousand miles south of the border! So crazy! It turns out that Abby's non-stop circumnav has been derailed for the moment as she had to pull in for another round of repairs by the team. I hadn't seen her boat up close before so it was cool spending the morning with them drinking their coffee, eating, their snacks, and budding down. Apparently the marina here had offered them the use of this condo-thing for free so they in turn are hospitably allowing me to shower, internet, and launder clothing here. So nice!

The trip from Ensenada was quite nice. Up until 5 hours out of Cabo where I encountered a small storm that trashed some gear and left me to hand steer in the sleeting rain and cold everything went really really well. I mean there were stretches of days where the wind was so steady and gentle and the sky so clear it was just pure paradise. Probably one of the most stand out things about the trip was the insane amount of wildlife I saw. I 've done this stretch before but I just dont remember being exposed to so many great sightings - guess it was just good luck this time! During the course of the run from Ensenada down I probably saw at least a dozen whales....probably more if I really thought about it. And not just 'oh hey, there's a whale out there in the distance', I mean real, up-close full broaching of a humpback. The sort of encounter where when they hit the water on their big broad back, you dont just hear it, you feel it. Like a rumble of a train or some sort of big hollywood explosion. what phenomenal creatures...

other noteworthy things: unfortunately, about 300 miles south of ensenada my mainsail blew out. and it was bad. the thing is pretty much in two pieces. the sails are old, i knew this. i knew i would need to replace them at some point in time or at least taket them in for some repairs and reinforcements. but this was pretty unexpected. at the time i was about 30 miles south of an anchorage/town called Turtle Bay so I made the decision to overnight there so I would have the time to assess and possibly repair it. There weren't really any other cruising sailboats during my stopover so unfortunately I wasn't able to enlist the help or tools of some more seasoned veterans. I repaired the sailed with Gorilla tape and headed back out the next morning. It sailed great for 3 or 4 hours and then I could tell it wasnt going to hold, that it would eventually separate if the wind picked up even a hair. From then on I sailed the boat under headsail alone. Although slightly less stable the boat made pretty good time and their was a nice wind from behind to push us steadily downwind. The weather and seas were perfect and what could have been a really shitty, uncomfortable trek turned out to be just fantastic.

Then yesterday happened. When I woke up it was grey. The morning passed, I made some lunch, it was still grey. Then finally around 5 PM or so it happened. The winds suddenly picked up, the rain just let loose. As I rushed to swap out the large, light drifter sail for a sturdier, smaller jib the force of the seas beat the autopilot beyond its breaking point. The repairs I had made in Marina del Rey, which had worked so blissfully for the 850 miles preceding this point, couldnt hold any longer and I was left to handsteer the remainder of the distance, without a spare moment to even go inside to changer out the little shorts i had been wearing during the day, which at night had become a stupid, stupid, freezing nuisance. All in all though I really cant complain. I was given some of the most amazing sailing days, and now I'm here among friends, among sweets. What else do you really want, you know? Oh, besides a new mainsail....

Alright, I'm off now to begin the hunt. Someone to repair, some warehouse to reorder from, some way to continue on the journey...

Speak with you all soon. Here are some little updates I made from sea: