We left San Carlos oft the big adventure of crossing the Sea of Cortez for parts unknown, unknown to me that is It's early afternoon, but who cares about time, we're on vacation!

We're all equipped for cruising, five souls on board, Susie, me, Ritchie, and two young adult females with 1000 lbs. of clothing for all the "changes" they will need to make. I ask no one in particular, who needs to change in the middle of the ocean or in a remote area. such as the Baja?

We followed LaMarquise as well as we could with our heavy 26 foot Macgregor, Susie prepared gourmet meals enroute, Lasagna, salad, bread and even dessert, it was a great start to such an adventure.

Being on a big ocean in a little boat is quite an overwhelming experience. I kept asking myself, "what am I doing here?!

I could be home watching tv and relaxing in the confined comfort of the house. It was very still with only the sounds of the boat cutting through the sea and occasional talk on the VEIF radio.

As we were traveling . I was backing up Rex with my own GPS observations, for the most part we were in the same ocean in our calculations, great reception on the ocean, every hour we compared readings and this was very comforting

Susie and I took the 8pm to midnight watcb. the rest of the crew got some rest. With all the night running survival equipment we were wearing. I felt very sea worthy. I noted that the rest of the crew rested very well on the boat.

It got much darker and finally the stars were visible, instead of enjoying the night, I was wondering which of my body parts would be ruined by this safety harness until 1 realized you wear it around your chest and not your crotch.

Our radio was malfunctioning when the position and mast lights were on, this was very exciting as I realized we could be seen and not heard or heard and not seen. Again, I asked myself "what am I doing here?!

We did manage to convey our problem to our companion boat. and I wiggled some wires around and things began to function normally.

There was a strange glow in our wake and also in the foam splashing off the hull, was I in the twilight zone? Susie explained it was phosphorescent kelp or something like that, I was satisfied with that answer and actually began to enjoy it.

I couldn't help but notice that the only other visible light on the ocean was getting smaller and smaller. My experience as an aviator allowed me to deduce that the LaMarquise was getting farther away.

We communicated our concern and we were advised they would slow Ul) some so we could close the gap.

We were relieved about midnight by Trisha and Tara. of course they had to "change" before they took over the watch, they were so happy they had enough clothes.

We went below to try and get some rest, I emphasize TRY. because our relief wanted to change sails a couple of times and try and decrease the distance between the two boats. In the 4 hour rest period, I think I rested 10 minutes.

We came on deck at 4 AM and while doing a OPS update. I must have pressed the wrong combination of buttons because all I had was a test pattern displayed. I once again asked "what am I doing here?!"

Soon we overtook the leader. and we were now far in advance of them, with no OPS. Their position light got smaller and smaller, but they were behind us now.

We continued on our heading, but a bit more apprehensive than before. After becoming blinded from staring at our compass. I realized I could maintain a heading by keeping a star cluster off the bow and sailing toward that. It worked well until that particular star cluster disappeared.

Eventually. toward dawn we were sailing in formation. this of course happened after we closed the gap and were sailing head on into the IaMarquise! I can't explain how that happened. is there a Baha Triangle, such as the Bermuda Triangle?

At about the same time we sounded "Land Ho!" What a welcome sight! Day sailing is much less stressful than night sailing

Six hours later we were in a gorgeous sheltered bay called San Juanico , a little bit of paradise. Now I knew the answer to the question. "What am I doing here?!" I'm on vacation!