Los Cabos

Mark Harrison and I are sailing. The boat, Kinship II, is sailing from Charleston, SC. So is Mark, although I joined that trek in Acapulco on March One.

I did believe the trip was going to last a month, but now its March thirty-first and I am over one-thousand miles from Los Angles in Cabo San Lucas.

So in many ways, I have had a month-long birthday on this, my Jesus' year as so many of you have called it. We have been spending every night at Cabo's Harley Davidson cafe as its oftentimes empty and we can always control the DirectTV to listen to what´s going on at home and abroad. We keep track as best we can on the goings in Iraq on CNN Headline News, CNN International, Fox News, and BBC World. We like BBC World´s coverage the best.

One reason why we have been moving at such a snail's pace is that each port we stop for requires us to check in. Checkin in in Cabo required us to go to the Port Captain's office, check in -- which is a cash-trasaction which cannot take place on-site, take a taxi to imigration, go to the bank, taxi to port authority, and then back to the Port Captain, where he will see our receipts for the check in and check out from the bank, and finally we will be able to have been officially there and legally entitle us to leave. Otherwise, we are told, there are boat spies to are willing and able to call up ahead and let the next ports know that we were cutting-corners and a thousand-dollar fee will be levied on us.

So, there's a day. And although the hours are from 0900-1430, we made it through all of the hoops in just a day. Now, as we wait for our laundry, we are catching up here. Good news! My good college chum Mike had a baby named Dominic Wells Obraitis, and Mark and I had a very inexpensive typical Mexican lunch, and yesterday we an amazing day.

While Mark and I were sailing Kinship II from Las Hadas, Manzanillo, to Los Cabos, we snapped not just one main sail halyard but two. In weak on-the-nose 5 knot winds. We were screwed as we only had the Genoa line left up in the mast, intact. Yesterday morning, before we headed out to town to see if we would be able to find a circus monkey or an Orangutan to help us with out mast line, I noticed a half-dozen sea lions and insisted that we take the dink off course towards them. They were able to avoid us, so then we aimed at what we thought was another Jeaneau Lagoon 42 catamaran, but it was not, it was a Catana 431.

So, as Mark was at the helm of the outboard, we tacked towards the very attractive blonde in a bikini in a black steel-hulled sailboat called Wonk Wonk.

Thus began breakfast, lunch, beer, dinner, tea, and chocolate.

The blonde was Deborah, who is married to Sebastian. They are about our age, around 34. They have three children, Ben, 6, Alexandra, 5, and Dominic, 5.

They have been living together on this 35-foot monohull for over one-and-half-years and they are a gorgeous family. They spend all day reading, learning, and playing. They surf, knee board, skim board, kayak, sail, swim, and dive. They are bright, beautiful people. We found out that this knockout blonde's husband was in fact a monkey and if he were cool with it, he could climb the 65-foot mast and fix both the halyards.

We boarded the boat and Deborah made up coffee until Seb and the kids returned. They hailed from Vancouver, BC. She was from Toranto. Over coffee we chatted and in a while we met uncle Bruce, who lives in an ajacent yellow 30-some-odd-foot sailboat. He gets up at 0400 every morning to fish, and by 0900, he is usually stocked.

We learned a lot about the bay and their life and lifestyle.

About the giant squid run and how giant squid seem assembled; we learned how all their coolers were filled with giant squid, the longest of which pushed five-feet, including the tentacles.

We learned about the couples and other families they meet, about their time on the beach, about the cool things they have seen, learned, tasted, caught, and ate. They were hungry for books; they were hungry for cool things.

We discovered that Seb loves catamarans and that he is in fact a monkey and would be willing to climp up our mast for laughs for free. So that was it, then.

We buzzed over to Kinship and spent the rest of the day working and playing, all seven of us. The three wee bairns, Mark, and I took the launch and Seb and Deb jumped on their sailboard, which they use as a kayak. It was a race we soundly won as Deb fell off halfway across.

I spent more time in the water yesterday that I have the entire time I have been on this trip. The water has been warmer recently and while I was swimming with the little ones, Captain Mark worked with Captain Seb figuring out the way the rigging should be. When it was time to rig, we all worked together. Seb kept the kinds in the cockpit during the climbing. He´s a pretty fine dad as well.

The halyard was fixed and then refixed by Seb. Every time something fell overboard, I enjoyed a good freedive and recovered everything and even made some coin in the process. The bottom is sandy and calm so everything that sets into the floor stays put and mostly uncovered by the tide or the surge, which is unusual in my experience with Hawaii.

The wee ones loved the boat and kept close attention to everything that went on. They saw our TV/Video and wanted to watch it. We needed to turn on the generator to make that happen, so they asked us innumerable questions about the Panda generator. The batteries were too week to start the generator, so we needed to fire up the diesels. It became an etire song and dance, to be sure. What cool kids. I hope I was that bright and curious when I was a little monkey shines.

I am going to be such an amazing dad!

The three of them are such an amazing gift to the world and I enjoyed tickling them and swimming with them and teaching them about the boat. I let them teach me how to do a canonball and a torpedo and amazed them with my ability to hold my breath while freediving. They amazed me as well! Wow. Suffice it to say that I am blown away by how well this little cramped family is doing. I donated to them my box set of Harry Potter books from the UK and we unloaded all of the food from the boat that we were either not using or knew we would not be able to finish before we arrived. Like nori and polenta.

Even Kiss-a-Moley (A cool plush GUND toy I scored on Valentine´s day that makes a kissing noise when you startle it. It also is shaped like a furry pink heart with legs, huge red satin lips, and googly eyes) made a cameo since Alex found her and rushed up to me and gave my cheek kisses with the canned smooches and the bright red lips. A few minutes later, Alex asked me if we could pretend that she was my girlfriend, mi novia. I looked in her bluegreen eyes and let he down gently, "baby girl, I already have a girlfriend back home." She looked really sad, then ran up to Mark and let the entire world know, "Mahk, I like you bettuh!"

We made pasta putanesca for a large lunch and then Bruce came over and we all drank beer and talked story until it was time for dinner and we made Indian food. Mark is a devotee of Tasty Bite and these are basically haute cuisine Army MREs -- meals ready-to-eat. They come in Indian and Thai and all one needs to do is grab a couple of these prefab meals, boil them in-bag for three minutes, and its taste-sensation-city. Add some basmati rice and it gets even better. And we had it all last night.

The children drifted off and we spent the rest of the time talking about travels, Mexico, sailing, kids, relationships. This morning, we dropped off all of the books and the food and we were force-fed fried fresh fish and bananas and avocado drizzled with Worcestershire sauce.

There are more stories to come, including the story about how Mark and I have become Cabo San Lucas socialites on our second day here. From high tea at Swiss Pastry directly to the biggest and most promoted fashion show of the season! Don´t ask how because Mark and I have a tendency to wanter into intrigue, excitement, comminity, and -- I suppose -- haute couture!

Stay tuned, y´all.

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