September 1 2004: We are busily overwhelming ourselves with projects. At the moment the collective list includes building a freezer, building a solid bimini, sewing covers for all cushions, welding a wind generator, ripping every MP3 imaginable, adding reefing clips and blocks to the main, learning Morse code, and those are just the bigger jobs. I (Jennifer) have successfully sewn all the covers with no lose of life. A tad of whining and yelling on occasion but no actual bloodshed. Oh yeah and we leave in a month - gulp.

July 16 2004: Sailing rocks. The trip to Half Moon Bay was a dream. Light winds, full sun and small seas. We saw two ocean sunfish, dolphin and hundreds of jellyfish. The great anchoring gods have been appeased. All hail the mighty Jen, she who anchors. Yup, my first time operating the boat while Richard wrestled with the windlass and anchor. I did rather well much to my surprise. I can even dock the silly thing. The fog stayed away all night, which is unusual for Half Moon Bay. There were lovely shooting stars. On the way back it was still sunny. No really, I'm not making this up. We were joined by a pod of whales for a bit. I think the were humpbacks. I couldn't really tell, there were no belltowers near. Once back under the Golden Gate bridge we were suddenly hit with fairly strong winds (well, strong to me - 30 knots true). We are becoming reefing experts and Mystic Rhythms took it all with grace. The only bad part was almost being run down by a towboat. We have filed a complaint with the Coast Guard, perhaps they will be made to walk the plank? Oooo, or pelted with seal poop, now THAT's an evil punishment.

July 13 2004: This is the night before my (Jennifer) first time out the Golden Gate. I have to admit a lot of apprehension. Sailing is so very different from power boating. The wind is just so unbelievably powerful. Unfortunately we should have done this long ago, however, we have made the typical newbie mistake of hunkering down with prepping the boat and ignoring the sailing aspect.