I don’t know what happens some nights. We spent the day in water so calm we could clearly see the bottom at twenty-five feet. I went to bed at ten and only a slight breeze rippled the water. And by 11:30 the bowsprit was dipping into the waves as we bobbed up and down—over and over and over again. Ouest slept through it for a while but eventually the noise—combined with nearly catching air on every bounce—woke her up. Which is how I ended up sleeping on the floor the rest of the night. The two girls, snug as bugs, aside from the fact that Ali can’t sleep a wink in conditions like that.

We woke up in the morning and things hadn’t changed. There wasn’t much wind but for some reason the waves, or the timing of the waves, was sending all the boats in the anchorage for a wild ride. We left and motored just a few miles further on to Bahia Falsa and settled in—exhausted— with nary a ripple on the water.

As we came around the corner into our bay for the day we passed by a buoy. Lowe was up front with Ali yelling back to me, “Bu, Bu, Bu!” Buoy. Ouest was sitting near me looking at pictures and charts in our cruising guide—she asked what he was saying. I told her and pointed out the buoy. She looked down at the chart and pointed right to the correct buoy. Now I’d been pointing out to her where we were and explaining a couple of the landmarks, but I can’t for the life of me believe that she somehow put that all together well enough to know which buoy we were passing by. It had to be a fluke right?

Ouest in her “tent” under the kitchen table with a laundry sack for a sleeping bag.

Because road trips never really leave our minds.

Another low tide that left us hundreds of yards from shore. While walking the dinghy in closer for the rest of the gang to get out I stepped on what I think was an urchin with my left big toe and then following that up minutes later with my right big toe being attacked by a crab. What did I do to deserve this kind of treatment from my fellow sea dwellers?

You always know when we had guacamole for lunner.