December Already!

In the past few weeks, we’ve made La Paz our home-base and have explored the surrounding islands of Espiritu Santos, Isla San Francisco and Isla Coyote. Our family favorite is Los Islotes, on the north end of Espiritu Santos, where the sea lion pups swim circles around us, nip at our fins and play like puppy dogs. Their insatiable appetite to play reminds us of our dog Jedi.

Momma Myra (known as The Oma) and Poppa Nate joined us for Thanksgiving and it was great fun to share our boat life with them. We took them sailing and sailing for days with a 24-hour interval on land to feast on turkey at Ted and Michelle’s home in Los Barriles. Thanks to Trudy and Michael, who brought a frozen turkey down in the airplane from San Diego, we had a traditional Thanksgiving supper. Trudy said that she was a little worried that the dead bird stored in the overhead compartment might thaw out and make a little mess on the airplane. But the juices stayed intact and Michelle concocted a fabulous and memorable dinner.

Rather than recount all the details of our life at sea, I thought I’d share some thoughts about the kids who have tolerated our boat schooling program but are thriving as boat kids. They both think of books as candy and eagerly awaited Oma and Poppa Nate’s arrival, not just because it’s special to have grandparents on board and banana bread baking in the oven, but also because they brought a suitcase of books.

As I write, Maya, who turned 9 a few weeks ago with a piñata party on the beach, is having her first boat sleepover on another boat called Don Quixote. Instead of using a cell phone to talk with her friends, she used our VHF radio to coordinate logistics. Sometimes all the boat kids use the same channel to chat altogether.

Kai has been our chief mechanic and enjoyed teaching Poppa Nate what buttons and switches to push and at what time. He loves starting the engine on our dinghy and just yesterday after he went to the dentist, he drove the dinghy from the dock to the boat all by himself.

Both Maya and Kai have been unicycling all over La Paz and yesterday a man stopped us and told us that he was a clown and could use some help at a fiesta. So Maya and Kai are going to don their juggling hats and unicycle for the party. I just hope they won't jump ship for the circus which is coming to town.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! There's so much to be thankful for .... especially the privilege to be at sea for the year where the dolphins play on our bow and sunrises and sunsets are rarely missed.