We had a relatively quick and painless trip from La Paz to San Diego by some planning and luck for favorable conditions. The downside with going against the prevailing wind and current is that we motored mostly. When we want to be where we aren't and we don't have a lot of crew, the iron genny gets it done. Somehow we managed to get southerlies on our trip back down from Santa Catalina to San Diego, so we motored mostly with the mainsail up out of self-respect.

One of the few times we sailed on that leg, it was on the way in to Newport Beach. For a long time we watched a 58' powerboat ("Persephone"), overtake us at about 12 knots while we were doing 4 under sail. We had right of way on two counts. We held our course, probably should have had the horn on deck (looking for a permanent mount) and also should have tried to radio the boat at the GPS position. They didn't have AIS or a name showing on the bow. The boat just kept coming. With the binocs, we could see a guy at the helm when they were a few hundred yards off. We considered evasive action and would have at the last minute. Finally he changed course clearing us by about 30-40 feet. Susie was skipper that day and she was pissed. Once we had the name off the stern, Susie hailed them on channel 16. No response. We kind of took their close pass as a willful act of intimidation. I have no idea what they were thinking. Reminded me of Stephen Spielberg's "Duel" about the pursuing tanker truck.

Anyway, in a couple days we'll sail/motor back down to Ensenada to await the Yachtpath ship which will take the boat to Victoria, BC in just five days. We aren't allowed to travel on the ship, but will catch up to it for unloading and the short trip back down to our berth in Seattle.