Offshore Update: Resting at Cedros Island

After making a quick stop at Isla San Martin to give Charlotte a break from the boat we packed the boat up again and left yesterday afternoon for another offshore passage. All night we had great winds from behind but a large swell from the west tested our metal. Checking in with 6 other boats throughout the passage showed that we weren't the only ones having challenges with the seas. Stories of bumps and bruises were at least offset with equally good stories of great speeds down wind.
I hand steered for a couple of hours for fun at around 3 am getting the boat surfing to 9 knots until Karina informed me that we were going too fast and asked if we should reef. Later she suggested that when she "asked" if we should reef, that was code for "we must" reef. After more than 20 years I am still learning how to communicate with her. At least the good winds allowed us to reach Cedros island before dark.
Arriving here at Cedros Island we quickly took Charlotte to shore expecting her to get down to business immediately after her feet hit the ground. She had other ideas and instead decided to challenge all the rocks to battle. Turns out the "rocks" were elephant seals, sea lions, seals and otters. We almost gave up trying to get her to pee before she finally remembered why she was there and realized we were serious when we said she was going back on the boat now!
Over the past 24 hours we have seen too many dolphins playing in the waves to count. Turtles, weird birds galore and every species of "fur weiner" known to man. We must be in National Geographic land!
Aside from our sacrificial UV strip on our Gib disintegrating, a leak in our watermaker somewhere and Karina battling sea sickness all is well (really!). Our friends from Kialoa gave us a whack of tuna steaks yesterday which we are currently cooking up. We could have also had lobster from the local fisherman for beer and cookies but Karina was too sick to consider eating them so we passed on that. Winds just hit 25 knots here... Guess I should go check the anchor. We look forward to a long rest tomorrow in the protected anchorage of Bahia Tortuga.