hi everyone. it's saturday, sept.26th. we left newport, oregon on monday, sept. 21. since the weather is so changeable, we had to stay longer in newport. we left around 11 am, got into the channel and out past the jetties then the wind and waves decided to make themselves heard. it was a pretty rough ride and all three dogs got seasick. dan was below for a few minutes and came up nauseus, but kept everything down. after we got out a few miles and turned south things quieted down pretty good and the seas smoothed out pretty nice. around 3 am, the engine started revving up and then died. dan got it started but it wouldn't stay going. we talked to elias on the stepping stone and he and dan figured it was a clogged fuel filter, so dan changed it and about 3 hours later it started up and we were off again. just a little bit of excitement.....bobbing around in the middle of the pacific in the middle of the night. dan laid down for some much needed sleep and my watch was pretty uneventful, except i screwed up the way points when i had to change them and had the boat on the chart plotter going the wrong direction. duh. dan got it corrected when he got up. boy am i glad he knows what we're doing! so thanks to our industrious captain, we are still heading to mexico. we left oregon waters on sept. 22. dan saw a couple of grey whales on his watch, but i haven't seen anything but some dolphins or porpoises, whichever. by evening we have nothing but fog, and mist. it is colder than a witches tit at night. the dogs huddle up next to us a keep us a little warm and we wrap up in lots of clothes, jackets, and blankets. plus we can open the lazarette door and put the blanket over it and the hot air comes up under the blanket. still plenty cold. the fog has stayed with us and we have the stay sail up to keep the bow a little more steady. it's been really choppy. the engine started revving up again and we don't have a spare but we talked to elias and he has 10 of them. he is going to drop one off to us.. they came up beside us and passed in front of our bow, dropped a package in the water, dan fished it up with the dog net and viola! we have a clean fuel filter. quite a tricky maneuver, but it worked. but we really didn't need it quite yet. around 3 pm on thursday, sept. 24, it got really cold, and foggier than ever. it just will not let up. but on we sail. aroung 4:30 in the afternoon the auto pilot quit and we were hand steering. that's a bitch. just about tears your arms out of their sockets when the waves are this high, but doable. just need strength and courage. some of which we have. later that afternoon the fuel filter gave up again and the engine quit. now we are dead in the water and hand steering. anyone want to be me right now?? i'll bet if we had any crew members at this point they would be jumping ship at the next port. had to call the coast guard from bodega bay, ca. to come and tow us in. we had already passed bodega bay and was on our way to san francisco, but we turned back and the coast guard rescued us about 5 miles out. it sure is amazing to watch these guys in action. they are truly professional and know just what to do. the teamwork was so awesome. i'm sure glad they were available. we would never have been able to negotiate the chanel on our own. it is very narrow and shallow in spots. the coast guard towed us by our bow until we got to the chanel and then they came around and towed from our port side. put us right into a dock, secured us and then came aboard and inspected us. we passed. that's about the best thing that happened all day. so here we are in bodega bay, california. fixing things. well sort of....dan broke a piece off the water filter, so we had to replace it too. west marine is in santa rosa, which is about an hour drive from here inland. called enterprise to rent a car. they are in sebastopol, which is only 45 minutes away. charged $50 pick up fee, $500 a week for a mini van. oh well, we can now drive to santa rosa and pick up parts. the west marine store is very small and didn't have a new fuel filter casing, so we bought 10 filters, all that they had. after dan broke the water pump, we had to drive back to west marine today and get a new one, but they had a fuel filter casing. we bought it and 3 filters for it. went into to sebastopol to find a safeway and while i was shopping, dan read the directions for the fuel filter thingy and it is for gas only, well we are diesel. oops now we gotta go back into santa rosa on monday. hopefully the guy at west marine will have gotten us the one we need. the weather has been beautiful today, saturday, sept 26. it has been so foggy you couldn't see across the chanel, but i have shorts and a tank top on today; it was 101 in santa rosa when we were there this afternoon. life's just a bowl of cherries, sometimes sweet and sometimes its the pits. i love you all, keep the comments coming.. hugs