Checking the results
	Lunch at the fish market.
	My fish.
	A tired looking crew having a beer at Hussong's.
	The trophy presentation.

We placed 9th out of 15 in PHRF K. It was grueling. Two Catalina 25/250 owners (Charlie/Sterngucker and I) crewed on an S2 8.5 (28 feet) with the owner and his son.

Friday we had a good start and then a hole developed after the start line. We drifted for about an hour then a decent breeze came up and we were able to reach south for many hours under the asym. By the time the wind died around 9 PM we were about 25 miles offshore of San Diego and it seemed in the lead of PHRF K - the asym was just the sail for Friday.

The owners son, a first time sailor, was violently sea sick the whole time and locked himself in the V berth and slept for practically the entire race. So we were a crew of 3.

Friday night was tough as we were way offshore with no wind but kind seas. Sails and boom slatting all night made it hard to sleep. Most of us got at best a few winks. We probably made about 5 miles to the good. PHRF K boats were all around us at dawn.

Saturday morning a very light breeze came up and we were able to reach inside the Coronado Islands headed towards Pt. Loma. We gybed and headed out to the islands, then gybed again and headed towards Tiajuana. Although this was the subject of much debate on board, we were committed to the inside course by this time.

Saturday afternoon the wind came up and up. Eventually we doused the asym and were heading straight down wind in about 25 knots of breeze. Wind waves were steep. We tried to pole out the jib but it seemed the pole would break. As bowman, I got a really good workout during this time. Several boats in our class passed us by under spinnaker (we only had an asym). We ran about 30 miles under this fortuante big wind, then at 7 PM it shut off like we sailed through a door and someone shut it behind us. We were at a PEMEX plant venting off a big flame plume and other sailors I talked to later dubbed it "the eternal flame" because it took so many hours to pass.

It took us 14 hours to sail the last 20 miles. Saturday night/Sunday morning we were all falling asleed for seconds at a time, having microsleeps, vivid dreams, and weird hallucinations. I "dreamed" that Charlie came down, told me to get dressed and on deck to take over. I got up, got my foulies on, came on deck, and reported for duty only to find out this never happened. So I went back down below, dropped in a heap, and slept on the floor in foulies for 2 hours.

We also got the seasick crew up and had him take the helm during this critical hour. Charlie was especially tough during this time, helming most of the night.

When I got up it was light and there were 4 or 5 PHRF K boats around us. I took the helm and we worked the boat towards the finish on every puff. A good breeze came up and we sailed the last 2 miles at 5 knots with a headwind and good degree of heel. It was great to finish like a race boat and not a raft.

The winner of PHRF K was 6 hours ahead but all other boats corrected to within 2 hours of each other.

Although exhausted, Ensenada was fun, we had a good lunch at the fish market, a beer at Husongs, ice cream, then the awards ceremony. We went back to the hotel for a swim and afternoon nap. We took a taxi back to town for a nice dinner at Sanborn's (like the Denny's of Mexico). It was fun talking race with all the crews.

Monday we left at dawn and joined a line of boats motoring all the way to San Diego. We checked in with customs at 17:30 and were back in Mission Bay by 20:30.

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