We're in Houston! Sixty two days after leaving Ocean Springs, the crew of Sea Lark decided that it was time to take a break so Earl arranged for Tom, Ninfa and me to fly home from Puerto Vallarta. E-mail continued to be elusive in Acapulco, and Puerto Vallarta did not prove to be the charm. But now we're back in the good, old US of A, with unlimited access to e-mail, so below is what I wrote to send from Puerto Vallarta. With our hoped-for 30 day passage from Biloxi to San Francisco now become joke material, we've now (1/22) been underway aboard Sea Lark for two whole months. With Sea Lark now well north on Mexico's Pacific coast, Ginny and Earl feel that they and their friends will be able to bring Sea Lark the rest of the way home. That means Tom, Ninfa and I can begin thinking about flying back to Clear Lake from Puerto Vallarta. (And looking forward to sleeping on our thick innerspring mattress! Isn't it amazing what we miss most about home?) Our 471-nm, 57-hour trip from Acapulco to Puerto Vallarta began just at sunrise on Sat (1/20) and has been blissfully unremarkable. Except for a couple of watches (maybe 14 hours) on Sun. the seas have been calm, and the wind light. This was our first leg with only three aboard (did I tell you that Bill Rheams flew home from Acapulco to attend his brother's wedding?), and everything went exactly according to plan. Ginny, Tom and I did the same 4-hour day, 3-hour night watch rotation that we had been using with no problems at all. (Numbers lovers, see P.S at end.) Scratching our heads, all we can think of to distinguish this passage has been passing a couple of southbound vessels: another Mexican Naval ship (missing a second opportunity to be stopped and inspected by the Mex. Navy!) and passing the Holland America cruise ship, Rotterdam. Similar to the Ryndam on which Tom and I made the Seward, Alaska-to-Vancouver, Canada trip in the fall of '99 with TMCA friends, the Rakels and Clarks, it seemed quite a bit smaller out on the open ocean. Tues., (1/30) we'll be headed back to Biloxi via one way rent car (we got a good, no drop-off-fee deal from National). Wed will be spent bringing Maana back to life and restocking the galley. (She's been under the watchful eye of TWListee Bill & Molly Pontius, at their home in Ocean Springs, MS. Thanks, Bill and Mollie!) Underway, hopefully, by Thurs, we should be back on Clear Lake before Valentine's Day. With this final update I'll say good-bye to all of you, unless you'd like to make it "hasta Maana" -- until we head off again on another cruise. Plans for both date and destination are cast in Jello right now. Anyone who cares to stay in touch between this cruise and the next, I'll look forward to hearing from you! With love and best wishes, Ann, Tom and Ninfa (the boat dog) P.S. for numbers lovers -- Sorry for the skimpy fodder for you, but this is all I could come up with for this closing update. Since Tom and I joined this delivery cruise of Sea Lark, she and her crew have done 3,770 nm on 1,047 estimated engine hours (the hour meter is stuck). Add to that the 5,500 nm we've done on Maana in 2000, that's a grand total for the two of us of 9,270 nm in the last 12 months, all done at about 8 knots. We've been in 7 foreign countries (including Canada) and cruised in 18 states (including WA, where we cruised aboard High Scooter for the couple of weeks of Trawler Training -- and I forgot to add in that mileage!). Lock numbers I've mentioned before (106 in calendar 2000).