After aggressively falling asleep on night one of our Very Short Summer Cruising Season (AKA Sweatfest), we woke up to obscene amounts of rolling and thrashing. This was the risk of the open roadstead anchorage. I talked myself into leaving a horizontal position and we weighed anchor and beelined it to the protected anchorage behind the break water. Thankfully we weren’t far because it wasn’t a comfortable ride. Anyone with a boat can probably feel the difference just thinking about it, but y’all land lubbers might not be able to fully understand. If you’ve ever been to a carnival with a Tilt-a-whirl, imagine that uneven and unpredictable feeling being applied to your whole house while you try to sleep/cook/walk around/exist. Also it’s 100° plus 75% humidity and you only have small fans.

We were really not ready for another long day of passage making so having the protection from the waves was a huge relief. I was able to exist on the boat without getting seasick – what a dream!

Another benefit afforded by the calmer water was the access to swimming. I think we jumped in the water at least four times a day, just trying to take the edge off the heat and replace the sweat on our skin with an alternative form of saltwater. Weezy joined us swimming and can hang out on her boogie board when she needs to rest (thanks, Liquid!).

In fact, we are pretty sure that getting Weezy in the water was the biggest key to success to finally getting her to Do Business on the deck. (Poor Weezy went from four walks a day in Seattle, to lots of off-leash time in Mexico, to being relegated to a small square of astroturf.) Until now, it has been many fruitless attempts to train her to use her little patch of turf, I suspect, because she knew she had the opportunity to go elsewhere and she didn’t want to get in trouble.

But once we were in San Felipe, it was over 24 hours since we had been on shore and reality was setting in for Miss Louise. Craig and I were starting to worry that she’d give herself a bladder infection if she didn’t figure it out soon so we tried everything, including peeing on the mat ourselves. (No photos documented this process, apologies.) Eventually, we put her harness and her leash on and took her for a walk, all the way (about 20ft) up to the bow. Great success, much pee, such relief! Half way through figuring out business time.

While we were floating in the shade under the hoisted dinghy, Weezy started looking at us, and then up at the boat. Back and forth. Regardless of the reason we assumed she was ready to get back aboard Small World. As soon as her little toebeans hit the nonskid she marched directly to her green space and did a serious business. She promptly turned around, climbed up onto the coaming, and pawed at the water asking to come back to the swim call. We couldn’t be prouder.