Background: We (Lisa and Dennis) went to the Purple Onion in Mazatlan for hamburgers with a small group, and then they all saw us off around 7:30 PM. Motoring out into a beautiful sunset, we joined up with our friend Mike on s/v Uhuru, to being crossing the Sea of Cortez to Baja. Mike is a singlehander (alone on the boat); a multiday trip can be hard on us, but especially hard for singlehanders. With another boat nearby, Mike can sleep a little more, knowing that whoever is on watch on our boat is keeping an eye out for him too.

About an hour after leaving Mazatlan, I was not feeling particularly well. The seas were actually not too bad, but sometimes a certain motion just gets to you, and it got to me - the cheeseburger I had eaten wasn't helping! After trying half of a scopolamine patch (for the first time) I dozed for a while, and when I woke, I was feeling much better. Dennis and I joked about coming up with a poem to lift Mike's spirits during the long night. Lying in the cockpit, looking up at the blanket of stars in 80-degree weather, I was inspired by my brush with near-seasickness and dictated the following poem to Dennis, who then read it to Mike over the VHF radio.

Cheeseburgers & Onions, the Second Time Around

Cheese, onions and that old beef ground
Isn't very pretty, the second time around
Oh, it's quite delicious, that first bite or two
When you are oblivious to what the seas will do!

It's gooey and chewey as it slides down your throat
Without a thought or care of how it comes back on the boat
The swells rise and fall, without a thought at all
Of the bubbles and the roil of all those fries in oil.

But alas, our medical technology
Gave us patch scopolamine
And it seems that a cure can be found
For cheeseburgers and onions the second time around!