This story is about my Grandpa who lives in Los Angeles, California, and how he has courage. Every year since 2011, I have gone to Los Angeles in the beginning of June. I go there with my mom, dad, and sister. My grandpa and grandma have their own boat there. They always invite us to come there every June, and go on their boat and sail to an island called Catalina. We sail there, it takes about 6 hours to sail there without using the motor.  We watch the fireworks there, swim in the ocean there, make lots of new friends there, and do all the things we can’t do here. This is probably my favorite trip of the summer. We leave for Catalina June 3 and come back on June 6th in the evening. When we come back, we fly back to Virginia the very next day.

My Grandpa took a trip to Mexico on his boat with a couple of his friends from Los Angeles. He got to Mexico, did what he had to do there, and enjoyed the time there with 3 of his good friends. About a week later, my Grandpa and three of his boat friends boarded my Grandpa’s boat. My Grandpa’s boat was a racing boat that he competes in lots of competitions in. But on this trip, they were going nice and slow, not using the motor, they were just enjoying the ride back home. Once they reached the West end of Mexico, a couple of days later, near a city called La Paz, the weather started to get worse and worse. They still had about 1,850 miles to go. There was nothing that my Grandpa and my friends could do about it. They were not close to land, so they could not dock the boat and stay the night.  The waves continued to get bigger and bigger, the wind picked up and it started to storm. It was pouring rain and the boat was filling up with water. The weather continued to get worse and worse over the course of the next couple of days. The weather got so bad and the ocean was so choppy that the tip of the boat separated from the boat and drifted away into the distance. The four of them had started to run low on food, they had to eat less food while in the ocean. My grandpa never gave up, and he never lost his courage. He always believed that he would make it back to Los Angeles to see all of us again. Weeks later, my Grandpa and three friends were still alive but still were in the ocean. They were getting very close, they would be arriving in the next day or two. The weather had cleared up, 10 mph winds and clear skies, no waves at all. One day later, they docked at the Marina. My Grandpa shows courage by never giving up and always believing that he would make it back to the United States alive.