Off we go!!! Mexico here we come...

10/30/06 Monday

We are just about to leave San Diego after another week of working on projects and flamenco parties.  The boat is about as ready as she is likely to be.  I never got around to building bookshelves, but will do it in Mexico.

Yesterday was the big kickoff party for the Baja-ha-ha race/rally.  There will be about 160 boats going on it.  There was a big costume party - I was Popeye and Andi was Olive Oyle.  I don't know if there will be any pix.

Steve Peterson flew in right in the middle of it all and will be joining us as crew for this first leg to Cabo.  He settled right in and made himself at home in the guest quarters.

So now I've got to quit typing and start taking off the sail covers, etc.  We have a start at 11AM and lots of things to do.  For the next few posts, there will be no pictures as we will be using our sailmail email to send the posts in via radio.  Sailmail doesn't permit attachments, so no pictures until we get to La Paz and get internet again.  Enjoy yourselves this Halloween.

The big wedding..

10-21-06 Asheville, North Carolina
Here is the young couple about the time the marriage became official. Tony, after struggling to find a place in music for about 30 years, has recently become a rock-star. He is playing in a new band called Deep South composed of refugees from Wet Willie, Mollie Hatchet, The Atlanta Rhythm Section, Lynryd Skynrd and The Marshall Tucker Band. At 39, he is the youngest. He and Annette are also managing our NC properties and learning the joys of tenants.
It was a grand occasion and we got to visit with many folks from our extended family as well as Annette's. The night before the wedding featured a rock concert and then after the reception, there was an old-timey string band with contra dancing. Lotsa fun.
The next day,we all went back to Asheville. I had to feel a little sorry for the young couple having to host so many family members in a small 2 bedroom house. It got pretty crowded at times and when all the kids settled in front of the TV, I noted that the adults sort of migrated out the the front porch.
We are now back in San Diego and back in the final preparations for the Baja-ha-ha, which is a not-very-competitive sailboat race to Cabo San Lucas. It leaves on 10-30, next Monday. There will be about 160 boats involved which means that the biggest hazard to navigation will be just not running into other boats. We are up to our ears in final projects and flamenco parties. Yesterday, I got my first Social Security check! Yay! So far retirement hasn't featured a lot of laying around. But I'm losing weight and shaping up now that I'm not spending my days in front of a computer.

North Carolina in the fall

10-20-06 Asheville, North Carolina
We flew back to NC for the wedding of our son, Tony and his new bride, Annette. North Carolina was right at the peak of the autumn colors, thanks to good planning from the bride and groom. They got married on a 1000 acre private campground in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains and it was spectacular. The site had two lakes and trees of many colors. This photo, although badly exposed, gives a hint.

Arriving in San Diego

After (and during)our tuna lunch, we continued on to San Diego. It was flat as a mirror and therefore very comfortable. Andi was happily baking a meatloaf as we sailed along. I keep appreciating this boat more and more since she is so comfortable down below while under way. In my previous boats, sailing was done from outside almost exclusively and one rarely went below decks unless to get something. Now it's the opposite. I go out every few minutes to get a clear look all around. But really, I can see fine from inside and with the radar, we're not likely to come upon any shipping unexpectedly. I noted the the Navy ships around SD do not use AIS (automated information about shipping) to identify themselves, so we have to track them with the radar the old fashioned way.
We called ahead and confirmed our slip at Sunroad Marina on Harbor Island. The picture shows the downtown skyline with the barkentine(?) Star of India tied up.
We are now in our slip and starting to work on projects by day and visiting SD friends by night. We managed to borrow a car and so are able to run errands easily. So I am off to West Marine soon. We will be here until we leave for Mexico on 10/29. But the week before that, we fly to North Carolina to help my son, the rockstar, get married. We may not write any more until we leave, but don't be shy about emailing us and telling us what YOU are doing.

Sashimi pays a visit

We both woke up around 2:30AM, so decided to get under way for San Diego. There was a full moon, so it was easy getting out of the harbor. There was no real wind so we motored the whole way although a few times, there was enough wind to put up the sails to add a little speed. But given our desire to maintain at least 6 knots, we kept the motor on. That meant we could make water and we arrived in SD with our water tanks almost full.

But the most important thing was that we broke our fishing jinx and caught a nice tuna. I think that it was a large bonito but you can look at the picture and decide for yourselves. I haven't caught a bonito in a very long time and can't remember what they look like. This guy was about 20 lbs. I bled him at once and filleted him, removing all the dark meat that imparts a strong flavor to the rest of the fish. We still came away with more than 10 lbs. of prime fillets. For lunch, Andi made some sticky rice, got out the soy sauce and wasabi, and we had some dynamite sashimi. I have never seen bonito sashimi in any Japanese restaurant, but it was fabulous! We used the pinkest part of the fish. Since then we have been cooking it lightly on the BBQ. Yum!

Avalon

10-8-06 We sailed back to Catalina. We left late after spending much of the day happily socializing. But our destination was Long Point which has a good navigation light, so we had no trouble finding it and anchoring in the lee of the point. We spent a couple of night there reading and visiting with other cruisers who are also headed for Mexico. They had been having good success with their fishing and made me want to start catching fish.
So on the way down to Avalon, I tried trolling and caught nothing more than seaweed. We took a mooring in Avalon Harbor and went a shore to be tourists along with the hoards disgorged from a huge cruise ship. The cruise ships have been good business for the Avalon merchants and the town was obviously booming. We had lunch, did some shopping, and noticed how the town returned to normal as soon as the ship left. Obviously I liked it better less crowded. We had sundowners with some more new friends headed for Mexico and went to bed early in order to leave for San Diego in the dark. We didn't want to be getting to SD after sundown and have to figure out that large and confusing harbor in the dark. It is 70 miles to SD and at 6.5 knots, that would be almost 10 hours.

Visiting Los Angeles Harbor after 30 years

10/6/06 Today we sailed to LA harbor. It is certainly nice to be back in the land of mellow sailing. We had a pleasant crossing and got to sail for the first 2 hours. Then the wind dropped and we motored the rest of the way. Every time we use the motor, we take the opportunity to run our watermaker. We have used it exclusively since leaving Santa Barbara and are getting the bad taste out of our water. It is amazing how soft the water is when we shower. When we were in LA at the fuel dock, I asked the attendant how the water tasted. He said that he wouldn't give it to his kids and would boil it if he had to. That turned me off and I decided that we would reject the easy hose method and continue making our own.

As you can see, we tied up at a free dock(!) along the LA Main Ship Channel and got to see all kinds of big ships going by. We visited with old friends and former co-workers and had a fabulous time remembering days now long gone. Andrea got to hear war stories from a much earlier time of my life. She's still here, so I guess it wasn't too bad. Now we're heading back to Catalina.

A classic square-rigger

The morning we left Catalina for LA, this square-rigged sailing ship anchored out in front of our cove. I saw the French name on her and thought that she might be a French training ship, but when I took the dinghy out to have a closer look I found that she was a charter boat loaded with divers based in Avalon. Oh well, cool ship, huh? There appear to be lots of classic ships in this area. After we got to LA, we could see 4 square-riggers from where we were tied up, some much bigger than this one.

We went hiking and saw some deer

After taking the picture of the boat, we went hiking. There have been changes. All the wild goats and pigs that roamed the island have been hunted out because of the damage they did to the plant life. When my kids were little, we always loved watching the families of goats that came right down to the water, but times change. Now the brush is much more dense and harder to hike through. Since the pigs are no longer controlling the snake population, we paid good attention to where we placed our feet.
We were hiking under some wild cherries when we happened upon a herd of deer who were enjoying the shade. Some of them spooked, but one doe stood up, but when we stopped walking, she lay back down. See if you can spot her in the middle of the picture.

On to my favorite coves..

I have always wanted to show Catalina Island to Andrea since I had spent so much time sailing here when I lived in the South. We anchored in some beautiful little coves for a few nights and here is the boat as seen from the cliff above the anchorage.

In a waterfront bar at Catalina....

  

On to Catalina Island

10-1-06 Sailed from Ventura to Catalina Harbor on the back of Catalina Island. If a beautiful island isn't cruising, then I want my money back. It was a 70 mile run, which is quite a few miles to pack into the daylight hours. We had just about every possible wind condition, but mostly from astern. We practiced using our rebuilt spinnaker pole to hold out the jib. Worked great. Wind speed was up and down - so was the pole up and down and the engine on and off. By the afternoon the wind was steadier and held until the west end of Catalina. After that it was a motorboat ride. After a reception from the dolphin greeting committee, we got into Cat Harbor around 7:30PM. A long day, but a very typical passage. It was overcast the whole time and even rained on us a little.

Andrea is getting very good at this sailing stuff. She has good judgement and is always willing to take on something new. As a sailing husband, I count myself super-fortunate. Of course, you already knew that... Here's a picture she took of me...

Let the cruising begin!

After a great party (4AM) we realized that if we didn't escape from Santa Barbara, we might never leave. Although not in the best of form, we set sail for Ventura mid-morning. Winds were light and astern, a perfect situation to practice with our spinnaker - so up it went. OK, so we screwed up the leads for the lines the first time, but in 5 minutes, it looked pretty good. We used it until about 5:30 when the wind got up to 15 knots. We arrived at Ventura at 7PM (getting dark earlier).
For the next day, we visited with old friends and even had another(!) flamenco party. Well OK, maybe we aren't cruising yet, but at least we're moving along.