Summer of 2013

Remember when your teacher said to write a paper about what you did all summer?  Below is a synopsis  of our's.

 

 

 

Marina Village early one morning on the way out to fish with Steve.....

Steve's Boat - the Bald Eagle....from Alcatraz.  Great fishing boat, great skipper - we would put a hook down and always something would bite, including squid.  I found out that squid ink comes out of clothes...but tastes awful.  Anywhere from one to six squid would come up on a special hook arrangement, all shooting ink.  We would see Orcas, seals swimming in formation (honest), dolphins, sunfish....and always caught fish.

A boat tour around Newport Harbor:  Janice, Evan and Aaron .....we saw incredible huge yachts and some that were floating wigth divine help.  Windward Passage was moored across the bay, without a mast.  That boat has such Transpac history - my brother fell off it during a party at the Ala Wai - and he was wearing a blue tuxedo.  Lord, the 70s.

A short trip up to Edison Lake, at 8,000.  Con Ed was letting out so much water that we had to hike to the shore.  Thunder and lightning storms every afternoon:  hail covered the ground.  Our tent was so wet we slept in the van with wet dogs.

 

Sad scene.  A fire broke out across the lake, and we had a nervous night's sleep after the helicopters dumping water left it burning.  We went home.  Jim is selling the resort, no water in the lake, the damn place is burning down....who knows when we will get back there or when a snowpack will fill it again.

 

Mark came to visit - on the one of the happiest days in a long while.  He was put in charge of driving, docking, sailing...everything except cooking.  That may be Robert also at the helm - trying to read?????

We had a great sailmaker cut down one of our spinnakers in Mexico but never got to fly it....this was magic on little wind.  We were doing up to 6t plus knots with a 3knot breeze....I'O moves!

San Diego as a temporary home.

Over a year ago we had an entry to the blog - what happened?  Went to Scottsdale for foot work; Robert built houses for Habitat, and I painted.  Return to Marina Del Rey for the bottom job (the color was immediately named Candyass green) - not my choice, and a lot of work to get the boat ready.  We are now in San Diego after an overnight trip down the coast, which had dolphins, little wind and lots of cloud.

We avoided any contact with the government (last time we were almost run into the reef by a bunch of kids with tommy guns keeping us away from a sub coming up the channel) travelling into Point Loma and tried to find the fuel dock as a honey wagon boat was taking up the Police Dock.  A dog stop at the dock had all the dogs relieved - they are pathetic with their legs crossed.  We know they will wait 24 hours....cruel, us.

We found out slip in America's Cup harbor with a lot of trepidation...lots, But Frank put us right in - sort of crowded but a great marina in walking distance to everything.  We compare this trip to the last one a lot - the last one we had our van and drove and drove.  Now we are true cruisers who walk everywhere.

This is a real cruiser's boat - no yacht character with all those toys.  When we entered the channel, a fellow on another sailboat went by and shouted, "Welcome home" to us and waved.  Umm...what?  Perhaps we looked like someone returning from a long cruise, not setting out.  You can tell the cruisers because of the toys on deck.



Frank and Barbara on watch off Southern California

Frank was on the first trip which  was was cut short at Half Moon Bay for engine problems, then on the second trip to Cabo and now, with Barbara, third time's the charm to have a tropical honeymoon.


We are part of a fleet of 165 boats heading south:  The Bajahaha fleet.  We will stop in Turtle Bay, have a party, a baseball game, then head for Bahia Santa Maria and have another party.  Then an overnight to Cabo where I'O will head immediately for Nuvo Vallarta, our other home on the water.  And have our own party.