Up close and personal.....



A park is across the channel where sailing and rowing lessons are given.  The channel also leads to public access and we get some wild  waves from boaters who think 5mph is code for go like hell.  In the middle of the night.  We rock and roll and it isn't romance. We heard opera from the park last week and found that they are putting on classical concerts every Thursday - so we will dink over with dinner and freeze while getting some culture.  When reading in my bunk sometimes I will yell at Robert to go see who is about to crash into us as I can see masts a little too close for comfort out of the overhead hatch) and if I can see the masts, then the boat hull is right behind -er, below.  So far the only thing threatening has been a huge dory with kids trying to learn to row while texting.

He/she calmly watches as I walk down the dock and we have a conversation about not pooping on the dock.  Me, talking to it.  A night heron seems to hang around at the same time, hoping for tidbits.  The whole channel is covered with the pelicans when the fishing boats come it.  As they pass our side tie several times a day, we are used to them, but never used to the "carpet" of pelicans.  They follow, dip,  and hang onto the fishing boats and ignore the passengers when returning.  The crew uses shirts and hoses to try to get them to leave, but they manage to get into the bait buckets or steal the fish.  A man on shore was yelling, "Bag, bag, bag" while I was walking Murray.  I was about to get pretty insulted when I saw a huge bird walk up and steal a bag of fish while the fellow that paid lots of dollars to have his fish stolen was the subject of a lot of laughing.

Dagny Taggard comes to town.  It just kept passing us by, and passing and passing.  We thought the Queen Mary was going to be hauled out.  What a great name.  We get a daily show of before and after as the boats have to pass us to get to the yard.  Good fun.

The Fourth



All day we we were having what is known as June gloom here, in July with low clouds and sort of fog.  Then it lifted, so we hoped to see the fireworks in more than blue and red fog.
Robert ran up our flag.  Those are our spreaders in the background.

Ian and Janice skunking us at cards.  Evan and Aaron were out scouting the many channels of Marina Del Rey.  We at least had some sun, but later were handing out coats and big towels to keep warm.  Dinner was late - incredible barbecued chicken from Ian, Ian's good beer, corn and fruit.    We all wanted to go to sleep but had to make it until 9 for the fireworks. 
The parking lots were jammed with cars, we were free, thank heaven as people had to pay $20.  The park across the way looked like and sounded like Disneyland.  When the fireworks went off, you could hear thousands of voices....but when the incredible finale exploded the sky - it sounded as if we were in a huge amphitheaterwith people clapping and cheering.  The explosions echoed  and boomed around the bay - we couldn't see all the people but hear this enormous crowd cheering and yelling.

Evan and Aaron waiting for nightfall.
The fireworks had been cancelled in the past couple of years, and the 20 minutes we had were full of spectacular explosions.  Does  this mean the economy has improved?