Arrived in San Diego about 8pm this evening. The entrance to the bay is pretty basic, but in the dark we strayed just a little too close to Point Loma, and found ourselves in the kelp for a little bit. When Charlie's Charts says keep it west of 117-17.5, they mean it. We'll clear the remnants from the wheel and rudder tomorrow...
Phase one of our southerly voyage is now complete and the boat will be staying in San Diego for a while.
A great big THANKYOU to all those who made this voyage possible:
Northwest Rigging - Andy Schwenk and his crew made sure Solana was ready to sail on the ocean. Andy has a lot of ocean miles under his belt and knows how to do it right. The advance planning was spot-on, and everything was smooth and professional from the removal of the mast right through replacement and rig tuning.
Burrows Bay Yacht Maintenance - Paul Gullickson went above and beyond the call of duty replacing substantially all of the hoses in the boat, and repairing the fiberglass one-of-a-kind muffler, and fixing the tricolor at the top of the rig, and then sliding down the backstay and finishing the HF antenna. Paul is a highly experienced boat technician and if you haven't already figured it out, a very versatile guy. I'm pretty sure he's still having some nightmares about some of the close quarters in the lazarette...
Anacortes Marine Electronics - Bryan Hennessy came through like a champ inthe final moments before departure. We had the boat hauled for some last minute details and when we put it back in the water, the transducer for the depth sounder had failed! Bryan made all the right calls and got all the right parts shipped in on time to get us on our way.
North Sails - Chris Winnard set us up with a great main and stays'l. The full batten Nor-Lam main is awesome! Looks like after blowing some stitching on the Yankee, we'll be talking to him soon about a new headsail too...
Golden State Diesel - Barb took good care of us when we found ourselves in San Francisco in need of parts to fix our little Yanmar diesel. We had a very long conversation on the phone, both of us sitting in front of a parts catalog, trying to make sure that ALL the parts got ordered to do the job from end to end. When it came time to change the turbo and mixing elbow, all the parts were there, down to the last o-ring, gasket and nut.
Williams & Nulle - Debbie, Kim, Rachel and Warren did a great job of covering for me while I was out sailing. I know, I owe you big...
Rick Kowal - Rick kept the Logical Dog Company humming while we were offshore and out of touch.
There are others that helped us get ready and others that helped us along the way, if I left you out, my sincerest apologies. Slap me upside the head and I'll get you written in here.
SK
--posted Saturday, Nov 8, 2008
Dana Point
16:00 arrived at Dana Point and they had no room available for a vessel larger than 45 feet. A point of contention, since our boat is documented at 41 feet, but we have an 8 foot bowsprit. Plus the vane steering, bringing us to 52 overall. Anyway, we headed for the anchorage but got a call back from Chris at the Dana Point West Yacht Club. He had a space available, but only until 10:00 the next day. We took it. THANK YOU!
The approach required that we hug the left side of the channel, then turn sharply right so we could grab a starboard tie just inside the turn. Wind was 15 knots from astern. I just don't know what the power boat skipper was thinking as he attempted to pass us to our starboard ... did he think we were headed under the bridge just 100 feet ahead with our mast? Where did he think we were going? Anyway, after waving arms and backing down, he decided maybe he shouldn't pass us to starboard after all. I noticed that when he powered down, the wind quickly spun him around, which is exactly why we were so far to the left when turning right. I hope he learned something from the experience.
We docked with just a little bit of shouting ... "is the spring down?" "go" "are we good?" "got it! We're good"
Several minutes later I'm still tugging on lines to bring us close to the dock, but we're ony about 8 feet off, and the wind is only about 15 KTS against me.
We walked up the dock and discovered we were locked in. Not only did we need a key to get back in, which we expected, but we needed a key to get out! So we'll depart Dana Point without going ashore.
JC
--posted Friday, Nov 7, 2008
Redondo Beach
3:00 pm - arrived at King Harbor Yacht Club.
We were pretty much lost, since the dockmaster at Portofino didn't answer or return our calls. We knew our friends were living at Portifino, so we waited until the last minute. (Sorry! I understand that there were circumstances ...) We got confused in the harbor and had to do a 180 in tight quarters. (Sean did a great job manuerving this beast!) Passing back by the King Harbor Yacht Club, we saw our friends on Rio Nimpkish. Shirley came out and suggested we tie up on the ajacent dock, controlled by KHYC. No power or water, but it was perfect for the night. We had cocktails with Tom and Shirley, and Aaron and Ruth dinghied over from Portofino. The next morning, Rio Nimpkish headed out, and we moved to their space which had power.
Spent a day in Redondo Beach walking along their wharf, had a great 'Happy Hour' meal at BlueWater with Aaron and Ruth, then continued south at 07:00. As we were prepping to leave, the skipper of a boat with the homeport of Dana Point suggested we should head there instead of to Newport. Maybe a good idea...
JC
--posted Wednesday, Nov 5, 2008
Home
The title says home, but after 2 months on Solana, this house in Anacortes feels a little odd. We awoke this morning to 36 degrees, frost on the roofs, and a sore back from sleeping on such a large soft bed! The sun is out though, and the cars started without trouble and the trip home was uneventful. Even my houseplants seem to have survived for 2 months without me!
After talking to our neighbors I realize that we left out so many good stories! The big question I've been asked more than once - what was most impressive? My initial answer has been that the cruising community is so ... there. You may recognize a boat from an earlier port, and suddenly you're the closest friend. We've had the pleasure of cocktail hours and potlucks on various boats from as far away as England, or as close as Shilshole or Vancouver, but we're all seeking the sun and we all share the travails of boat maintenance and finicky winds. Fair winds and following seas to our friends on Naida, Sentinel, Bristol Blue, Alert, Waatea, Rio Nimpkish, and so many others. We will meet again in a far off port. Or in San Diego!
Actually the most impressive sight I've seen is Sean ... relaxed. Truly calm and relaxed. It didn't happen until we passed the dreaded Point Conception, but finally he can read a novel or simply sit in the cockpit and enjoy the view. Getting to this point in the journey has put some stress on the captain. The news reports about the economy don't help! But how can he feel any stress when it's 80 degrees with just a slight breeze and the marina is filled with beautiful boats and great people? Solana has treated us very well.
Other observations:
We're currently tied up at Channel Islands Harbor Marina. They have a special going on right now, 2 nights and 3 days free. After that the rate is downright cheap for a practically brand new marina, clean showers and facilities, laundry onsite, keyed entry. But we arrived in the early dawn, hailed the "Channel Islands Harbor Master" on channel 16, and were directed to check in at the harbormaster's office. We weren't inclined to argue, pulled up, got our yellow dye tab placed in the head, and were assigned a spot. After rest we realized (1) we were paying more than we'd been told to expect and (2) this wasn't where our friends were. A few phone calls later, and a long walk to the other side of the harbor, we all (5 boats) cut loose and moved to the marina we had intended to go to in the first place!
The Edison Channel in Oxnard was originally cut to provide cooling water to the SoCal Edison plant to the north. The county saw an opportunity and created additional channels so what we have now is a sort of Venice with waterfront homes and docks. There's even a dinghy dock at the Vons shopping mall. (Vons is the same as Safeway) The 18 foot Duffy electric boat is common transportation. Yeah, I could do that! Take my dinghy to the grocery store!
Okay, so what else was cool? Nights at sea, the silver dollar size jelly fish, I think, that glowed blue when irritated by our bow wake. You see in your peripheral vision some blue glow, then another followed by dozens. It's hard to keep a good watch when there's this lightshow off the starboard quarter!
The dolphins - the grey and white ones, about a dozen, joined us for morre than 2 hours one evening. First to starboard, now to port. They can really move!
Whales - okay, I've heard great stories, but ours is simple. I'm pretty sure we saw at least 2 pair of humpback whales. The spouts or exhales went 20 feet into the air and were visible for miles. Sean said he heard and smelled them behind us one night. We saw a couple sort of resting on the surface several yards off, and once a display of his tail as he disappeared into the deep.
Pelicans - I thought they were a southern bird but I guess it's just an ocean bird. I saw the first ones as we arrived at Neah Bay. I've never seen them in the Puget Sound or San Juans. In San Francisco Bay they were as far inland as Alameda, but maybe in diminished numbers. Did you ever notice how they seem so synchronized in flight? And they use ground effect as they soar close to the water's surface. One bird who flew by us at Alameda was so confident in his abilities, he craned his head downward, lifted his leg to scratch his neck. While flying! I saw that twice. I'm impressed!
Speaking of flying, we enjoyed an airshow while in San Fransisco. The Blue Angels and the Snowbirds are always worth the price of a ticket. We didn't buy the box seats this time, but we DID have to endure a bus and bart ride to get to where we could watch the show.
This Sunday we'll head back to Solana and cruise the rest of the way to San Diego. We've secured a slip at Marina Cortez on Harbor Island.
JC
--posted Monday, Oct 27, 2008
It takes a village...
Coming out of Monterey Bay, we were rolling hard because we had significant swell and the wind was too light to stabilize the roll.
When that happens, the sails tend to backwind on the roll and then slam full on the return. It's really hard on everything and best not to let it happen. In any event, while we were looking for a point of sail that might work, we blew some stitching on the headsail.
That's Jan above, being assisted by Ned from Bristol Blue, who brought his Honda generator along to power the sewing machine out on the grass. John from Naida also assisted and we got the big sail through the little sewing machine. Thanks guys!
SK
--posted Tuesday, Oct 21, 2008