So…while Randy has his head in the
head, no not as a puking receptacle, but trying to clean the fricking calcium,
that has built up over the last year or two, out of the hose that leads from
the head to the holding tank, so we can again use the fricking thing (I
know…TMI, but that’s the way it goes)…I am sitting outside in the cockpit
bundled up, because, yes, Toto, we are no longer in the tropics!!...with a
glass of wine, and I have been inspired to write of our last few days!
<< working on
your boat in foreign, also read different, ports. Well, I figure somebody might
as well enjoy the eau de head while
imbibing in adult beverages and listening to adult language emanating from
forward on the boat. Writing inspiration comes in many ways, shapes and forms.
We are on the last leg of our trip,
our adventure, our life the last few years.
I think know, Randy would
have liked a few more days away from the boat from his three week Baja bash
escapade. He’s tired. Really tired. The
one week off he got he slept most of the time. Not a fun trip, that. I will
catch you up on that ordeal in a few.
Randy got a good week at home when
he returned from bringing the boat from Banderas Bay, Mexico to San Diego, CA,
but way too short. He could have used some extra time but we needed to keep Kwanesum
coming up. Her place at the Oakland Yacht Club is waiting and it doesn’t make
sense to prolong the trip.
Anyhoo….
Our dear friends Patty and Louie
Spinazze offered to drive us down to San Diego. How nice is that?! They used
the trip as a little vacation time, and we were thrilled not to have to bother
with renting a car only one way, which is more expensive. Louie pulled up to
our house the night before we left with a car he rented for the trip, and we
started to load a few of our things we needed to take back to the boat. "Uhhhh,
Louie…are you sure we can get all of our stuff in there?" Randy
brought back a lot of bedding and blankets that needed to be washed for our
return. Plus, I took a trip to the store to provision up, since we won’t have a
vehicle down in San Diego, and I wanted to bring food from home that we can use
on the trip. Fortunately Louie had the suitcase he and Patty needed already in
the trunk.
Randy helped him load…and load….and
load. Bless his heart, Louie kept saying, "Oh sure! We can fit that
right here!" And by golly, we got most of it in! The only thing we
sacrificed was a case of beer and a case of water. We can buy that down there.
I suppose I could have left some other stuff at home, as far as food, but I
hated buying more again in San Diego. It’s cheaper at WinCo where I purchased
it. So…we packed it in. The next morning when Patty and Louie came to pick us
up at O’Dark-Thirty, we only had to put in our two duffel bags and a backpack
and our little cooler with stuff. OK! In the little bitty car, Ran and I sat in
the back with our two duffel bags and our backpack between us. The little
cooler made it in the trunk. Yay! I can’t see Randy, but I figure I can use the
duffels, et al, as a pillow for on the way. Cool! Let’s go! And off we went.
We had a fine trip. Stopped at
Harris Ranch for a great breakfast. Got to Cabrillo Isle Marina in good time.
About 2:30pm. It’s beautiful on our arrival. Sunny and nice. Ran went up to the
deli and bought some beer so we could have our traditional safe-arrival beer,
even though it was a road trip. We toasted to Kwanesum and our friends.
We ate sandwiches that Patty had so thoughtfully packed in her little cooler
bag. Then Ran and I started to work while Patty and Louie found a place to
stay. The plan was to gather later for dinner.
Poor Kwanesum. She looked a
bit haggard. Not structurally, but her “dress”…the dodger and bimini…the
canvas...looked a little weary. It
looked pretty bad when I left her in Mexico last year, but another year in the
tropical sun really has worn the canvas out. The threads just disintegrate in
the sun and the Sunbrella has faded horribly. Looks like the Clampetts coming
to town. I’m not sure if it’s the color of the Sunbrella we chose (Toast) or it
was a bad fabric to begin with or what…it just did not hold up well. Right from
the beginning it started to fade horribly. Yet, we have friends who have other
colors of canvas and it still looks fine! And their canvas is older! Not sure
what happened, but good grief. The tropical sun is brutal on canvas and the
threads, but I don’t understand why others’ canvas and threads are still fine.
Hmmmm….
Randy has hand sewn some of it back
together (actually looks kinda funky!) and there are a few places where we need
to do more sewing. I love the shape of our bimini and I loved the color of the
canvas originally. Just really disappointed that it didn’t last 5 years. So…she
looks like she’s been there and done that. Rode hard and put away wet. She’s as
intrepid as the day is long and I would not have any other boat. And she’ll get
us the rest of the way in good stead. She just looks a little faded and worn.
=)
Back to cleaning...I did my thing to
get Kwanesum ship-shape for the rest of our journey: washed the ports, put on
the fresh, clean bedding, cleaned the galley and reorganized. Swept and wiped
down the sole of the boat and cleaned the head (which Randy is now
un-cleaning.) She was fresh as a daisy and ready to go! Off we go to dinner
with our friends. A fun dinner at Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern at the harbor.
(BTW…why does wine cost so much in restaurants now!?)
The next day we did more cleaning
and rearranging and then went to the Fish Market (which we have always loved)
for dinner with Patty and Louie. It was down by the USS Midway that is now
permanently docked there and where they have a wonderful area dedicated to all
the servicemen. What a great dinner we had with great service and great
company. We said goodbye to our bestest friends, Patty and Louie, and went to
the boat to get a good night’s sleep as we were leaving early the next day.
Hard to leave sun-shiny San Diego
but off we must go. We pulled in to top off the diesel. $5.00/gallon!! Ugh! We
had great weather and seas. We knew it would be good from our weather sites and
we were glad it held true. We are motor-sailing on this trip north because the
wind and seas are mostly on our nose. Our destination was Avalon on Santa
Catalina Island. I have never been there
but always remember the song: “Twenty-six
miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is a waiting for me, Santa Catalina…the
island of romance…romance…romance, romance. Water all around us everywhere,
tropical seas and the salty air, Santa Catalina, the island of romance”.
We had a good trip. Smooth seas.
Boring as heck. =) We’ll take that. It’s a good time to snooze and read. We did
a lot of both. Took us about 15 hours to get there. We got in at 10:00pm at
night. We don’t usually like to go into ports unknown at night, but this was a
simple entry. And the harbor guys are there to meet you whatever time you
arrive and escort you to your mooring ball. That’s perfect. And just as they
said, our guy was there to meet us and escort us, and we tied up (differently
than we’ve tied before) to their very efficient mooring system. I pulled the
boat up to the mooring ball where there was a tall pole that Randy grabbed. On
the pole was the pennant which Randy attached to the bow cleat and then walked
the rest of the line back to the stern cleat where he tied that end. This was a
unique-to-us way of tying on to a mooring ball, but very efficient with lots of
boats. They can really pack you in there this way. I guess during the summer
they have over 700 boats moored there. Glad we didn’t arrive at that
time!
We were hungry so I made us some
good ole Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (usually I like this when I’m hungry but it
didn’t hit the spot for me) which is quick and easy and filling, and we had a
drink and we were in the sack in no time. Yay! I love sleeping at anchor or on
a mooring. (Except when the mooring ball clanks against the boat. But the way
they tie you on in this configuration prevents that.) Kwanesum makes a
nice noise that I can’t describe when she’s at anchor. Kind of a creaking
noise. And the rocking of the boat is perfect.
And our bed on board…excellent. I am an excellent
maker-of-good-sleeping-beds and our bed on Kwanesum is no exception,
though you have to stand on your head to make it. I put feather beds and egg
crate foam and good cushy mattress pads under us. Then add a great quilt and
lots of pillows and blankets and it’s heaven. Ours is a queen bed so there’s
plenty of room. I’ve often thought I should have a video of what it looks like
to make it. I use my head a lot to balance the mattress off of when I’m making
it. The mattress folds in half width wise so I can fold it and flip it around
as I make it. It’s pretty comical. I use the straps you can find at BB&B to
tighten the sheets, as the mattresses on boats are nearly always odd-shaped and
I like my sheets to be tight. And I see no need in having someone make special
sheets to fit the mattress. So we are tucked in for a good night’s sleep.
 |
Next day… we just relax. Randy made
some great boat pancakes and we enjoy our morning catching up on the news and
email and friends on Facebook. We paid $10 each for 24 hours of internet. I
figure we can afford $20 and you know how I like my internet and Randy loves to
read the news, too, and we can both check the weather. Since Bob, our dinghy,
is not doing well…I need to update you on Bob…we call a boat taxi to take us
into shore. $5/person each way. Yuck. But…whatever. It’s a cute little town but
touristy as you’d expect. We walked around and down to the Avalon Ballroom of
infamous history. But we didn’t pay for the tour to go inside. We did go to
their little gift shop and could have paid to go into the museum, but I was
able to watch a little slide show program so that was enough. A fun place years
ago, very popular with the stars. We stopped at a restaurant on our walk back
and had some beer and appetizers. Perfect. It’s so nice to be in the United
States. We really enjoyed visiting other countries, but I cannot stress how
much we like being back in our own country with our own currency and people
that speak our language and knowing whether you are being ripped off or not.
Well…mostly knowing that, anyway. In another language…you never know. And
believe me we felt that many times. It’s just really nice to be in the USof A.
Hey! I can even call the kids with no
problema!
Bright and early we are up and ready
to go to our next port of call, Channel Islands Harbor near Oxnard. Our
daughter and her husband lived in Oxnard for a few years so we are familiar
with the area. And Randy has been there many times for work and on other boats.
It’s foggy when we leave but the seas are smooth as silk. LOVE THAT! Again we
motor-sail. We put the mainsail up to steady the boat and pick up any winds
that might be there. But…we have negative wind.
Excellent!
Took us 12 hours to get to Channel
Islands Harbor; just another long day of napping and reading and contemplating
life. You do that a lot on these trips - lots of time to think. Not much ocean
life, though we did see a couple of schools of dolphin, but they didn’t come
play with us. They seemed on their way somewhere. No time to play with the
boats. And we did have a birdie ride along with us for a while..JPG)
So we are now in a berth in the
harbor. Another Charlie 13 slip! That must be our lucky number! We have had
that number on slips quite often! We now have lots of water and electricity…but
no internet. Usually there’s some wifi
signal you can get for a few pennies, but apparently not here. However, there’s
a Starbucks up the road and they don’t charge for internet anymore. Yay! And
it’s pretty good, fast internet and the facility is really nice…and big. Yes,
people…I like my internet. I do my banking, my checking the news, my checking
of the weather, my checking on my people , my uploading to my blog…through
internet. I like good internet. It’s what I am…partially. =)
We can walk lots of places here,
which I love. There’s a good shopping center close by and some restaurants and
Laundromat, and hardware store, too, which came in very handy for my Captain
whose head is in the head! Alas…we are back to Laundromats! Oh how I love and
appreciate my washer and dryer at home. We are so appreciative of many things
now that we are CLODs (Cruisers Living on Dirt).
We are now figuring out our staging
to go around Pt Conception. It can be a tricky and uncomfortable area unless
you do it right. Timing and weather are what we are watching. I will keep you
posted on that as it happens!
