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| Anchored in Mariner's Basin in Mission Bay |
Today
is Christmas and we thought we’d be in Mexico by now. But we are here in San Diego waiting for a good weather
window. It’s looking like Sunday will be the day we take off for Ensenada.
I
have about two weeks to get you up to speed on first…
On
December 16th around 9:30 in the morning, we were able to leave
Oceanside safely! Prayers were answered! There were no breaking waves or high
winds at the entrance. The water was almost flat…what a difference from the day
we had entered. As we headed out further from shore, we found enough wind to
sail. We had both the jib and the mainsail up, but not for long. The winds died
and we motored the rest of the way to our destination, Mission Bay in San Diego.
We dropped an anchor at Mariner’s Basin just inside Mission Bay. This was the
best anchorage yet! It was well protected from wind and swell. The only problem
with the anchorage was that the Mission Bay Yacht Club was a long dinghy ride
away. We were going to stay at the Mission Bay Yacht Club originally until the
Harbormaster mentioned that there was a bridge we needed to go under to get
there. Which meant that we needed to tabernacle our mast (which our mast is
incapable of doing). So, the best the Harbormaster could offer was the use of
their yacht club facilities: bathrooms, showers and dock to tie our dinghy up
to.
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| Mariner's Basin Anchorage at Mission Bay |
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| Taking the Dinghy to the Mission Bay Yacht Club |
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| Mission Bay Yacht Club (street view) |
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| Mission Bay Yacht Club (bay view) |
The
next day after our arrival, we dinghy’d over to the yacht club and took a walk
into Pacific Beach where we eventually met up with my long time friend from
high school, Nicolette and her husband, Mark. It was so awesome to see her and
to meet her husband! I had not seen Nicolette for thirty something years! We
were best buddies while we attended Sacramento Country Day School. Besides being able to visit Nicolette and
Mark, they lent us a spare vehicle of theirs to use while we are in San Diego.
This vehicle has been a blessing! And to reconnect with Nicolette has been
incredible. In fact, later today we are invited to her home for Christmas to
join in the festivities with her family.
She has been so gracious, accommodating and a great friend!
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| Me and Nicolette reuniting after thirty something years. |
We
were only in Mission Bay for a few days and then we moved the boat to The
Police Dock at Shelter Island in San Diego. The Police Dock is conveniently
located and in a lovely area, but the bathrooms are a little rugged to say the
least. They fail by comparison to all of the places we have stayed along the
way. And here, we have to pay a $1.00 per foot per day. Not too terribly awful,
but we have been used to staying most places for free!
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| Our slip at the Police Dock, Shelter Island |
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| The yacht across from our slip in Kona Kai Marina |
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The women's shower at the Police Harbor.
(A huge switch from the one's at
Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Newport Beach!!) |
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| This shower head still precariously hung since last year. |
The
day we tied up to the dock and got all settled in, a man from a boat nearby
passed by our boat saying that there was a dead body floating “out there”. Rick
first looked at the guy and sort of blew off what he was saying. He thought he
was just some weird guy making nonsense and he went back to what he was doing. But
the guy walked by and again mentioned the floating body. He was looking a bit
frantic at this point and pacing the dock. Rick stopped what he was doing and
so did I so that we could to take a look for ourselves….to see if there was any
truth to what this guy was saying. I was a little nervous to see a dead body
floating. I wasn’t sure how I’d react, but on the other hand curiosity got the
best of me. So we both got off the
boat and scoured the water near our dock. Sure enough there was a body floating!!!
A dead body! Rick and the guy,
Jim, who has now turned out to be a very good friend to us, were trying to
figure out a way to get to the body and to get him out of the water. Jim also
made a call from his cell phone to 911, after trying to get through on the VHF,
which he got no response.
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| Floating body…. |
A
police officer arrived shortly after the call, just as the body had drifted over
to the Customs Dock across from us and proceeded to remove his belt and jump into
the cold water next to the body! In the meantime, Rick, Jim and a couple of
other police officers ran over to the dock to assist in removing “the dead
guy”. It took four people to lift
this guy out of the water. He was a big guy and severely bloated, so he was
pretty heavy! After he was dragged up onto the dock, Rick helped the police
officer get out of the water. Looking back on the turn of events, we can’t
figure out why the police officer jumped in the water. Why didn’t he use a boat
hook or something to pull the man to the side of the dock? I can see if the man
was still alive you would jump in after him, but this man was definitely dead
and had been floating for a while. Once everyone was out of the water, the
police officers and paramedics started administering CPR. I was watching all of
this from a dock across the way and I was surprised to see that they were
trying to revive him. They worked
on him for quite a while and then eventually gave up. The deceased man was then
covered up with a yellow tarp and left there for quite a while, hours even.
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| Police Officers and Paramedics working on the man. Rick and Jim standing in background answering questions. |
Later
there were a few police officers asking questions to other boaters on the dock
if we knew the man who had drown or if anyone saw him fall in. None of us knew
or saw anything other than him floating near our dock.
Days
later there was a small article written up in the
So
that was our first impression of the Police Dock. Pretty creepy!
During
our stay here in San Diego we have done a lot of driving around getting things
that we need to get and do before we leave for Mexico. We’ve made trips to West Marine, Marine
Exchange, Home Depot, Costco, Trader Joe’s, the Laundromat, Von’s, CVS, a trip
to the Hair Salon, the Barber Shop, and Fuel Dock (to fill the propane tanks)
just to name a few. Like I said before…this vehicle has been such a blessing!
Thank you Nicci and Mark!!
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| Stocking up on the snacks at TJ's |
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| Rick at the Barber Shop |
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| Me at Headline's Beauty Salon |
So
you’re probably wondering why we have been here in San Diego for so long and
not in Mexico by now. Well, the weather has not been too cooperative! There are
these little storms that keep coming and the best weather window we have is the
27th.
It
has been cold and rainy on and off since we’ve been here. It’s not the weather
we were hoping for! This time last year when we came down here on our friend
Jeff’s boat, Rick was wearing shorts and I was wearing sundresses. Now we are
wearing long pants, long sleeves and jackets! We trade off between using our
diesel heater our little propane heater (Mr. Heater) to keep warm while we are
on the boat. And…we’ve put the comforter back on our bed! We had taken it off a
month ago, figuring it would just be warmer weather ahead and we would only
need a sheet and a blanket. Ha!
We
have met so many cool people here at the Police Dock! Everyone is SO nice! Jim,
who is two boats down from us on our dock…the one who we have the dead guy
connection with, is from Canada. He sails on a 39’ Steel Boat. It’s very cool,
spacious and charming. He’s made it very comfortable and custom fit just for
him. He is a Kayak White Water Raft Guide and Mountaineer and has been doing
this for over 20 years all over the world. Currently he is on his way to Mulege
Mexico for a month long hiking excursion there, which he will be guiding.
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| Jim |
Across
from us, traveling in a Trimaran that he built himself is a man from Sacramento
who is returning from a 3-year stay in Puerto Vallarta. He and his dog Hannah.
Along with being super friendly, he has been a wealth of information!
Further
down the dock is a guy on what appears to be a racing boat, Mark and his dog, Buzzy.
Buzzy is a big dog that looks like a mix between a Mastiff and a Pitbull. He’s
big and slow moving and sweet as a can be. He wanders the docks but never too
far from view. Unlike most of us, Mark is not on his way to Mexico. He lives
here. He usually has his boat in an anchorage nearby but comes to the Police Dock
to fill up on water and to do projects that he needs to be on land for.
Next
boat down from him is Chris and Shawna from Texas and Maddy, a 19-year-old girl
from Canada who joined them here in San Diego as crew. They are on a beautiful
55’ Tayana sailboat. They have a
very interesting story on how they got to this point.
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| Chris and Shawna |
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| Mattie |
The
next boat over is another very nice man, Jeff and his wife and two daughters.
The girls are so sweet that they made us cinnamon rolls and brought them over
to our boat yesterday. They are headed to Mexico around the same time as we
are.
Last
but not least are a wonderful crew, Rijnard, his wife Lisa and their sailing
companion, Jay (from Canada). They recently arrived from Point Richmond with
two other crewmembers that got off the boat once they got to San Diego. That
couple we have seen before in Point Richmond. They live on the “Spit” in one of
those fancy homes on the water with a nice sailboat attached to the dock in
front overlooking our old Marina.
We have never seen or met Rijnard or Lisa before, but we have seen their
gorgeous 55’ sailboat, Enchanter parked on a dock in front of those same nice
homes on the “Spit” as we pass by on our way out of the Marina. We have always
noticed and admired their boat! It’s so funny to see them wind up here in San Diego.
Rijnard and Lisa are originally from Australia. They are headed to Mexico and
beyond! They have some great adventures planned.
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| Jay, Lisa and Rijnard |
Last
night we were able to get together with all of the suspects I mentioned on
Chris and Shawna’s boat for hors d’oeuvres. It was fun being amongst all of
them!
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| Chris, Shawna, Mark, Jay, Lisa, Mattie & Rijnard |
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| Chris and me |
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| Jay, Lisa, Mattie, me, Rick and Rijnard |
It’s
interesting the bonds we have formed along our travels the past two months. It
seems like you instantly connect like old friends with fellow boaters then when
it’s time to move on there is a little wave of sadness that comes but soon
passes because you know you are on the same journey and that your paths will
surely cross again.
Speaking
of paths crossing, we finally met up with our friends Kirk and Heidi again whom
we first met in Santa Cruz, thanks to our friends Jack and Brenda from BYC
Marina back home who put us in touch with one another. We bumped into them again
in Monterey where we got to know them a little better. We have stayed in touch
ever since. Finally they made it here to San Diego and we were able to spend a
little time with them! Our schedules are a little more in sync than they were
but still not exactly the same. We are leaving Sunday to Ensenada and they
won’t be leaving until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. But our time frames
in Ensenada may overlap and we will be able to see them again…maybe sail with
them on the coast of Baja Mexico for a bit.
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| Heidi, Harley(who jumped in the picture unexpected) & Kirk |
A
few nights ago, Rick and I lucked out and were able to see the Lighted
Christmas Boat Parade. There were
hundreds of boats out in the San Diego Bay all lit up with Christmas Lighted Decorations.
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| San Diego Christmas Boat Parade |
Speaking of Christmas decorations…. we heard that our friends Michael and Barbara
from Newport Beach won first place in their Christmas Boat Parade they had
couple weeks ago!
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| Our friend Michael and Barbara's boat |
I
don’t know if any of you might have followed along last year on my blog on our
one month trip to Cabo where I wrote a post about my adventures in the laundry
mat and the time I had there figuring out which machine did what. I ended up
washing the clothes 3 separate times before figuring out which one was the
dryer. Pretty comical! Anyway, this year I went to the same laundromat and I’m
happy to report, I did not have a problem! I figured it out first try. Well….I
did ask a fellow boater who was doing her laundry as well, which machine was
the dryer. That saved me a lot of
time and money!
Some
of the projects Rick has completed on the boat while we’ve been in San Diego
were re-wiring & reconfiguring the wiring for the solar panels, installing
a second fuel filter, had our fuel polished, took the propane off the decks and
filled them, and put up a 2x6 piece of wood just above our bulwarks to attach
our water and fuel jerry cans to.
We
bought a Flopper Stopper from West Marine, which will be great from here
on out because we will be at anchor for most of the next four months. This item
should help the boat from rocking and rolling so much which will be more
relaxing and make for a better night sleep.
For
Christmas this year, Rick and I decided not to give each other gifts, because
this trip is our gift basically. But we broke that pact and bought each other
beginner surfboards. We have both been discussing learning how to surf ever
since we were in Santa Cruz. So when we got here to San Diego and checked out a
few surf shops and talked to a few people, we came up with a soft-top
surfboard, which is apparently great for beginners. It is also the surfboard all
of the surf rental shops use. We had a hard time finding this board. But one of
the guys at our last surf shop we visited told us that we could find the boards
we wanted at Costco for only 100.00! What a deal! Surfboards usually start in
the 3-500 dollar range and go into the thousand-dollar range. So we endured a
trip to Costco to get the boards. I managed ok in Costco…I’m used to it. But
Rick could hardly wait to get out of the store! It was not only the usual busy
Costco crowd we encountered, it was the Christmas shoppers Costco crowd! We
decided while we were there to pick up a few other things we needed anyway, but
we did that as fast as possible!
Did
I mention how lucky we are to have the use of a vehicle?! It would have been a
long walk or bus ride to Costco carrying surfboards and STUFF!
One
interesting thing I just learned while being here is that there are these
little tiny shrimp called Snapping Shrimp that feed on the algae on the bottom of
your boat. What’s crazy about this
is that you can actually hear them at work! I have been hearing the strangest
continual popping/crackling noises coming from our hull since we were in Santa
Barbara. It was the first time I really noticed this sound. I had mentioned to
Rick for quite some time what I was hearing, but he could never hear it. I
started to think I was going nuts. But finally I overheard someone talking
about the noises I was hearing and what it was from. I was so happy to hear
that it actually was something real and not something made up in my head! The
sound you hear sounds very similar to when you first pour milk over a bowl of Rice
Krispie’s Cereal! Snap! Crackle! Pop! It also sounds like the morning after a
rain when you hear water dripping off of your roof onto your lawn….very
subtle…very random… VERY WEIRD!
It’s kind of
eerie to think there are millions of little critters feeding off the bottom of
your boat!
