Well almost ready to leave for Mexico. We have had our watermaker installed and know how to work it! Hartley redid the seals on the freezer and refrigerator, between that and having the coolant recharged they seem to be working better. Good thing because I have stuffed them with food. We should not starve.
I was able to do all this great shopping as Susan and David, the parents of my former partner in Phoenix let us use their truck for several days. I addition they had us to their lovely house twice and fed as like we would never see civilization again. Susan is a great cook and I couldn’t resist eating all her goodies. They are new friends but already I know we will miss them.

My good friend Jacque drove all the way out to San Diego to bring us some of the stuff I bought in Phoenix when I was there (like a new set of flatware 🙂  )It was good to get to spend some time with her before we leave. Will miss her a lot. She and I ran around buying material to make a wind scoop, of course I haven’t done it yet. Will let you know how it comes out. We also got the things I need to make the Halloween costumes for the crew and got a good start on making them. (See below)

Other things we’ve done are put wheels on the dinghy so it will make it easier to tow up on the beach.

We put kayak racks on the side of the boat to get the kayaks off the deck.

We also developed a new way to get the dinghy on and off the boat without me having to help Hartley turn it over. Before I was “helping” to turn it over but it was at an awkward angle and very heavy so I wasn’t much help. The dinghy always ended leaning on the lifelines and I worried about the stress that caused them. It is really a piece of cake now.

We also got D/C fans and put them all over the boat. I think we will need them as we don’t have air conditioning.

We have been to seminars almost every night this week learning about  all sorts of stuff. We learned how to repair our sail if it rips . They have this new stuff called Sail Doctor , works like magic. It is an epoxy that glues your sails back together and is a permanent fix! It only takes 20 minutes to cure and can be used when things are wet. Wow , hope we never have to use it. Also learned what to do for emergency rigging repair and great places to visit in Mexico.

Oh I figured out what to do for the problem that women’s clothes don’t have any decent pockets, I bought a runners belt and it works great.

We got a new mattress for the boat and it has solved my back problem but it was a little too firm for both of our shoulders. We went to Costco and bought one of their gel toppers and put it on top. It made it too soft for me and made my back hurt again. I then changed the whole order of things. Left the big piece of latex on the bottom , put the gel topper in the middle and then the thinner, softer latex(but firmer than the gel )  on top. It seems to be working!!! I feel like the Princess and the Pea. ( Always good to feel like a Princess.)

My brother Neil came yesterday all the way from Connecticut to help us sail our boat to Mexico. The rally, the BaHa Ha Ha starts tomorrow and we are ready to go. The kick off party was today complete with Halloween costumes.

So off we go, will update when I can , probably not for a couple of weeks. See you then.

The So Cal Ta Ta is a boat rally that goes from Santa Barbara, out to the Channel Islands , back to the mainland and then back to another of the Channel Islands, Catalina. There were about 40 boats that did the trip. The way it works is everyone gets together and leaves for the next destination at about the same time. Then we arrive at the destination and either everyone gets together or smaller groups meet up. It is not a race, but….as it is well known , any two sailboats going in the same direction..it’s a race.

We spent 3 nights in Santa Barbara. The official beginning was a barbeque party on the beach given by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club where everyone started to get to know each other.

We then sailed to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands, and stayed in Smugglers Bay.

The island is uninhabited. A great place to explore but it was very hot while we were there so we kayaked around hoping to stay a little cooler. We stayed there two nights. The very large catamaran, “Profligate” owned by the Grand Poobah,and editor of Latitudes 38 ,  and organizer of the Ta Ta and the Ha Ha ,had all of the participants visit his boat in groups of one third of the fleet , each night for three different nights for appetizers and drinks. Met some nice people.

Then we all sailed back to Channel Islands Harbor, which despite its name is not in the Channel Islands but on the mainland. We had another great party there put on by the marina. The theme of the week was Rasta/Reggae and most tried to dress appropriately. I made long “hair extensions”made  of braided twine and wrapped n places with embroidery thread and decorated with beads. Hartley was a good sport and wore his head band with my dreads attached.

The next step of the trip was to Paradise Cove, another harbor on the mainland . Quick stop overnight and then back to the Channel Islands. This time we went to Catalina Island and stayed at Two Harbors. Two Harbors actually has a little store and a restaurant. It is one of the places that the ferries come from the mainland and drop off all the day trippers and campers. This was the first place we stopped that we actually had to deal with civilization. We managed to hike a little, and use the kayaks again.  Spent two nights there with the group. The first night, Interlude, a 73 foot sail boat, invited everyone to come and visit their boat and and of course the final night we had a big pot luck celebration.

We decided to stay a little longer. The Rally was officially over Saturday night September 20 but we stayed on until the morning of the 23 when we sailed up to Emerald Cove , just a few miles away. The water this year is unusually warm and very clear. We picked up a mooring ball in Emerald Cove just off  of Indian Rock.  There was only one other boat in the whole cove, an advantage to being there after Labor Day. The water was 72 degrees ,nice for snorkeling . We saw lots of beautiful fish. I even saw a sea slug and an octopus.

 

We then headed back to the mainland stopping in Alamitos Bay . They are in the mist of redoing the marina and it was in pretty bad shape. We were on an end tie and I heard a thud while I was down below. I went up and looked over the side of the boat that was on the water side, thinking maybe a log had hit the boat, but nothing there. I then looked at the side of the boat closest to the dock and there, on the dock was an enormous sea lion. He seemed quite content to stay on the dock, making no move to get on the boat, good thing. In the morning he was still there. We couldn’t go anywhere until we got him to move as he was laying on the lines that tied our boat to the dock. We had to spray him with water as yelling and other noises had no effect. Sorry no pictures they have disappeared!!

We had a nice sail down to Mission Bay where we spent the night at anchor. I was disappointed as this was a place we often went with the kids and watched the fireworks from Sea World night.  Apparently that must have been in the summertime, because as soon is is past Labor Day they close at 6 pm and no fireworks.  Oh well.

The next day we did a short sail to San Diego . We hadn’t been there in a long time .  It was amazing to see all the huge beds of kelp off the coast. We stayed for a week in the old marina that we had stayed at for the first 12 years of our sailing experience, Sun Harbor Marina. It is very nice , on Point Loma, close to stores etc, but the slips are very narrow (about 12 inches between our boat and the next) and the fairways are narrow too, making it difficult to back out your boat. We felt it would keep us from sailing as getting in and out was so hard and decided to go to Marina Cortez on Harbor Island. Further to ride our bikes to the store but much easier slips to deal with.

September 29 is Hartley’s birthday and also happens to be the day after Cabrillo officially discovered San Diego Bay. When our boat was in San Diego we always went to the Cabrillo day celebrations to help celebrate Hartley’s birthday. We managed to do that again this year and watched as the little dinghy left the mother ship and rowed to the land where Cabrillo and his crew leaped  off their boat and planted the Spanish flag.

 

We had a really nice day on October 3 , sailing with Dr Jill Gibson’s mother, father , sister, brother-in-law and two kids. Jill’s Mom and Dad did a lot of sailing when their kids were younger, her Dad even sailed to Hawaii. Nice to share the day with people who are so nice. The next day it rained some and the following  day it poured,  of course just as we were ready to go to the airport and we got sopping wet. Now this is where I get to say I was in Phoenix for a week and did not get to visit many people. We spent most of our time going from one doctor’s appointment to another, nothing wrong, just trying to get all the maintenance stuff done before we leave the country . For the majority of you who I didn’t see , I wish I had had more time, will have to plan better next time.

Just got back to San Diego and checked out the boat. We had a watermaker installed while we were gone. Looks good but there are no papers on how to work it etc so I hope they plan to come back in the next few days and give us a lesson!

We will spend the rest of our time in San Diego getting ready for the big event, the BAHA HA HA. Totally looking forward to it but lots to do before then.

And finally some pictures of our boat, Atsa under sail. We have to rely on other people to take our picture and we got some good ones.