SOCAL

It’s been awhile since our last blog entry, so I thought I’d write one update that covers it all from there to here.  “Here”, is Newport Beach Harbor.  We are anchored in the transient boat anchorage just off Lido Island.  It is the only place to anchor in the harbor and based on the amount of space they’ve dedicated to it, one can only assume that they really don’t want people to anchor here.  That said, about 5 boats have managed to squeeze in and as far as we know, nobody came into contact with any other boats, although I’m sure there were some close encounters.  It is a pleasant place, surrounded by luxury homes, restaurants and other high end businesses.  In the evening, there are quite a few harbor cruises (aka, party boats) that depart from the various marinas around us for a cruise on the bay.  Presumably the cruise includes dinner and cocktails.  It looks like a fun activity.  We’ve been here for two nights so far and will likely stay at least one and possibly two more nights.

Yesterday we hooked up with Bill and Claudia (Janet’s brother and his wife) for a day sail.  They are going to join us for the Baja Ha Ha and wanted to get acquainted with Talos IV.  It was a great day of sailing, which included putting the boat through all of its various sail configurations.  We had the main sail, jib and staysail out as we tacked out on a close reach to the three mile mark (we needed to dump the holding tank) and then tacked onto a beam.  As winds were relatively light, we hoisted the asymmetrical and just for kicks tested to see how far up wind and off the wind we could sail with the asymmetrical.  It appears that our range of sail is about 60 to 120 degrees off the wind.  It would be pushing it a bit to go much beyond these points.

This is in reverse order, but before arriving here, we spent a night on the hook off White Island in Long Beach.  This was our second night there, having spent a night a few days earlier before going into the Long Beach Yacht Club.  We researched the history of the island and as it turns out they were built in the 1960’s and named in honor of the four astronauts who lost their lives in the early years of the space program, White, Grissom, Chaffee and Freeman.  The islands disguise the oil drilling operations that are taking place and I must say, they have done a remarkable job making these an attractive part of the Long Beach coastline.

We stayed at the LBYC in Alamitos Bay for three nights, courtesy of Janet’s dad, who is a member of the yacht club.  It was a wonderful stay that allowed us to see family and friends.  We had dinner at the yacht club one night with Janet’s parents and Bill and Claudia.  Another night our friends, Walker and Jeff came by with take out Chinese food and we ate and drank wine on deck while we got caught up with each others lives.

Before arriving in Long Beach we had spent a couple of nights out at Two Harbors on Catalina Island.  The sail over from there to Long Beach was awesome and was probably the best sailing day we’ve had since leaving Seattle back in June.  The wind was off the beam at about 12 – 15 knots and we reached across the 25 mile run making a good 6 knots virtually the entire way.  The weather is warm enough now that we are able to be wearing shorts and tee shirts, which is what we were wearing that day.  What a dramatic shift from up north.

OK, that about does it, the blog is updated with the exception of photos.  As always, wifi is needed to get the photos uploaded, so be patient and we will get some up as soon as possible, maybe even today.

White Island as we were departing.

This bad boy dragged himself up onto the
dock just as Janet's mom and dad were
getting ready to leave.  Fortunately he
was quite cooperative and slid back into
the water to let us pass by.