Life in San Diego
Dawn in San Diego
Wednesday, October 10th to Friday, October 19, 2012 – Chula Vista California
There’s not a lot happening worth writing about lately. We moved the Victory from the Harbor Patrol Dock on Shelter Island to the Chula Vista Yacht Club in Chula Vista. Shelter Island is on the north side of the bay and Chula Vista is at the extreme south of the bay.
It’s about a hour or so’s trip, but you have to be careful. The south end of the bay is quite shallow and you need to stay in the channel or risk running aground.
The people at the Chula Vista Yacht Club are incredibly hospitable. We get three days free moorage as a reciprocal for our yacht club in Seattle, then we paid for one night’s moorage at the marina and they let us stay for another three days for free. We’ll continue this arrangement until we wear out our welcome and have to leave. You can’t get moorage that cheap anywhere around here. The San Diegoans think their docks are made out of gold or something. They charge up to $18 or $20 a foot per month at some of these marinas.
Dawn flew up to Oakland and got her car and dog. She left early in the morning and got home before bed time. It was a long day and she was wiped out, but we have ground transportation now.
We’ve met a couple here who want to take care of Odin while we cruise south to La Paz. It seems like they’re caring and the price is right.
I’ve been doing some maintenance work on the boat. I saw the doctor on Tuesday, it took up the whole day. He wants me to take it easy, but how can you when you have a boat to run? I did take yesterday as a day off. I just sat around and read or napped all day.
Then, in the evening, I went up to the yacht club and watched the Oregon-Arizona State game in the bar. The Ducks made short work of the Sun Devils, as was expected.
We bought a canopy for the boat at a second hand store in Alameda. We put it up on Wednesday because the sun was so hot. It fit like it was tailor made for the Victory. It is ten to fifteen degrees cooler under the canopy than out in the direct sunshine. That’s good because it was 96 degrees the day before yesterday.
The canopy is gray on top and white on the bottom, made out of some sort of canvas-like material. Only its lighter and feels smooth to the touch. It has thin fiberglass poles that are strung together with an elastic band like you see on modern tents. The poles make the top rigid and it sits over the boat like the top of a covered wagon. We hang it from the halyards to get it up high enough to be out of the way. It’s going to be really nice when we’re anchored in tropical bays. The whole boat is cooler.
There’s nothing else really exciting to report. I’m going to take a class or two while we’re here. There’s a big hubbub about the Baja Ha Ha right now. The Ha Ha is a cruising sailors rally that starts in San Diego on the 29th and goes to Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of Baja California. Two or three hundred boats participate and make two stops to party and rest on the way down.
We’re not going to go on the Ha Ha because I want to stop in lots of places along the way. If you read Blue Water & Me, you’ll know that Papa and I had many adventures along this coast. I want to revisit the places we went and some that he talked about that we never got to. If you haven't read Blue Water & Me, shame on you. You can order a copy from Amazon.com or from my web site at www.pennwallace.com.
We’re going to be here another two weeks, so I doubt I’ll have a lot of interesting stuff to tell you. Hang with me, we’ll be back at sea on or around November 1st. Then It will get exciting again.
There’s not a lot happening worth writing about lately. We moved the Victory from the Harbor Patrol Dock on Shelter Island to the Chula Vista Yacht Club in Chula Vista. Shelter Island is on the north side of the bay and Chula Vista is at the extreme south of the bay.
It’s about a hour or so’s trip, but you have to be careful. The south end of the bay is quite shallow and you need to stay in the channel or risk running aground.
The people at the Chula Vista Yacht Club are incredibly hospitable. We get three days free moorage as a reciprocal for our yacht club in Seattle, then we paid for one night’s moorage at the marina and they let us stay for another three days for free. We’ll continue this arrangement until we wear out our welcome and have to leave. You can’t get moorage that cheap anywhere around here. The San Diegoans think their docks are made out of gold or something. They charge up to $18 or $20 a foot per month at some of these marinas.
Dawn flew up to Oakland and got her car and dog. She left early in the morning and got home before bed time. It was a long day and she was wiped out, but we have ground transportation now.
We’ve met a couple here who want to take care of Odin while we cruise south to La Paz. It seems like they’re caring and the price is right.
I’ve been doing some maintenance work on the boat. I saw the doctor on Tuesday, it took up the whole day. He wants me to take it easy, but how can you when you have a boat to run? I did take yesterday as a day off. I just sat around and read or napped all day.
Then, in the evening, I went up to the yacht club and watched the Oregon-Arizona State game in the bar. The Ducks made short work of the Sun Devils, as was expected.
We bought a canopy for the boat at a second hand store in Alameda. We put it up on Wednesday because the sun was so hot. It fit like it was tailor made for the Victory. It is ten to fifteen degrees cooler under the canopy than out in the direct sunshine. That’s good because it was 96 degrees the day before yesterday.
The canopy is gray on top and white on the bottom, made out of some sort of canvas-like material. Only its lighter and feels smooth to the touch. It has thin fiberglass poles that are strung together with an elastic band like you see on modern tents. The poles make the top rigid and it sits over the boat like the top of a covered wagon. We hang it from the halyards to get it up high enough to be out of the way. It’s going to be really nice when we’re anchored in tropical bays. The whole boat is cooler.
There’s nothing else really exciting to report. I’m going to take a class or two while we’re here. There’s a big hubbub about the Baja Ha Ha right now. The Ha Ha is a cruising sailors rally that starts in San Diego on the 29th and goes to Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of Baja California. Two or three hundred boats participate and make two stops to party and rest on the way down.
We’re not going to go on the Ha Ha because I want to stop in lots of places along the way. If you read Blue Water & Me, you’ll know that Papa and I had many adventures along this coast. I want to revisit the places we went and some that he talked about that we never got to. If you haven't read Blue Water & Me, shame on you. You can order a copy from Amazon.com or from my web site at www.pennwallace.com.
We’re going to be here another two weeks, so I doubt I’ll have a lot of interesting stuff to tell you. Hang with me, we’ll be back at sea on or around November 1st. Then It will get exciting again.
Penn and the deal old Surprise