After tacking smartly all the way out of Marina del Rey and
leaving Venice beach astern, we came about and headed down the coast in light
air. As usual, light wind and a decent sea made for slow sailing and it was
late in the afternoon as we passed Long Beach. We continued on, slowly heading
south and eventually the wind died almost completely. As we inched along, still
just able to maintain a heading, we had another brush with a whale. This time,
we felt a great bump and the bow was pushed about 20 degrees off course as the
giant bumped our starboard bow and sounded immediately. Incredible! Luckily the
force of the encounter was not nearly hard enough to cause damage to either
party but, I’m sure, left everyone involved a bit baffled at the chances.
We sailed on into the night, again holding the perennial
discussion of whether or not to motor in such situations. As per usual, without
any hard and fast schedule to be followed, we opted to drift about.
Unfortunately, this night that meant floating back north many miles before the
rising sun brought us a bit more wind. Event still we made an early morning
entrance to Twin Harbors, dropping the anchor at the east end of the mooring
field. Unfortunately, the harbor has been monopolized by the company who runs
the small establishment and there is only one small corner, right next to the
rocks and exposed to the northwest wind and swell, that is open for free
anchoring.
When we came in we were warned by many people that a stiff
northwest breeze was to come up in the afternoon, warnings which continued as
we talked to people on shore. We did have a few hours to walk around the bay
and see the area around the harbor but before too long we decided that if we
were going to try to find safer anchorage or pay for a mooring ball we might as
well just head for San Diego. The island itself was not calling to us for
exploration and we still had the strong evening blow in Smuggler’s Cove fresh
in our mind. What’s more we thought it would be great to take advantage of a
stiff blow so we could make fast tracks southward. We pulled up the anchor and
sailed out of the harbor in the early afternoon.
Our run to San Diego was great. Although wind speeds never
reached the predicted 35-40 knots, we had a good 25 knots at our back nearly
the entire evening and night. The moon was big and it lit the 8 foot waves that
came charging after us one after another. We arrived in San Diego Bay at around
5 AM and tied up to the police dock, waiting for the harbormaster’s office to
open. When it did open we applied for a free “cruiser’s” anchorage permit. We
passed the simple harbor police inspection, obtained the permit and made our
way on to the anchorage.
We went for a spin past the tall ships at the maritime
museum downtown before dropping the hook just off the coast guard station in
the cruiser’s anchorage. Excited and relieved to have reached our destination,
we relaxed for a few moments before heading into town for celebratory meal and
a little exploration of the town in which we planned to spend a few weeks.
A few days after arriving, Alden left for Seattle after
spending about a month cruising with us. Special thanks goes to Alden for his
help and company along the way.
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