Just Waiting

For those of you that are wondering what's going on-----not much. We spent the first 10 days making phone calls, and moving around while trying to find a months moorage, no luck while Baja Ha Ha boats were still here. We did find 10 days at the city dock but I'm still on the phone looking for moorage for the last 10 days.
The Baja Ha Ha boats (192 boats) left Mon. the 26th for Mexico and Tues. at 4 P.M. 200 miles south of San Diego one of the boats hit a whale and sank in 5 to 7 minutes, all aboard were rescued. Yesterday a Marine helicopter and a Coast Guard C-130 collided off of San Diego, so far no survivors found.
Weather is a little cool for San Diego, daytime has been hi 60's to low 70's and nights are mid 40's to low 50's but it's suppose to warm up 6 to 8 degrees next week.
I replaced the chock that we had torn off in the Delta, had to fix a diesel leak at the starboard fuel pump and clean up the diesel in the bilge, did some sanding and varnish, on the phone trying to get the last of our paper work done.
Our phones will be shut off Nov. 13th so contact will only be by e-mail or on the blog, so it may be sporadic, only when we get to an internet cafe or a marina with wireless internet.
We did see two BIG sailboats come in and watched a yacht pull out of it's slip into the bay so it's helicopter could take off (FAA wont allow them to take off while the boat is in the slip) pic's to come later.

On to San Diego

While we were home we got to spend some time with family and friends.

Passing the Queen Mary at Long Beach.

Met with a long time friend From High School at Newport Beach and had a wonderful visit.

Dana Point is a beautiful Harbor to come into.

Rock Art done by a local, all of the rocks are balanced and when the wind blows them down he comes back and re does them, no glue, no support.

This is why we were stuck an additional 3 days in Dana Point. High swell warnings until Friday so we left for San Diego Saturday. Decided to skip Oceanside due to local knowledge telling us that it is not a good harbor to enter.

The latest craze in California is paddling surfboards around the harbor and out into the ocean.

And the scenery is not too bad either! Eat your heart out guys.

Square Rigger at the Oceanography Institute.

The owner takes this out occasionally on nice weekends. Roomer is that for a 1 million dollar donation he is allowed to park the boat at the Oceanography Institute. Name of the boat is "Fighting Irish" . Notra Dame grad ya think?

Welcome to SUNNY SAN DIEGO! On the trip down from Dana Point we ran into fog about an hour out and had 1/4 to 1/2 mile visibility all the way into San Diego, thank heavens for chart plotters, GPS and radar.

Last leg to San Diego

The day before we left San Pedro LaVon had an abscess and we had to bicycle to a dentist and they had to pull a tooth, fun fun fun. We moved on to Alamitos bay to Long Beach Y.C. for two days and to Seal Beach Y.C. for one day, LaVon still had some pain so the wonderful friends we met in San Pedro came down and got us and took her back to the dentist, he said that was normal so we spent the rest of the day at our friends house, I helped him trouble shoot a problem with his new (used) diesel Pickup and stayed for pizza and, spaghetti for LaVon (she's on soft food for now.)
Alamitos Bay has shopping close by so we peddled around, called a friend in Newport Beach that I went to Hi School with and made arrangements to met with them.
Moved on to Newport Beach, stayed at Balboa Y.C. had a wonderful visit with our friends, they had us up to their home for dinner, ran us around looking for my missing chock, still no luck, they took us out to dinner the next night, had a great visit but never long enough!
Our friends are going to try to get to San Diego while we are there so Brian and I can celebrate our birthday together (same day).
After two days we moved on to Dana Point, beautiful harbor very friendly people at the Dana West Y.C. had a great dinner at the club, gleaned all the local knowledge I could and met several people that have made the trip to Mexico before.
Can't get into Oceanside until the 14th so Dana West Y.C. let us stay another day, hope the weather is OK on Thurs. There is a front moving in and we heard that there will be 10' surf at San Diego this weekend. We did have some rain last night (Mon.) here at Dana Point. Hope to get into San Diego on Fri. although we could pull into Mission Bay if it gets bad, either way it will be a 6 or 7 hr. day after a 4 hr. run on Thurs.
We saw on the weather last night that Baja is going to get hit with a tropical storm 60+ mile an hour winds and 3 to 4 inches of rain, hope theweather clears up before Nov.
That's it until we hit San Diego.
Irv

A few pics

I finally got this to download some pictures, although it downloads from bottom to top so these are in reverse order of our trip. Top is a restored "Red Car" one of L.A'.s original street cars, it runs up and down the waterfront in San Pedro.


The San Pedro Maritime Museum is in the background and the 16" gun and projectile 6' in front of the gun are from one of the Iowa Class Battleships from WWII.

When we were heading to LA we had Dolphins running under our bow just one or two feet from the boat.

Exchanging burgees with Channel Islands Yacht Club. For the non boaters a burgee is the small flag we fly on our bow showing which club we belong to and exchanging with another club signifies friendship between the two clubs.

We have been warned to watch where we anchor if we go out to one of the Islands because they have a lot of kelp beds and it not only can get wrapped up on your anchor but it can get wrapped up in your propellers and get sucked up into your cooling water intakes.

At Avila Bay we saw 50 or 60 sea lions thrashing in the water all around the bay and at one time all around our boat. We finally figured out that they were feeding on bait fish that came into the bay and the group of them moved around the bay as the fish moved, it was quite a sight to watch this huge area of churning water move around the bay.

We will be heading to Newport Beach tomorrow, weather has been low to mid 70's during the day and mid to hi 50's at night, cooler than normal. Oh well it beats 50's and 30's.

WE"RE BACK!!

Well We've been home to visit friends and family, check on my son, his cancer has returned and that means more chemo, so most of our trip home was good but not all of it was good news.
When we arrived back at the boat it was filthy from all of the fires around L.A. we spent 5 hrs cleaning. internet
We met with friends from Cabrillo Beach Y.C. and had dinner with them then moved over to L.A.Y.C. LaVon got up at 1AM Sat. morning with her jaw swollen and Mon. I had to get her into a dentist and he had to pull a tooth.
Tomarrow Tue. we will be moving to Alimitos Bay for a couple days at Long Beach Y.C. and one day at Seal Beach Y.C. From there I still have to make arrangements for moorage at Newport Beach, Oceanside, Dana Point,and then on to San Diego. We are planning to spend about a month in San Diego, this moving every 2 to 3 days is getting old but I can see why the Yacht Clubs have to limit how long someone stays on their guest dock.
I just got an e-mail from San Diego Y.C. about more paperwork, the port of San Diego wants info on all boats coming into port for the FUBAR trip and Homeland Security requires a decal for us to re-enter the US, thats two more forms and fees to send in----I need a secretary and a filing cabinet! It's a whole lot easier to go up to the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound!
I'll try to download some pictures when we have faster internet, I tried to download a picture and after 5 min. I gave up, this ATT air card is too slow.
I'll write more next time we move.
Irv

Boat Drinks

We've had Sunshine and that puts me in a Jimmy Buffet frame of mind, things like "Boat Drinks" and "The weather is here wish you were beautiful my minds not too clear," and so on. I'm sorry you have to be a Jimmy Buffet fan to understand that, I was just rambling.
Again we have met some wonderful people here at Cabrillo Beach yacht club, one member ran me around to used marine stores to look for the chock that I'm still looking for and another member ran me around to marinas to check on moorage for Sept. when we head home, and they invited us to their home for dinner one night. We did burger nite at the club and what a spread, you had your choice of veggie, chicken, seafood or 1/3# beef pattie, w or w/o cheese, coleslaw, salad, baked beans, french fries and all the deli condiments, B. L. T. onions, pickles, relish,and a selection of mustard's.
After we used our reciprocal time there we moved 1/4 mi. to L.A. yacht club for three days and they said that I can stay five days since I have to wait until 9/1 to get into a moorage. We did find a reasonable moorage, I say reasonable because we found prices from $483 a month at a live aboard marina in the industrial area to $1780 a month in the upscale area and one marina wanted a copy of a survey (boat inspection) within the last 24 months.
We have had two big fires down here within 6 to 10 miles away that have burned about 1000 acres and we got up this morning and the boat was covered with ash and it came in through the open windows and we had big flakes inside the boat so we have spent the day cleaning.
This is a great adventure but we really miss family and friends back home. Would we do it again? Only to meet the wonderful people that we have met, as for the boating----it's really hard to beat the Columbia River and Puget Sound for great boating.
We will move into our slip on the 1st and we have our plane tickets out of Long Beach on the 8th with our return flight on the 29th.
We want to stay home for most of the month because the bad news is that the Dr's. think that my youngest son's cancer has returned, say a prayer for him.
We probably won't post anything until we come back to Calif. unless I download the camera and I put some pictures on here. So until then, we're thinking of you.
Irv & LaVon

Found some sunshine

Had a great dinner and visit with Josie and her mother, we stayed another 2 days at the municipal marina in Marina Del Rey so we could meet up with Ralph and Jackie for lunch as they were on their way to a wedding at nearby Manhattan Beach the next day. So great to meet up with some of the wonderful people that we have met along the way.
We left Sun. noon and made the run to Redondo Beach, nice trip the ocean was pretty smooth but we still had low clouds 1 to 2 mile visibility, met a couple from Seattle that are headed back to Mexico.
Mon. A.M. we headed down to L.A. About noon we pulled into Cabrillo marina at San Pedro, again low clouds and 1 to 2 miles visibility until we arrived then the sun came out and it got up to the low 80's. The weather is supposed to get back to normal, mid 80's the rest of the week.
I'm going to try to meet up with someone from here that is going on FUBAR (the trip to Mexico) when we are going, then I have to get busy on the phone and try to find a place to moor the boat for a month so we can come home for 2 to 3 weeks.
Plans are to come home on the 8th and stay until the 29th so I need to find out where I'm going to leave the boat so I know what airport we'll fly out of.
We look forward to spending time with family and friends, we miss everyone!

LaVon's comments: Girls the water hasn't been so bad, had couple times when uncomfortable for me at least. Meeting people along the way is great but seems like you don't get to much "girl time." Moving so often isn't always great, would love to find a place to be for a couple of weeks to stay and feel more like home than nomads. Places around here are few and far between to just go anchor out, sit back relax and lay around. I will admit it is a great place to own a kayak as you can go around the marinas with ease. These guys down here even go out in the ocean. NOT for me. Does make it a little challenging coming in to a channel or harbor with all the kayaks and the latest thing, people on surf boards standing paddling in the middle of the channel. For some reason big boats coming in or out of the harbor doesn't mean they should get out of the way!!!!! I am ready to come home for a visit although the weather has finally improved and am looking forward to finally getting a tan. Have learned one thing: YOU CANT ALWAYS GO SHOPPING AND JUST BUY THINGS 'CAUSE YOU DON'T ALWAYS HAVE THE SPACE TO STORE IT. Rule #1. Something comes something goes.

That's all for now
Irv & LaVon

On to Marina Del Rey

Had a great time with beer and bocci ball Thurs. evening at Channel Island Y.C., then went to the Sat. evening "name that tune" dinner/dance, that was a real hoot. This is a MUST stop for any one heading south, they are a great club and a lot of fun, they made us promise to stop by when we go back north, one member gave LaVon his cowboy hat and told her that she has to return it on our way back she wound up leaving it at the club with a note that we don't have room for more "stuff" on board but we will be back.
Sunday we headed to Marina Del Rey, great trip 1' swells at 8 secs. some of the time the ocean was like glass, little or no wind until we got to Marina Del Rey. We had dolphins running under our bow, 75 degrees out sun shinning.
Marina Del Rey is a busy harbor on a Sun. afternoon but they have traffic separator buoys in the channel coming in and out. Power boats stay on the outside edge of the channel by the jetties on the way in and out and the sailboats are restricted to the center of the channel this make for a great system.
We had a little trouble finding the guest dock, we had a non boater receptionist on the phone trying to give us directions so we tied up on an end tie and ask a member that was close by on his boat "where is your guest dock" he pointed it out and came down to help us tie up.
The club is closed on Mon. and Tues. as many of the clubs are so there is not much activity around here. I peddled off to a chandlery, I'm still looking for a chock to replace the one we had torn off up in the delta, no luck!
We called our friend from Pittsburg Y.C. and made plans for dinner then we peddled off to Costco, now that is a real challenge, go shopping at Costco on your bicycle. We could only buy what would fit in 4 grocery bags because the saddlebags on each bike will only hold 2 bags. We got a few strange looks at Costco as we loaded our bikes but you do what you gotta do. One guy commented "bicycles, I like to see that" I didn't tell him that we burned 700 gallons of diesel to get here!
In another 3 to 4 days we have to meet another friend probably at Redondo Beach then on to San Pedro, L.A., Long Beach, Los Alamitos Bay and around then we will fly home for two to three weeks.
Weather here is still cool and overcast until noon and then in the 70s in the afternoon, not as warm as normal, we do want to make a trip out to Catalina Island but we may not do that until we come back from our trip home.
We're having a great time, keep in touch, we love to read the comments people leave.
Irv & LaVon

Oxnard

8/6 We fueled up at Ventura and learned a lesson, when I call around to check on fuel price some places quote full price with sales tax and some quote pump price that does not include sales tax.
We left at 10:00 before the afternoon wind picked up but by the time we got 10 miles down the coast, Oxnard had small craft warnings out and we followed a commercial fishing boat into the harbor. When those guys come in you know it's getting bumpy out on the ocean.
We spent 3 days, with SUNSHINE hanging out at Channel Islands Yacht Club. A great bunch of members, Thursday we were invited up for $1 beer, $1 hot dogs, and bocci ball, Friday night for potluck and Saturday for their dinner night. Sunday,after our allotted 3 free days we moved 1/2 mile down the channel to Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club for 3 days there. Monday evening we dinghied back to CIYC for movie night and popcorn. We had been invited to come back down to CIYC for 4 days before we leave (they waved their 3 day limit).
Sunday there is a great farmers market at the marina and we rode our bikes to town, Monday we dinghied thru the residential canals, for 1 to 1.5 million you to can have a house on the canal with your boat at your dock on the canal, we cruised on up to a shopping center with a dinghy dock and bought groceries, came back to the boat and puttered, cleaning windows and painting the boarding ladder.
Monday had cooled off and Tuesday was overcast all day, 65 degrees, the weather calls for cool days for the next week, about 15 degrees below normal. They call it their marine layer I call it overcast and chilly!
This (Tues.) was a good day to stay inside, I spent several HRS. online trying to figure what forms I need to fill out and mail to F.C.C to get my "restricted radio operaters license" (required to use your radio outside of the U.S.)
Tomorrow, Wed. we will go back to CIYC for beer, hot dogs, bocci ball, and then Sun. head out for a 5HR trip to Venice, Marina Del Rey to meet a friend we met at Pittsburg Yacht Club when we were up on the Delta.
That's all for now
Irv & LaVon

Monterey to Ventura Harbor

We left Monterey at 5:30 A.M. and headed out on a 13HR trip to Morro Bay, pulled in and tied up as they were finishing their burger night so we ate dinner and then signed in. Morro Bay YC does not recognize any reciprocals, Yacht Club member or not eveyone pays $30 a night but they expect a free reciprocal wherever they go because "they are the only safe harbor on that stretch of the coast"---WELL excuse me but I could have anchored in the harbor for free and I let them know on my return trip I would anchor out and not support them by buying their burgers or drinks, I told them that to attract new members our club has to offer a reason to belong to a Yacht Club and that reciprocals were part of attracting new members. Oh well I vented, paid my $30 and learned a lesson.
One of their members I talked to does not agree with their policy but he says "I'm only one vote" and he told us that he has a mooring bouy at San Luis Obispo and we were welcome to use it so the next morning we went around the point to San Luis Obispo and hung out on the bouy for two days. Each day we would watch 50 to 60 young sea lions jump and frolic around in a group just stiring up the water, at one time we had them all around our boat just stiring the water into a foam, when I saw the pelicans diving into the group of sea lions I figured out that they must be circling around small bait fish and feeding.
The seas laid down a little and on 8/1/09 at 4:30AM we headed out on the 11HR run to Santa Barbara with 2' seas and 5kt wind for most of the way.
We had 3'-4' seas at 8sec's around Pt. Conception for about an hour and then it smoothed out again and we are now offically in "Southren California" waters .
We spent the next day checking out Santa Barbara, the shops and the historical spots, we found out that from here on south we need to call ahead and make reservations at Yacht Clubs so we called ahead to Ventura and Oxnard and made reservations for the next two stops.
8/3/09 we left at 11:30 A.M. and made the 5HR run to Ventura, calm seas and very little wind it was a good trip, my Nobeltec navigation program did have problems reading the charts that I downloaded from NOAA so I had to run from the flybridge and use the chartplotter up there.
Ventura was great we woke up to sunshine! No fog in the mornings, 73 to 75 degrees, not very many members around because they are on a week long cruise to Catialina Island but the ones we met are friendly.
Tomarrow 8/6/09 we will move on to Oxnard to Channel Island YC for a few days and to Pacific Corinthian YC for a couple days then we will cruise down the coast to Marina Del Rey and meet up with a really nice gal that we met at Pittsburg YC.
We'll let you know if we see any whales on the way down the coast, the tour boats out of Ventura have been spotting Blue Whales and Humpback Whales.
Irv & LaVon

Moss Landing and Monterey

Lots of new pictures on some of the older posts also. Those have labels for the pictures at the bottom of the post in underlined blue font.

This post I have described each picture, as you read it, it describes the pictures from bottom to top.

Sailboat races at Santa Cruz and Lighthouse.

Here are more pictures, lots of sea lions at Moss Landing and sea otters, these are not the cute little ones that get on your boat like we had in Puget Sound, these sea otters are as big as a sea lion pup and ugly. Glad they are not getting on the boat!

Also have pictures of sailboarders in S.F. Bay skimming around big ships and across the ships wake.

We moved on to Monterey, very narrow entrance to the marina but they have lots of history here, pics. of the old Mexican Customs House, the first brick house next to the Whaling Station where whalers lived.

There are several old Adobe Homes, as well as all of the foo foo shops along the old "Cannery Row" and the Monterey Aquarium.

Wed. the 29th will be a long day we will be leaving about 5:30 AM to head to Morro Bay, we are going to bypass San Simion because we have been told that it's not a good idea to try to land a dinghy on the beach and they have no dock there. Morro Bay is about 110 miles so at 8kts thats about 14hrs, hope to arrive by 7:30PM.

Irv & LaVon

Santa Cruz and Moss Landing

Had a great time in Santa Cruz, walked to town, not much in downtown, but the boardwalk and pier are interesting the boardwalk is like a perpetual carnival with rides, food booths and circus acts, the pier has a lot of interesting shops and the weather was warm, in the mid 70's. After two days the weather pattern changed and the swells were changing from the NW to the SW which means that the swells will come straight into the harbor entrance so we moved on to Moss Landing, about 25 miles down Monterey Bay, it was kind of a bumpy ride with the swells coming on our starboard beam as they were changing from NW to SW, big change in weather, morning fog and PM low clouds mid 60's, very accommodating people at Elkhorn YC. We were going to move on to Monterey YC Sat. but we stayed for a benefit dinner Sat. for a member that lost his home in a fire.
After checking weather and wave reports it looks like we will not be heading south for a few days, local knowledge tells us not to go out in a swell from the south so we contacted Monterey YC by e-mail for reciprocal moorage (that's how their web site is set up for contact) and first I was ask if we were a sail boat, I replied no a power boat, then they responded that they have a 30,000 lb limit on their dock so it looks we will stay in Moss Landing another day and then move on to Monterey Harbor Marina for a couple days before heading out again.
We did visit a Shakespeare museum that is in the process of moving here from LA because they lost there property in LA to progress and condos. They have some books from the 1500 and 1600's lots of memorabilia, furniture and pictures from the old Globe theater in LA.
Sunday they are having an antique fair downtown that we will go check out.
I'll write more when we move on, I'll post some more pictures in a few days.
Irv & LaVon

Rough Road To Recovery

Sat. we peddled to the other side of the island to a swap meet, no chock but LaVon found a cutting board for 50 cents, then we peddled over to Alameda Y.C. to see if we could meet two gals that are going to go on FUBAR to Mexico when we do. They were not there but they were signed up for a birthday dinner Sat. night and we were invited to come to it, we went, we met the gals, we had dinner, we danced and had a great time, it reminded me of the great folks at Tyee Y.C. made some new friends and look forward to seeing them at the FUBAR trip.

Sun. we went to Clipper Cove at Treasure Island under the Oakland Bay bridge and the wind blew all afternoon and night. Mon. we went to Travis Marina at the north footing of the Golden Gate Bridge, don't believe a harbormaster when they tell you "sure it's deep enough at low tide" we got up at 6A.M. to leave at 6:45 to catch slack tide over the bar, guess what, we were hard aground we had to wait until almost 8A.M. to leave so that meant that we had to fight an incoming tide and a rough bar, the Columbia River bar may be the roughest but S.F. bar has to be the longest, we pounded out for an hour and ten minutes before it was smooth enough to turn south.

The NOAA weather said 3' to 5' seas at 8 secs, we bounced down the coast in 6' to 8' seas at 6 to 8 secs. following seas (pushing under us from behind) for the next 4 hours, so we bypassed Half Moon Bay and decided to go on to Santa Cruz, the seas eased up for a while then about 2 hrs. north of Santa Cruz the seas picked up and started breaking, we were pushed to port then to starboard, foam from the breaking waves passing under us, we skated down the back side of waves sideways until the rudders would grab and straighten us out then the next wave would push under us, we were pushed as fast as 14.4kts and skated down the backside as slow as 6.6kts, that went on for a little over an hour before it flattened out, that was tiring, constantly on the wheel hard left then hard right, the last 45 mins. into Santa Cruz was pretty good, now a couple of days off to explore and recover.

All and all it's been a good trip I know the boat will take more abuse that we will. Meeting great new friends, look forward to seeing some of them in L.A. and San Diego.



LaVons version: Met some real nice people, partied, shopped and then a miserable trip to Santa Cruz. Saw water out the side windows and don't even have to clean the walkways it was done for us. Boat rolls farther than you think without tipping over so take drugs and sit down.

Road Rash

Well we walked into Berkley and cruised up and down 4th ST (thier shopping district) -ho hum- lots of yuppie shops, kind of like NW 23rd ST in Portland. We walked around town a little and picked up some groceries before heading back to the boat, about 5 to 6 miles round trip. Sunday we walked out the Berkley Pier, about 1/2 to 3/4 mi. long and thats only 1/2 as long as the original wooden pier, the channel is so shallow that they had to build the pier out to deep water (18'to 20') to reach the old sailing ships so they could unload.
Monday we headed to Alameda and stopped at Oakland Y.C. nice people, nice club they share part of their docks with Encinel Y.C. also a nice club and nice members and they have a swimming pool. One of Encinel's members ran me around to several boat yards to look for a chock, no luck, only parts for small boats, Sat. we will go to a swap meet at Ballena Bay Y.C. on the other side of the island, I did find Calif. chart cartridges for my chart plotter at a used parts store, we got our bikes out and rode down 10 blocks to the local shopping center, had our pictures taken to renew our Passports, Wed. we had lunch at the club then we rode across the island to the Post Office at the Mall and mailed our passports in, then we cruised around the residential neighborhoods on our way back to look at some of the beautiful victorian homes and the cute '30's stucco bungalows, 4 1/2 hrs. on a bike will make your butt pucker!!
Thurs. I spent some time on the computer designing cards with our boat and our names on them because we have traded cards with so many people we ran out of the ones we had, then I rode to the other end of the island to an industrial boat yard and they are going to look for a chock for me. When I left they gave me a pen with their name and infomation on so I could call them, as I was riding off I was trying to hold the pen up with one hand and read it and I did not see the speedbump! Opps, over the bars and ROAD RASH! Looks worse than it really is.
Sun. we will be heading out to the Bay and plans are to head out and down the coast on Monday. We'll write more when we get to Half moon Bay.
Irv & LaVon

Berkley

We left Vallejo Fri. AM and pounded our way across San Pablo Bay, 4' chop at about 4 sec. with 25kt to 28kt wind, we took some spray on the windshield as we pounded into some of the swells.

Arrived at Berkley YC about noon, the channel coming into Berkley is about 3/4 mi. long and 7' to 8' deep, that's a little unerving when I draw 4 1/2', one eye on the depthfinder and one eye on the channel markers. I just can't get used to running with 2 1/2' to 3' of water under me.

No one at the club when we arrived so we just tied up, when the club mgr. arrived we checked in and were told that they are having their regular TGIF sailboat races and BBQ tonight and we are welcome to come (just what I need, more food).
Berkley is mostly sailboats and they are friendly but I don't understand the classes, the horns , the cannons, or the flags, but they get a real hoot out of their races. At Vallejo they were preping an 82' ocean racer for a 42 mile race to Angel Island and back, now that was intresting to go through, an owners cabin,a radio room, a galley and 22 bunks, very spartin no frills.
Today we are going to walk into town and explore Berkley.
Thanks to everyone that have left comments we love to hear from you.
Irv & LaVon

More Pictures

I've finaly figured out how to do the pictures, the captions for the pictures are at the bottom of the blog in blue script.

Pig out in Pittsburg

We spent Thurs. and Fri. moving boats and checking out the fire at a nearby park that was started from early fire works, Rich ran us over there on the patio boat and then showed us around the canals with condos that have their own boat slips at each condo. Fri. we had a potluck dinner on the dock and Sat. Ralph did ribs and chicken with more potluck side dishes, then Sun. it was leftovers. I think I'm gaining weight!

Sun. evening the club had what they call First Sunday Jazz, Blues & Broadway, a five piece group and about five or six performers each doing a couple of songs the first set then one song the second set, then all of them alternating on the finale.

Sat. Ralph Tocci introduced us to a marina owner from Alameda and he is going to help locate a replacement chock for our boat when we get to Alameda, we also met a Pittsburg YC member that also belongs to L.A. Yacht Club, her son and mother belong to other Southern California Yacht Clubs, so when we met her in L.A. she will help us get guest berthing in Southern California.

We plan to meet Ralph and his wife in Long Beach in August when they come down for a wedding.

We hated to leave but it was time to move on. We had a good trip down to Vallejo Tues. eve, Wed they had sailboat races, Thurs. we went over to Mare Island Naval Museum, very interesting, we walked around by the old "Officers Homes" they are 8,000 to 10,000 sq ft turn of the century homes, then we toured a WWII gun boat that is being restored.

Fri. AM we will head back down to S.F. Bay probably to Berkley then Treasure Island then on to Alameda.

Back at Pittsburg

I got the toe rail fixed and varnished and LaVon sewed the torn canvas, I dove on the boat and pulled weeds off of the port shaft.

For those of you that are wondering how my garden grows I'll include pictures, my lettuce is doing great, my tomato plant rotted off at the stem, I think I watered it too much.

Check the bottom of the picture and you will see the missing chock and the stripped piece of anchor line that I had to cut out.

Mothball Fleet

Just a couple of pictures of the Mothball Fleet and the Battleship Iowa near Benicia.

My first clue that the wind blows on the delta was the wind generators.