Nothing

Nothing happened at 9:16pm last night. Or 10:16. Or 11:16. It didn't rain. There were no waves. The bay was completely serene all night long. The tsunami surge was only supposed to be 6-8 inches anyway, but I was really hoping for at least a little something... some sort of bad weather. But instead we got... NOTHING. :(

Tsunami

Tsunami Advisory
Statement as of 5:42 PM PDT on September 29, 2009

... A tsunami advisory is in effect for Orange County and San Diego
County coastal areas...

There is no Tsunami Watch or warning in effect at this time for
the extreme southwestern California coast. However... dangerous
currents and surges are possible in the local harbors and bays.

Forecasts indicate that a tsunami with amplitudes in the range of 15
to 20 centimeters (6 to 8 inches) is expected along the Southern
California coast.

The tsunami threat is forecast to begin in coastal San Diego and
Orange counties around 916 PM this evening... then build to its
maximum height between 1015 and 1045 PM before subsiding.

Coastal residents are advised to stay out of the water... off the
beach... and away from harbors and marinas. Wave heights and
currents are amplified by irregular shoreline and are difficult to
predict. The initial wave may not be the largest. Later waves may
be larger. Mariners in water deeper than 600 feet should not be
affected.

A tsunami advisory means that a tsunami capable of producing strong
currents or waves dangerous to persons in or very near the water is
imminent or expected. Significant widespread inundation is not
expected for areas under the advisory. Currents may be hazardous to
swimmers... boat... and coastal structures and may continue for
several hours after the initial wave arrival.

The tsunami advisory is a result of the 8.0 earthquake that occurred
at 10:48 am PDT near the samoan islands.

Stay tuned to your local media source or NOAA Weather Radio for
later developments.

Source

Dana Point

I met Ben and Adam at Dana Point Shipyard yesterday morning. Adam is spending the weekend scraping, sanding and repainting the bottom of his boat, Rita. Hopefully, by the end of the year, Ben and I will be doing the same with our boat. Here are some pics from their voyage and the sights around Dana Point Harbor:

Adam and Jasmine at the helm

Smoke from the L.A. Wildfires

A view from the cockpit

The fog rolling in on Doheny State Beach

Rita in position to be hauled out

Haulin' Out

Adam scraping barnacles

Lola, Adam, Rita & Ben

You can always tell the fishing boats
because the birds flock to them

Dana Point Harbor

Pirate Ship

Adam, if you're reading this... Bon Voyage and don't forget your SD Family!!

Update

I just heard from Ben and they just arrived at Dana Point and anchored the boat. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. They motor-sailed the entire way because there wasn't much wind today. (And to think at this time yesterday, the motor wasn't working... good thing they were able to get it going!) I'm going to drive up and get Ben tomorrow. Lola and I have never been to Dana Point so we look forward to checking out the area.

The Waiting Game

Ben took off with Adam at midnight last night to sail Adam's boat, Rita, up to Dana Point. Adam has an appointment on Friday to haul out his boat and paint the bottom. The sail should take somewhere around 20-24 hours, I think. Hopefully, Ben will get some cool pics along the way. I'll keep ya posted...

This is in reference to my last post: Article

Reality Bites

This afternoon I encountered a police blockade on the embarcadero while I was riding my bike home from school. A portion of the embarcadero had been taped off and a bunch of police officers and cruisers were congregating on land, while two Harbor Police boats tended to the scene in the bay down below. I was diverted into the street and when I got around the crime scene and back onto the embarcadero, I could see a scuba diver in search of something in the water. Down on the dock, an officer was questioning our neighbor Kyle. When they came up the dock, Kyle told me he found the body of a dead woman on the rocks when he was rowing home this afternoon. Pretty heavy stuff. So far, I haven't been able to find any information about who she was or how she may have ended up there.

The Life

I just stumbled across an article online and I had to share it. Some of you may wonder what life is like as a live-aboard. This article sums it up better than I ever could. Only difference between them and us is we row to shore and don't have hookups (and thereby pay less to live).

Here is the link : Article

Weekend Update

Things have been slow here at sailing central. We haven't been sailing since we returned home from the Coronados. We probably won't get as many opportunities to sail now that we're back in school and we have full schedules. So we are thankful for all the practice we got over the summer months. We will most likely spend much of our time this semester working on boat maintenance and simple renovations to get everything in working order.

Ben scored a new (used) bike and we were able to ride in Critical Mass last Friday night. It was tons of fun pedal all around the city with police escorts, never having to stop for a red light. There were plenty of angry pedestrians and drivers along the way, bringing to mind the old saying "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." We're definitely planning to ride again at the end of September.

This weekend, we enjoyed a visit from our friends, Vicky and Brian, who drove down from Silicon Valley. The four of us (and Lola, too...) had fun catching up and biking around the city.