The Boom-Boom Room

For the past three years, the V-berth has been a thorn in our sides. When we moved into Mo-C in 2008, we knew that our bed was shaped like a V. We were willing to deal with it and we were under the impression that the previous owners had the board and cushion that would fill in the void and make our bed complete.

Apparently, there was no board or cushion so almost a year after we moved into Mo-C, Ben filled in the void himself.

Only problem: we didn't have a cushion for it. From time to time, I'd hitch a ride to the fabric store and price foam, but with our 4-inch tattered foam cushions and another 4-inches of terribly worn foam over top, it felt like one piece of new foam in the void would lay there mocking us daily (and it was really expensive). I'd had all the best intentions of gutting the whole V-berth and buying a completely new bed but without a car, it had always seemed a daunting task. And truth be told, I wasn't ready to commit to the sailing life and spend a good amount of money on a bed I might abandon sooner than later. 

Maybe like A.D. and B.C.E., everything in our lives will forever be designated B.C. (Before Catalina) and A.C. (After Catalina). Maybe it was the faith we grew in the boat or in ourselves or in our relationship during our trip to Catalina. Maybe since Mo-C proved to us she was in it for the long haul, we owed her (and ourselves) a little respect. Whatever it was, I decided we weren't going to spend another solitary night in those creepy little V-shaped less-than-twin beds, reaching out for each other but instead finding a cold, wooden void in the place of a warm body. So I bought two 8-inch (with memory foam) twin mattresses and an electric carving knife and we spent most of Saturday fashioning the first one to fit inside the berth. Once we figured out all the angles, we had the second piece cut in one slice to form our new, giant V-King Bed.

Earlier in the day, Ben had sterilized the entire V-Berth with bleach and water to remove any mold or dust mites and the previous day, I had purchased all new bedding to create our shiny new Boom-Boom Room (as it's become known on the mooring field). Now, our most perplexing thought is how we managed to tolerate those old, dilapidated cushions for the past three years. And Lola seems ultra-pleased that she no longer has to worry about falling into the great abyss.

Anchorage: Glorietta Bay

Mo-C with Hotel Del in the background

 Last Tuesday, we set sail for Glorietta Bay with our friend Andrea. We anchored for two nights and Adam and Jasmine met up with us and anchored on the second day. We had some good times with good friends. It used to feel like bay sails to La Playa and Glorietta were so much work that sometimes we opted to stay put on the mooring ball. Ever since our Catalina trip, however, our perspective has changed. Looks like this anchorage was number 4 for the year, not counting the Mission Bay/Dana Point/Catalina trip. Not bad for a couple of newbies! 

Rita and Mo-C anchored in Glorietta Bay

Catalina Island Videos

The internet gods have not been smiling on me lately. I went to the Cafe yesterday to upload pics and videos but I wasn't able to get online there because they were having issues with their router. Ben was able to upload some Catalina videos from his computer, so I figured I'd start with those for now. We left Dana Point around 4:15 AM on July 25th and pretty much motored the whole way to Catalina... around 10 hours. We threw up the sails for about the last hour of the trip, when the wind finally greeted us. We were anchored in Hamilton Beach by 1:45 PM. As we arrived at Hamilton Beach, we were greeted by a playful pod of dolphins:



We spent one night in the rollers at Hamilton Beach and by morning I insisted we grab a mooring at Avalon. (This was my first experience cruising and I wanted to go home with happy thoughts about sailing and anchoring.) Perhaps the Harbor Master felt sorry for the only girl on board (Adam left his boat anchored @ Hamilton Beach and came along for the ride to Avalon) because he gave us a pretty sweet mooring, right next to the dinghy dock and close to all the action. Ben went for a quick swim under and around Mo-C and took the camera with him:




We headed back to San Diego on Thursday morning, July 28th around 8:30 AM. The usual northwest wind had switched to a southeast wind so it was a bit of a hindrance to us. The forecast predicted it would switch back to the northwest around noon but it never did. After about 20 hours of motorsailing, we arrived back on the ball at 4:20 AM on Friday the 29th. We traveled a total of 168 nautical miles in 44 hours and 26 minutes over a 10 day period. We learned a lot along the way, much of which I'll share in future posts. We also took lots of photos and as soon as I'm able to upload them, I'll post them here.

Coming Up...

I have a lot to post about. I still want to write about our trip to Catalina Island. Plus we anchored in Glorietta Bay last week. And this past weekend was a very productive one around the boat. But we're near the limit on our 5GB data plan so I can't upload any pics until tomorrow or the next day. I'll write more in the coming days.