Beer Can Races on s/v Time Out

s/v Time Out on the right

A few weeks ago, Ben and I teamed up with our neighbors Ralph and Brigite, and friend Oliver, to compete in the Beer Can Races on their 26' Ranger, s/v Time Out. We came in 1st in our class that night. Ben has sailed with "Team Time Out" a few more times since and they've placed either first or second each time. Here are a few pictures of the race taken by various photographers who were out on the water at the time:

s/v Time Out rounding the buoy

s/v Time Out flying the spinnaker

s/v Time Out (in the forefront) - That's Ralph at the helm, Oliver in yellow, me in red, and Brigite  up front. Ben  must be hiding behind Ralph!

Ben and Ralph having a beer before the race begins

Vessel Safety Check 2013

Another year, another USCG Safety Check

Passed with flying colors!

Asshole Parking

Summer Advertising

Baysail

It has been quite a while since I last blogged. I finally graduated college and now I have a little more time to spare, so I thought maybe I'd give it another go. I can't promise that I'll keep it up but I figured I might as well give it the old college try. ;) In the last year and a half, Ben has been honing his sailing skills while I've become more and more fearful of the slant. Seriously, sometimes I think I hate sailing. Well, it's really more fear than hatred. My equilibrium does not appreciate the slant of a sailing boat. But I am a glutton for punishment... and I am too logical to let fear control me. So we sail. Our latest endeavor occurred on Friday. We set sail for La Playa. We intended to anchor for the weekend, but as we neared the mouth of the basin, Ben fired up the engine and as history would foretell, the engine flipped us the bird. Unsure if something was stuck in the prop or if the trouble was with the transmission, we flipped a bitch and headed home under sail. I know, I know... we could have tried anchoring under sail. But we didn't. We headed home and called in reinforcements to keep an eye out for us in case of emergency. Out on the field, there is some room for error when picking up your mooring under sail. But we live on the wall, which means if we f*** up, we chance hitting the rocks and destroying our home. Ben tried the engine one last time as we neared the ball and, lo and behold, that SOB fired up and we were moving forward. So we managed to get back on the ball all by our lonesomes. Here are a few pics of the trip:

Ben doing all the work

Ben steering while I hide inside the cabin

Me, pretending sailing is fun

Lola's got her sea legs

From Rabbits to Dragons

Our list of things to accomplish in 2011 was a short one:

*Get an auto-tiller
*Sail more!!

Around August, we scratched both items off our list. Unfortunately, the auto-tiller we purchased didn't work for our boat so it was returned to West Marine and the auto-tiller goes back on our list.

Some people think you should aim high so you don't shoot your foot. I think if you expect nothing, you'll never be disappointed. With so little planned for 2011, it was impossible to disappoint. Here's the list of what we actually accomplished:

*Force 10 Cozy Cabin heater installed (x2)
*Rustoleum on the propane tank
*Dive ladder installed
*Brightwork
*Grill maintenance, new lights, new hardware on the tiller, outboard engine mount
*Outdoor speakers installed
*New mattress in v-berth
*New curtains in salon

We also had quite a few opportunities to sail Mo-C:

*Maiden Voyage of 2011, Bay Sail
*Bay sail with the Steichens
*Glorietta anchorage
*La Playa anchorage
*Mission Bay anchorage
*Sailing to Dana Point
*Dana Point anchorage
*Catalina Island (Catalina Videos)
*Glorietta anchorage #2

We only made it out of California once in 2011 (eek!) but we had a blast in...
*South Florida

So without my other half here to confer with, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 2012 will most definitely involve travels outside of California, as well as that much needed auto-tiller. Everything else is optional!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

America's Cup San Diego

Last weekend, we took some pictures of the America's Cup Race boats in San Diego Bay. Apparently, I forgot to publish them 'til now. The US boat(s) is the Oracle, which can be seen in the first two photos.

Liveaboard News

One of Laurel Street Mooring's own residents was interviewed by our local Fox news station the other day. For the number of times the news anchors have used our neighborhood as their backdrop, it's nice to see that one of them finally realized there were real, live human beings living within that backdrop. I kind of resent being categorized as "low income" by the anchorman. To me, that is relative. Our monthly expenses are around $150 a piece, so while we don't need much income to live, we also don't have the debt that homeowners have and this, in my opinion, makes us rich. I'll accept the "unemployed" label, although I think quite a few of the people out here are retired. Soon, I'm happy to report, I'll be among the unemployed on the mooring field. Hopefully I can make it last for a while! Anyway, click the link to see the video.

Liveaboard News

Pictures of Catalina

Only about 4 months late, I finally uploaded pictures of our Catalina trip to Picasa. (For those of you who use Facebook, they are essentially the same as the ones I uploaded there in August.)

Cruising to Catalina Island

Holy Sheet

A window treatment overhaul has been on my list of things to do for quite some time. A few months ago, we tore a hole in one of the makeshift curtains when we tried to slide it open. That hole was incentive enough to finally cross one more item off my "To Do" list. :)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Introducing Betty...

It's been a couple months since I last blogged. I was kind of enjoying the silence. A new girl entered our lives so I figured she was the perfect reason to get back on the blog bandwagon. You know how Ben and I love our rides. I've been putting the pedal to the... well, to the pavement... bicycle-style... for over a year now and dreaming of finding a sweet little Honda CRX in good condition. Frankly, that is next to impossible these days, but as sailing has taught me, patience is a virtue and my dream finally came true on Wednesday. Thanks to Rene and Kathy of Encinitas, I adopted this hot little number named Betty into our little family. At 27 years old, she's been around the block a time or two... but she's led a charmed life here in Southern California so she's got plenty of spunk left in her. We're looking forward to all our new adventures together in the days and weeks to come. Thank you, Rene and Kathy!

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.

To Do

I still have a lot to blog about but I'm simmering with my thoughts about the whole trip and I'm not prepared today to write about Catalina and the ride home. We learned so much along the way and for me, personally, I feel like I've somehow conquered, or at least begun to conquer, my biggest fear... the Ocean. For now, I thought I'd share a new "To Do" list. These are things we realized would make cruising easier. So here goes:

1. Line for our sea anchor
2. New line for our traveler
3. New blocks for our traveler
4. Autopilot (we purchased one before our trip to Dana Point but Ben wasn't able to customize it to our boat so we're back to square one on this. We have an old autopilot that we may be able to repair but either way, we need a working autopilot that fits our boat).
5. Windlass (for you non-boaties, this pulls up the anchor with little to no manpower)
6. A little coffee carafe. We can make coffee while underway but I came to realize it's not very safe to be handling boiling water while moving, so I'd prefer to have some already made that we can just warm up while underway. Simple things, ya know?
7. Wire the compass so it lights up at night.
8. A shock-absorbing mat to stand on or one of those golf-club-handle-looking things that people attach to their tiller in order to steer from a seated position. I learned that I need one or the other in order to be able to fulfill my duties on watch.
9. A chip for our GPS so we can see exactly where the buoys and other important things are while sailing.
10. A working jib

I think that's about it for now. But it goes to show, it is possible to sail or cruise without all the luxuries. However, it would be nice to have some things to make life a little simpler!

9. 

Dana Point

Mo-C on the hook in Dana Point

 When we arrived in Dana Point yesterday, Adam had used up his 5 days for this month in the protected anchorage so he had to anchor outside the breakwater. We anchored out there with him and tried to catch some Zzzz's. I got up pretty early (I was feeling refreshed from the 4 hours of carbon monoxide-induced sleep I'd gotten while underway the night before) and got caught up on some work. When Ben got up, we dinghied to land and ate some giant hamburgers (sailing does funny things to you) and then returned to the boat. The ocean anchorage is like, well, let's just say it is kind of difficult to work from a laptop and a monitor while having to hold on to your seat. It's like working on a rollercoaster, I guess you could say. Since Ben and I have never been to the protected anchorage, we decided to pick up and move inside the breakwater where I could work in peace. It's amazing what a difference a breakwater makes!

Rita on the hook at Dana Point

We learned a few things along the way from Mission Bay to Dana Point. Ben found out the engine wasn't charging the batteries as it should have been, so he adjusted that today. There was absolutely no sun when we came up here, so our batteries really needed that extra boost from the engine while we were underway. Before we left, we got a Simrad TP22 Tiller Pilot to make the trip a little easier, but naturally, it needed some adjusting so we (okay, Ben) had to hand-steer the entire way. I helped out whenever he needed but I was mostly fixated on not getting ill or losing my mind, as I said before. He's currently working on adjusting the tiller pilot to fit the boat, but none of the trips we'll be making now will be as long as the one from Mission Bay to Dana Point, so if it's not working, we can suck it up and steer. There's a big learning curve out here. Not just from the ocean and the wind, but just understanding the ins and outs of being underway. Luckily we have Adam to give us tips, not only on navigating but also simpler things like what to keep in our ditch bag. It really helps to have a an experienced cruiser guiding us along the way!

We are leaving for Newport tonight or tomorrow morning. I'll post again when we arrive.

Buddy Boating

Adam's boat Rita off our starboard bow

 Yesterday afternoon, we left Mission Bay and headed north to Dana Point. Our first big trip in Mother Culture. We buddy-boated with our friend Adam and made it to Dana Point early this morning, around 6:00am. Overall, we went 59.6 nautical miles in 17 hours and 22 minutes, at an average of 3.4 knots. We sailed about 6 or 7 hours and motored the rest of the way. When we first started sailing three years ago, we always swore we'd never use the motor. That's what sailing is all about, right? But when you're out there moving 0.0 knots, it can be treacherous, so we motored. For me, the trip was an exercise in mind over matter. This was my first long-distance trip so I was mainly focused on not going insane. Luckily, Ben and the voices in my head kept me company along the way. ;) We're not much for planning so we'll be here in Dana for a day or two so I can catch up on some work and then we'll see where the wind takes us.

Rita under Sail