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