Crew: Mark Barrish and Kevin Mulholland
The morning of Wednesday October 24 was clear and calm, and started with a gentle wake up call from the 7 harbor seals that had taken over the 27 foot boat moored nearby. The slightly more strident tones of the UC Irvine crew coach encouraging the men's and women's teams finally got me out of my bunk and on deck to join Michael and Kevin.
The harbor was calm and clear and the sunrise was wonderful. Kevin brought out the light fishing tackle and landed a sand bass on his first cast, the first fish landed on Bluewater since we bought her over a year ago. Michael made arrangements with his niece Maureen (?) to pick him up after breakfast (despite repeated suggestions from me to continue sailing) and we rowed the dinghy to the nearby fuel dock to wander the Balboa peninsula in search of breakfast.
After Michael's departure with Maureen, Kevin and I rowed back to the dock to begin the daylong debate regarding our destination. Maureen and the Internet had both warned us of an impending wind advisory for the area to our immediate north, but the light breeze predicted for the coming hours in our area and to the south convinced us that a departure for at least Dana Point was worthwhile. We motored out the harbor mouth and set full sails in 7 knots of wind, soon adding the screecher to try sailing with both headsails on a beam reach with about 10 knots true windspeed. Our speed improved when we furled the jib, but the increasing of windspeed to about 13 may have played a part in that.
We soon passed Dana Point, listening continuously to the weather. We stayed relatively near shore as the side shore breeze shifting to a full Santa Ana offshore seemed the primary concern. Plus the coast was beautiful to see from just outside kelp beds, though the fish continued to ignore our gear as we steered between the lobster pot buoys.
An hour outside Oceanside we decided to fully reef (without starting the motor, making 5 knots upwind during the maneuver under jib alone) to the third reef point of the mainsail and head toward Oceanside, despite the moderate 20 knot winds--just in case we decided to carry on toward San Diego in the dark. We also tried to hook the reef cringle to the tack horn, but the sail fought off our efforts so we lashed the reef in place with a sail tie (which I would not use next time, as it was difficult to untie).
We wandered the Oceanside harbor till we located the harbor masters office, and pulled into a slip in a good cross breeze. We were checked in and watching the Giants win the first game of the world series by the sixth inning.
The sail plan for today is much simpler, with a relatively straight shot from Oceanside, bending around La Jolla, Point Loma and into San Diego harbor and a total distance of about 37 miles. Mark and Kevin will likely depart by about 10 am departure.
Sent from my iPad
(Mark)
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| Kevin with the first fish |
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| Leg 6, Newport Beach to Oceanside |
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| Kevin |
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