Dana Point, Oceanside, and our arrival to San Diego!

Our stay in Dana Point was nothing short of wonderful, thanks mostly to our dear friend Mr. Watson. The first night was spent in ultimate luxury; Kat and I took turns enjoying a soak in the bath while Tom prepared us an amazing dinner. After a couple bottles of wine I was entertained with childhood stories from Montemar Street (always love to hear the trouble dad got into). Needless to say it was a pretty late night for all of us. The next morning, er, afternoon, we went to brunch and since Tom was kind enough to lend us his car, we had the opportuinity to re-provision and shop for snorkeling equipment, running shoes, and other necessities. We all met back up later to watch the Charger game with Bree, Bob, and little Tom (sorry Conman) and to celebrate Toms birthday. I can't tell you how nice it was to spend time with their family. We even got to do ALL our laundry there... no quarters necessary. The next morning the adults went out to breakfast, including SueBee, and I went for a run.

The sail down to oceanside was perfect, even with the Santa Annas blowing. Most of the trip we had great winds and flat seas. we couldn't have asked for better sailing. We even fished for the first time... and caught nothing. We pulled into Oceanside at fourish and got settled for the night. Oceanside is one of the cutest beach towns there is, and we enjoyed the fish'n'chips, great harbor, and beautiful weather. With the huge fire that was burning close enough to cover our boat with ash, we were relieved that the entire city of Oceanside didn't burn down. During my run this morning I watched the surfers, I've decided on my new hobby...

We apprently liked the city a little too much because we didn't pull out for San Diego until noonish, largely underestimating the distance of todays sail. It was a lovely sail, just a very long one. We had good winds most of the day, saw some whales, got a suntan, and sucessfully avoided the submarine, war ships, helicopters dropping divers, and million of crab traps. We even caught a fish! Very fun. Being the avid fisherman we are we had no idea what we had caught and decided we should let it go. It lived. After all the excitement, we didn't get into Peir 32 until after dark (thank goodness for Suebee leading us into our slip). I hear we haven't missed much of a view, apparently we're in the middle of nowhere. Haha, I even got a text message "Welcome to Mexico!"... I guess we're almost there :)

Avalon

So we pulled out of paradise yesterday at about one thirty and headed for Avalon on the east side of Catalina. Our hopes of sailing there were quickly dashed, and we had to disapoint Martin and motor most of the way. All six weather reports we agonized over were wrong, so we are still waiting for some wind. We have found the antithesis to the quaintness of Two Harbors in this port; the whitewashed, tile roofed buildings, paved roads buzzing with golf carts, mission bells on the hour, and a promenade that is a shoppers paradise. Avalon is definately charming in it's own right, but I am a little disapointed that the Harbor Patrol seems to consider a shirt part of their uniform... although I'm not sure I'd want to see these guys without one.

We went to shore to check things out and watch the Dodgers lose (yay!). I've decided that Avalon is the ice cream mecca, we passed a shop on every corner. There is much more to explore today so I will keep adding! Oh, and I forgot to mention... I found a 22 year old friend going on the Haha! She's lovely, I'm stoked.

I thought I would just add onto this one for now... Our day in Avalon was lovely. Kat and I did some window shopping in the morning, while Jay had the most EAGER helper he will ever have help him with some odd jobs around the boat. In fact, I'm pretty sure that he was making up some jobs just to keep Marty busy, but I'm sure he liked getting some stuff done. We had to say goodbye to our guest at 3 o'clock, and the crew walked up to the botanical gardens. There was an absolutely beautiful view, I would show you a picture (I was SO proud I remembered my camera)... unfortunately I hadn't thought to bring my memory card, so it's just another view we'll have to remember. The wind howled all night, making us antsy to sail to the mainland. We headed out and had a wonderful sail to Dana Point to meet Watson... we're actually having our first drink with him now!

More soon...

Catalina

I think the entire crew can now look back at our rainy day cabin fever and laugh... thank goodness. The weather cleared and we took off for Catalina on Monday, a good 8 hour motorsail. We arrived in Fourth of July cove, a picturesque little cove just west of Two Harbors. Sunny skies, warm water, and lots of fishies and sea life greeted us while we moored (a unique experience on Catalina). We headed into town for a refreshment, one which I didn't get to participate in because of my lack of id (I got ice cream instead, not helping to convince the barender of my legal drinking age). The good news is that I befriended the Harbor Patrol immediately and have spend the last few days getting a guided tour of this little island paradise.



Settling in, we have finally found our first relaxing and tropical spot. Kayaking, hiking, drinking, eating, swimming, and putting around town have kept us pretty busy. Today we had to bribe a diver to get my moms lost readers, my dad had made it to the bottom but failed to recover her favorites. And I have gotten to go snorkeling a couple times... yes, ME snorkeling. In fact, not only did I swim through a field of seaweed today with my newfound friend, I actually swam into a dark cave without crying. I'm apparently getting braver, although I was terrified. We have all even been lucky enough to witness the wonder of phosphoressence (sp?). Although we had planned to head to Avalon today, we have loved our spot so much we decided to stay an extra night and head over tomorrow.



We have been blessed with our good friend Marty's company for the next couple days. He took the ferry over and plans to sail to Avalon with us and keep us entertained. Maybe he'll even cook for us...



More soon!

Waiting out the storm...

We arrived yesterday in Oxnard to wait out the foul weather before continuing to Catalina and beyond. Despite its awful name (seriously, probably the worst name for a town EVER), Oxnard is a rather charming beach town. We spent the day hiding from the rain. I thought boats were small before, but now I have a whole new understaning. Luckily we traded off taking walks when there was a break in the rain, doing laundry, and visiting neighbors. Our plans to take the half hour dingy ride to the grocery store was also postponed, but it gave us something to look forward to tomorrow...

I finally gave in and went for a long run on the beach. By the time I got back Kat and Jay had gone out to the local watering hole. I was hoping for a younger crowd, so you can imagine how disapointed I was when I walked into the club where my parents were the babies. Ugh. Well, lucky for us the bartender had extra long pours.

More soon. We miss you all.

Channel Islands

Back to civilazation, meaning back to the blog. After spending one extra night in Santa Barbara the Kat Den Rie headed off towards the Channel Islands solo. Suebee had a water leak to take care of, so the three of us were on our own.

After our beautiful sail over, we nestled into Frys anchorage for the night. Kat and I immediately hopped onto kayaks and explored the surrounding caves and cliffs. Of course I forgot my camera, but we had a blast spooking each other in the caves and arguing over who found the biggest starfish orgy. The next morning dad took a turn kayaking the caves with kat (they got pictures), then we took a trip to shore for a quick hike. Pulling out of Frys, we headed out into the SB channel and got some, uh, practice with rough water manuevers. After that we also got some pactice cleaning up, drying off, and reorganizing the cabin of the boat. We pulled into Pelicans for some rest and realized what was meant by the "Pelican roll". Not the best nights sleep, but dramatically beautiful none the less.

The next day we took things a little easier and headed into Coches Prietos, my personal favorite. Perfect beach. Dad and I headed in to set the stern anchor (entertainment for everyone watching) and Kat headed in to join us for a little exploring. My only regret is not getting to spend much time there, a menacing weather forcast had us scrambling to head into the mainland today. We arrived in Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard, early this afternoon and reunited with Suebee. We're looking forward to a couple of good nights rest before we head off.