Shakedown, Santa Barbara to San Diego

By David

We arrived in San Diego on Wednesday afternoon, thanks in no small part to our friend Jimmy McPherson, who had towed his 20' Ranger Tug to San Diego from Arizona.  He came out to meet us a few miles offshore from the ship channel.   We weren't too proud to accept a tow, and in fact, given the pea soup fog and amount of marine traffic showing up on our chart plotter, were glad he was there.  He took us under tow and a wild ride it was.

San Diego Harbor is a zoo, unlike any other harbor I've seen, with military vessels coming and going, commandos in high speed inflatables zipping all over the place, commercial vessels vying for their place in the channel,  sailboats by the dozens going back and forth across the channel, military jets and helicopters roaring overhead, and much of this happening in the fog with only a few hundred feet of visibility.  Oh, and our chart plotter going nuts with chimes telling us that collision was imminent with unseen vessels.

The navy vessels travel in stealth mode, so don't show up on the chart plotter.  It was startling, to say the least, when suddenly a navy landing craft showed up out of the fog, crossing Jimmy's bow.  He handled it with aplomb though, nailing the whole approach, as I watched on our chart plotter, unable to do much else.  Finally, after what seemed like hours, he delivered us perfectly to the dock.

As if that wasn't enough, he took us out to dinner and has loaned us his truck.  We owe him a huge debt of gratitude.  Thanks Jimmy!!!

My brother-in-law Scott generously covered the cost of a slip here in the marina, so another shout out of gratitude there.  We hadn't had our many layers of clothing off in over 5 days, so the hot shower here in the marina was among the 2 or 3 best we've ever had.

He and my sister Karen, their two kids and my mother all arrived yesterday evening and are in a boat  B&B just down the dock from us. My 13 year old nephew Zachary's first comment was "you should have named it the U.S.S. Suicide".  OK, so his confidence level in our venture is a bit low...

And, in the thanks dept., another one to our friends Mark and Emily for weather updates.  They were invaluable to our decision making process on the way down here
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Lessons learned from the shakedown trip:

--The weather is atypical.  As anyone watching the news knows, California has been hit by one storm after another this winter, so instead of the predominately northwesterly winds and sunny skies, what we found was mostly a mix of contrary wind, calm, fog, rain, drizzle and, above all, cold.  We were dressed in long underwear, pants, shirt, double pile jackets, rain gear, plastic bags over our feet and were still too often becoming concerned with the possibility  of hypothermia.

Many folks from here are talking about the strange weather.  The sun comes out, it's calm and while a bit cool, is quite pleasant.  Awhile later, the fog moves back in, the wind picks up and it's winter again.

We're not sure how we'll handle the next leg, the major concern being how to get far enough south quickly enough to escape the cold.  We're watching the weather forecast closely and don't expect to leave without clear weather and sun, which may be a week or two or ? in coming.

--Minimus did great, but the real accolades go to Pearl, who was the real standout.  She put on a scapolomene patch the night before we left Santa Barbara and while she was queasy the first couple days (as I was too), didn't ever get sick.  Bit by bit we got our sea legs though.  Her spirit was great throughout, even when mine was full of frustration with the weather.

--Our self steering system hasn't worked so far.  This is a major disappointment, as without it we're forced to steer day and night adding to our fatigue and sleep deprivation.  Today we'll be focused on trying to get it working.

--The electronics have been wonderful when they work.  Unfortunately, they sometimes don't.  The little wi-fi unit that was supposed to broadcast the AIS signal (so we can see what ships are in the vicinity) hasn't worked and finally died totally.  The satellite messenger is having trouble pairing with our phone or tablet, which makes sending texts a ridiculously difficult proposition on it's tiny screen. Another issue we'll be working on here in San Diego.

Meanwhile, we have many more friends and family arriving today and tomorrow.  In addition to my family, we have Pearl's brother and sister-in-law coming out from Texas and friends from Arizona arriving tonight, about 15 people in all.  We greatly look forward to seeing them all.

Great to have so many of you vicariously aboard.

Leaving Santa Barbara Harbor

Farewell to Santa Barbara and sunshine

Pearl steering through the cold fog

A few miles offshore from the San Diego ship channel, the fog lifts briefly and our friend  Jimmy arrives to take us in tow.

The schooner America shows up out of the fog.  

 Amazingly, our friend Kevin Oliver just happened to see our approach on the San Diego Harbor webcam.
Thanks for sending this Kevin!