Anchorage in La Playa was a pleasant stay. It's in the crook of Shelter Island nestled in between the San Diego YC and Southwest YC facilities, so there's a fair amount of entertaining boat traffic to and fro. I especially enjoy the SDYC sailing school activities on Saturday and Sunday. Weekend only anchorage is regulated there on a reservations basis by the San Diego Harbor Patrol and was Ha-Ha-ers were given priority status for the month of October.
Shore access provided a minuscule taste of cruising life since all that was available was beach landing, but I enjoyed even that, dinghying ashore for several Ha-Ha events, not to mention running errands.
Sunday afternoon I hauled anchor and toddled back over the the Harbor Police Guest Docks at the end of Shelter Island. I'd tried to make a reservation there again, but the office was closed and their on-line system wouldn't allow mooring in two places at once and couldn't comprehend that one might move from one spot to another except on the stroke of midnight. I was able to get far enough into the reservation process to discern that certain slips were at least momentarily available, so I poached a spot anyway.
That was only a partial success, since someone made an actual reservation after I'd gotten off line, so I had to move. It worked out in the end, though, and I made a formal reservation for a different spot the next morning, staying all the way through departure day, several days longer than I'd planned.
The Harbor Police docks were a Ha-Ha haven with almost all the boats flying their Class of 2014 Ha Ha pennants. Southbound friends Andante, Friday and Cool Change had all pulled in and whoever I didn't know from before became or would become new friends. The normal camaraderie of cruising sailors grew several-fold.
As far as my immediate neighborhood, Andante was in a slip kitty corner across the dock. Right next to me was a non- Ha-Ha boat, so they don't count. Richard and Jenny Freeman in their Island Packet 45, Plan Sea, were my immediate port side neighbors to start with, but they moved over to more luxurious accommodations and were replaced by Captain Art Lohrey and his intrepid young crew on the classic wooden Alden 72 schooner, Dirigo II. John and Jennifer Gleadle were across the way and over one in SV Spinnaker, a Corbin 39 center cockpit. Chris and Heather Tzortzis and their FIVE kids were a couple of slips over in their big, Lagoon 470 catamaran appropriately named Family Circus. I hardly even saw him, but right across the dock was Ron Orr in his bright red Hunter HC 50 go-fast sloop named Fast Reorrg. Confused by the name, I asked him about it one day and he explained that he'd combined his last name with a reference to his profession as a corporate bankruptcy lawyer. Ahhh, THAT makes sense now.