Well, on the advice of Julie from Itchen, we pulled into the Pacific Mariners Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey today. Julie had gushed about the club's hospitality, the good people, the cold drinks, the 3 free nights (!), even the pool table. What she neglected to mention was that the biggest guest slip here is 30 feet long, and 14 feet wide. Meridian is 48 feet long, and carries 14.5 feet at her beam. So, following my college mantra of "anything worth trying is worth royally screwing up", we gave it a shot. With the help of Sparky (Port Captain at the club) and his band of fellows, we shoe-horned Meridian into the tiny space, at least as far as she would go. Departing this mis-matched scenario will be akin to backing a 747 out of a laundromat. Be sure to stay tuned for that report, it should be great fun.

Even though Marina Del Rey is due north from our previous stop (Catalina Island), and we're supposed to be going south to Mexico, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet a real "Sparky", and get some good old yacht club lovin'. Even though I think we confused the locals with our sense of hygiene (I scrubbed the boat from bow to stern the minute we tied up, but walked into their club personally covered with salt, oil and funk), they still put on a good show. We recommend the PMYC to anyone, even if you have a boat longer than 30 feet.