It was a fair long jump to my next stop, Marina del Rey. Usually, I try to leave early enough in the morning to arrive in daylight, but if I recall the winds were good enough to use but not good enough to get me there in time. Thus, I watched a beautiful ocean sunset and as the darkness descended, searched for the lights marking the end of the breakwater entrance. I saw what looked like a lit dome on the horizon and thought it was a science center or similar. Then it started to grow and I realized I was privy to watching the moon rise right before me and it was full. One of the joys of living outside is watching the moon cycles, and I had been watching the moon wax for the last two weeks knowing it was to be full soon; and here it was. Marina Del Rey was probably the highlight of the Central California coast for me. The marina itself has some 6000 slips (huge) and was the brainwave of an LA councilor Burton Chace who had the old wetland dredged, breakwater added and slowly watched a new city being formed. The real estate created was sold off to hotels, housing and condos and that paid for the whole thing. I found my slip next to the park named after the Councilor. The area has 22 miles of bike paths and I used them extensively; in fact, I had to replace a worn-out tire and flat tube. Fortunately, the bike shop was close to the laundry mat and I killed two birds with one stone. Part of the bike path wound through Venice Beach which was a delight to see so many buskers, skaters, pubs, restaurants and t-shirt shops crammed mile after mile along the beach. They have a separate bike and pedestrian path so you can bike hard then stop and amble when the mood strikes. They also had two film fests in the area and I opted to go to the opening of Limerence, which looked excellent, but was a sold out. I biked over to the other fest to see Valentina, a Spanish language subtitled film that was very good but needed some edited and polishing. It was opening night for the feature length film and included photographers, red carpet and the press. Suffice to say, I was underdressed more than usual that night. It is a very expensive area and lots of beautiful boats, along with the contingent of beautiful people!

On my way down, I have tried to attend to various Unitarian Fellowships along the way. For my friends at FUFON (First Unitarian fellowship of Nanaimo) , I post pictures and blog on their Facebook page. If interested, search for FUFON members on Facebook, but I won't repeat those words here.

As the winds were predicted to be light, I decided to skip Long Beach and stay extra time at Marina del Rey. That worked well, as when I did leave I had some decent wind and sailed most of the way to Newport Beach. Along the way, I passed downtown LA, which seemed smoggier than usual. In fact, the Ananhaim fire has just started the day before and the smoke was choking. In fact, ash was falling and covered the boat. I battened dwon the hatches to keep the interior clean but the boat was a visible mess.

Newport Beach found me anchored (free) surrounded by very expensive boats attached to even more expensive homes. It is quite a quaint place as you can hopefully see by the pictures. They have used every square meter of land and the houses, though expensive, are not huge. At Newport, I solved the biggest boat problem I had so far. My dinghy had sprung several holes and I decided it was time to retire it. I preferred an exact model as it lasted a long time, and fit well on the foredeck. I had made arrangements to pick up a new one here and, although it took an entire day, succeeded. As the winds were generally calm in the morning, I took the next morning off to go into town for a walkabout and breakfast. Rooms were renting for $500 per night so I was glad of Carpe Ventus at its mooring.

Most of this California coast seems to be long beautiful beaches with expensive housing and lots of smaller homes in the hills behind. Occasionally there is a power plant of some sort (as they require lots of cooling water) but not much variation. I can see how California grew to have the same population as Canada.

Up anchor and off to Oceanside. Nice days sail and not much to say about Oceanside except it was cheap ($0.75/ft./night) had great laundry and shower facilities. The town itself was the friendliest I had been in and seemed to be mixed race, middle class homes and neighbourhoods, unlike most of the places I had been. The only bad side was their bike paths were through back alleys, over rough roads, and through many 4 way stops. Planned by someone in a car methinks.

Off again, after my morning bike ride and Starbucks (the first time Starbucks was a drive through only with some outdoor patio seating; yes it is getting warmer). The next jump was to be to San Diego but the winds were not strong enough so I either had to motor or shorten the hop. I opted for the latter (its all about the sailing!) and anchored in Mission Bay. In my mind, I was expecting a semi-rural little bay that you might see in Georgia strait. Nope. More beach front housing, hotels, and big boats. I just stayed on board and left early in the morning to make San Diego in time to explore.

San Diego Harbour is huge. It sailed and motored for 2 hours to get to my anchor location (Glorietta Bay) near Coronado. I am actually no longer in San Diego city as moorage is tight here thanks to all the Baha Hahainians. The Baha Haha is a flotilla of some 180 boats that leaves San Diego together and sails down the coast to Cabo San Lucas. It is such a large flotilla it has a significant impact on moorings and Mexican villages. I am going to avoid it and go down before it starts! However, 4 days in San Diego to explore and get ready.