We've been in San Diego for 15 days now. That's longer than we thought we would be here. Flexibility and adaptability seem to be the key to boating life. We had a list of chores to accomplish for our anticipated seven days stopover. Maybe we would have completed them in the allotted time if other distractions hadn't come up, maybe not.

Mother Nature helped out with one of the distractions. A little rain turned up a leak in one of the hatches. Bob ordered up a new one and luckily had the extra fittings to get that fixed without too much effort, just time. Next was an iPad update gone awry. The frozen device had to be taken to an Apple store in order to not lose all the navigation charts that Bob spent hours downloading. The good news is we had a vehicle to do that in. My old friend Molly lives near by and set us up with her extra truck. We are so grateful for this. Thank you Molly! The use of this truck has provided an easy way to get to West Marine for all our boating needs and to complete lots of last minute provisioning. It also allowed for restful excursions to a few local sights to get our minds off the boat for a bit.

Cabrillo National Monument is the site of the original lighthouse at the entrance to San Diego Harbor. The monument is named after Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. He was the first European to sail to and make landfall on the West Coast of the US, here in San Diego, in 1542. This light was lit for the first time in 1855. It seemed like an appropriate spot, high on the Point Loma hill, but it was often obscured by fog and low clouds. The light was extinguished in 1891 and another lighthouse was built at sea level. See our gallery for pictures from here and all of our San Diego stay over.

To say the Navy is a huge presence here is an understatement. If you read my previous blog you saw we followed the USS Nimitz, one of the world's largest aircraft carriers, into the harbor on our arrival. Since then we witnessed helicopter trainings, various navy planes aloft, a departing submarine, a stealth-looking guided missile destroyer and many other enormous military ships coming and going.

The old naval training base here has been transformed into a thriving center for the arts, shopping, dining and dwelling in this Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego. We had some nice meals here along with walks in the parks and some provisions shopping. All very convenient and easy with the truck.

Back to the boat, Bob taught me how the set up the pole for downwind use of the genoa sail, raise the drifter sail, also for downwind sailing, and he hoisted me part-way up the mast in a bosun's seat to assess my ability to dangle in mid air. Honestly, it reminded me of being on top of the redwoods in Santa Cruz getting ready to zip line through them. Little did I know at the time that it was just preparation for this event.

We are rested now. Chores are mostly accomplished. We have reset and worked through the letting go as much as possible. We are ready to launch into this momentous adventure - 30 days on the ocean, non-stop. We await our good weather window which looks like it may be opening up at the beginning of next week! Watch for Gypsy movement on the tracking map at the bottom of this blog page. I will do my best to keep posting some details of how we are doing!