10/25/13
We headed out at 0730, after John dropped off Starbucks coffee and some of his gear. We had a little wind early on and had all sails up. That didn't last long. Passing Camp Pendleton we could hear and feel the big guns being used for training. Ran across another " haha" entry, Dolphino, heading our way to San Diego Bay. Chatted with them on the VHF radio for a bit. We had a pretty sparrow use us as a resting spot for a while about 6 miles off the coast. I'm not sure what it was doing so far from land. There was little wind for the entire trip until heading into San Diego Bay. Of course then it was howling. It would have made for great sailing, but it was late, and it had been a long day. All I wanted was to get to the dock and have a hot shower.
We eventually arrived at the dock about 7:00pm. But not before I made things a bit more interesting by turning into San Diego Bay about a mile too early, forcing us the dodge kelp and lobster buoys for a couple of miles. To add insult to injury, I ended up missing the turn in to our dock, and was swept past it by the wind. After coming to rest at the end of the fairway (dock channel), and aided by the encouragement and physical assistance of my soon-to-be dock mates, we made it safely to our slip with no damage to any vessels (just my ego!). It turns out that some of our helpers are here to do the "Haha" as well.
The hot showers never happened because our gate key did not open either doors or gates. Oh well, we are happy to be in San Diego.
Next stop, Turtle Bay!