Sailing Vessel Adventure, Sailing Vessel Adventure... [Message garbled...]

That's what we heard on the VHF. We knew who it was though. The harbor master had set us up.

We started the day at 6:30 am with the mindset of leaving Marina del Rey. When the alarm rang though, the prospect didn't sound too good. Watching old Magnum, p.i. episodes until 11:00 p.m. will do that to you. Kathy wasn't moving, and neither was I. I think we're getting old. It seems like just yesterday that I could watch a few episodes of Magnum and not be affected at all the next day.

At 7:00 am we finally moved. The primary reason for leaving: Marina del Rey has a limited 7 day stay at their guest docks. We spent the week trying to find a new place to go. We called around and got little attention. It appears that Southern California marinas are not quite as nice as Northern California. They don't need to call you back. They're always full and they don't need your business.

We called King Harbor and got their message machine. Just leave a message and we'll call you back... (Sure...) We called Huntington Harbor: Nothing. We called Long Beach harbor and they said our boat was too big. We called Los Angles harbor; Nope. We called Dana Point and they were willing to take us for 1 dollar a foot. (Outrageous!) So there we were: a family, a boat, and no place to moor.

We finally found Alamitos harbor with the help of our neighbor, John. John's been cruising this area his whole life and had a wealth of information. He's a surfer and has that cool hip surfer vernacular. I've been trying for years to use the words "Excellent" and "Dude" when talking to people but I haven't quite figured out the proper cadence yet. You have to do it slow and mellow. I need to keep working on it.

"Yeah man... Alimitos is cool. You guys will really like it there. Man - they've got everything there. It's Excellent." John is a cool guy. (I meant to say "Excellent Dude - hmm... that doesn't seem to be right. I'm just not getting this.) He's 37 and lives on his restored fishing boat. He's been everywhere in it - Panama to Alaska. He was a big help to us, and pointed out more than one place we could go. He works on Catalina Island. Catalina's cool.

Now the truth is, is that we called Alamitos harbor a couple of times - they just never called us back. We finally were able to get a hold of them and asked for a reservation.
They were happy to oblige if we could provide them with our current registration and proof of insurance. If you remember, the Coast Guard informed us that our registration was expired. Kathy had made some calls earlier in the week and informed me that our registration was NOT expired - she just didn't know where the paperwork was. We tried to explain that to Alamitos harbor and for some reason, they didn't believe us. Hmm... I made an executive decision: I told Kathy that she needed to find our current registration. It took her five minutes. I told her that it was due to my superior management skills that she was able to find it.

The day was ugly. The weather was cold and foggy. We got underway and we were immediately being tailed by the UCLA rowing team. Not a big deal. We just pumped the throttle up a bit. But it seems they were still gaining. It appears that the UCLA rowing team is faster than the theoretical hull speed of a Catalina 42. We got out of their way. I didn't want to get beat up by a bunch of girls. I waved as they passed by. They didn't wave back. (How Rude!)

We got out of the harbor and Kathy remembered that we needed to call Alamitos Bay. She called them and they again told us that we needed to fax them the appropriate paperwork to make a reservation. We told them that the fax didn't work when we were underway. They thought we'd be okay. I yelled in my best Richard Gere's voice from the movie Officer and a Gentleman, "We've got no place else to go!"

We got a call from Kings Harbor a few minutes later. We had called them six days earlier to see if they could accommodate us. They called us back to inform us that they indeed could NOT. Thanks.

It seems that whenever we leave someplace the weather changes. Today was no exception. This change always seems to result in the same thing - wind on our nose. Due to the parachute on the front of our boat (the dinghy), we were only making 4.6 knots. We were rolling pretty good as the swells hit us amidship. Tara didn't last long below. Kathy started turning white too. The conditions got better as the day wore on though.

We got around Pt. Vincente and I went below to check out my AIS (Automatic Identification System). Most vessels bigger than 65 feet have a transponder that broadcasts their ship's position, speed, heading, call sign, etc... We haven't had the need to use it too much on our trip, but it's nice to have. We were going to pass Los Angles harbor and according to our guidebook: the busiest harbor in the US. The computer screen was lit up with green triangles: those are the bad guys. I tried to make sure that the green triangles didn't keep getting closer to the red circle: us!

We dodged a couple of freighters and as we approached Alamitos Bay Kathy gave them another call. They told us to pull up to the harbormaster's dock and we'd figure it out then. Oh! By the way - there's a film crew here working.

As we made our way inside the bay, we looked around and saw some really cool yacht anchored right in front of the harbormaster's office. It was the typical movie drug yacht: new, blue, and full of pretty people that pretend to save us from the seedy underworld. We throttled down and went into a holding pattern. Kathy called the harbormaster. The yacht was in the way of the harbormaster's dock. I wasn't about to tell the pretend drug dealers that he needed to move.

While Kathy was on the phone, I did my best to gawk at the film crew. Did I recognize anyone? There we divers in the water next to the boat. They looked like real divers because they were in the water. I wasn't sure though. There were 30 people running around. Kathy was getting final instructions. Then we were hailed on the VHF.

Sailing Vessel Adventure, Sailing Vessel Adventure... [Message garbled...]
We were being hailed by the movie guys. Cool. I thought that they probably wanted us in the shot... No... It appears that we were in the way. Bummer: this had been my best chance yet to getting in the movies.

We got docked and I put on my best tourist outfit. Kathy and I walked to the harbormaster's office. We walked around the front of the office where all the pretty people were. There were girls in robes with fake eyelashes and makeup on. I resisted the temptation to ask if they were famous and I should know them.

It was mayhem at the office. Everyone inside the office had a great view of the whole production. As we were getting checked in I saw a guy pull a gun on another guy. He grabbed one of the bikini clad women as a hostage. Words were spoken. I couldn't make them out. The good guy was wearing a white hat. The bad guy was wearing a bad Hawaiian shirt. Something bad was going down. It was so cheesy and I loved every minute of it. The good guy kicked the bad guy's gun out of his hand. He had moved his leg in a kicking motion. The kick was two feet away from the guy. The guy flew back and dropped the gun. I figured that the good guy must have used the force or something. The ladies at the harbormaster's office told me that they'd been filming that same shot all day.

We heard a woman on the phone behind us in the office. She worked for the show. She needed more extras. I was about to offer my services when I heard, "We need some more attractive extras and we're willing to pay extra." She must have seen me coming.

It turns out that they were filming a CBS pilot: The Man. I think it's a comedy. The harbormaster's office told us that they film CSI Miami here all the time.

Kathy and I walked around to Seal Beach - the neighboring community. We had someone take our picture with Seal Beach downtown as a background. I told Kathy that it was hard to believe that this is where Miami's seediest crime happens. Seal Beach seemed like such a nice community.

We really like it here in Alamitos Bay. The surrounding area is very nice. We'll hang out here until we can find some place else to take us. We're going to get some of our canvas repaired while we're here and try to do some school work. The girls are going back in a couple of weeks for spring break and Lisa's wedding. It's all they can talk about...