Kathy and I woke up in Catalina Friday morning with a new challenge. Our Heart Interface, which monitors our batteries, was blinking E-02. I believe that this means you're low on power. I'm not sure, because our manual is currently missing. I turned on our engine for awhile and soon determined that E-02 was not going to go away easily. This obtuse error message was beginning to annoy me. I was unable to turn on our inverter to run the ship's computer and create our route to San Diego. Using paper charts to create our route didn't sound that cool. Luckily, I have a couple of laptops. Of course, Kathy depleted the batteries on one while writing her blog. I was down to just one computer and my Pocket PC. I started to panic. We needed power.

Kathy and I got into our dinghy, went to the dinghy dock, and walked to Two Harbors a � mile away. We found a plug-in at the snack bar and charged the laptop. Phew. I also created our route to San Diego - 87.6 miles. We estimated that the trip would take 18 hours.

We put our stuff into a locker and headed off for some fun in the sun. We wanted to hike to the top of Kong Mountain (I'm sure it has a real name, but I don't know what it is). We got directions to the trail from the visitor's center. Our trail wasn't on the map. With some simple pen drawings we were on our way.

We followed the road past the A-frame house and caught a dirt road. We looked for the trail and we both were having trouble locating it. We found a guy coming down the road and asked him. He pointed in vague directions and we of course caught the wrong trail. We picked a very steep trail that allowed us only a few steps between our huffing and puffing. Kathy started to get scared as she contemplated the way down. I told her to not look down and we'd be okay. We got to the end of one steep climb and found another was waiting for us - worst than the first one. Kathy wasn't very happy. I convinced her to keep climbing. I tried to encourage her. "You're doing GREAT!" She wasn't buying it. As we got to the top, we could see a much easier trail. We took pictures and ate lunch at the top of Kong Mountain. We started down the hill, taking the easier trail. The way back was uneventful, except for the rattle snake that almost bit my leg as I walked past it. It was hiding in the tall grass lining the dirt road. After snapping a few photos of the snake in the grass, we were back on the boat by 4:00 pm.

As we entered the boat, Kathy and I decided to take a quick nap. We wanted to get out of Cat Harbor before dark and start our trek towards San Diego. Kathy got a bad headache though and decided to nap until 7:00 pm. At 7:30 pm we got the dinghy back aboard Adventure and loaded it. I took special precautions to make sure that the dinghy cover never comes off again.

At 8:45 pm we dropped our mooring lines back into the harbor. It was dark, but there was no overcast. We were able to see the way out of the harbor. Once out, we felt the roll of the boat. It wasn't a bad roll, but we were still having nightmares about our previous trip. We quickly said a prayer for small winds and seas. We worked our way around the island and by 11:00 pm we were on our way to San Diego. The wind was only 5 knots and the swell was mostly behind us. We were still rolling because the swell was coming at us from two different directions. I went to sleep first in case the situation deteriorated..

At 1:00 am, Kathy and I switched. I hadn't slept that well, but conditions were still pretty good. The swells were around 4-6 feet and mostly behind us. The wind was at 2 knots. I spent a couple of hours staring at two cargo ships and a cruise ship and trying to remember the words to the theme song from Simon and Simon - the first season. At 2:15 am I saw our radar reflector fall down from one of our spreaders. It had fallen onto the boat and seemed to be happy there. I decided to leave it there and not wake Kathy. I'm not allowed to leave the cockpit at night without adult supervision.

At 3:20 am I saw something strange from the starboard side of our boat. It looked like a big splash. I jumped up out of my semi-comatose-watch state and looked over the side. It was a gang of dolphins. They were harassing me on the high seas. They were whistling at me. They would pass me at high speeds and then slow down. They were on both sides of the boat. We were blocked in. They were a bunch of delinquents.

I went below and Kathy was out cold. I decided to wake her gently instead of getting even... FLASHBACK - When we were sailing from Washington, 1 � years ago, we had encountered dolphins on her shift. I was sleeping when she burst through the door very excitedly. "You've got to get up now! Hurry up!" I, of course, interpreted this intrusion as a call to abandon ship. It was only after I wet myself that Kathy had informed me that there were dolphins to be seen. I think Kathy takes secrete pleasure in seeing me scream like a little girl.

When Kathy awoke, she was very excited to see the dolphins and we spent the better part of an hour with them. Kathy tried to take pictures of them but nothing would come out. I told her that it was an experience only for the two of us. "You know - like Casey, you and the toilet," I said [see previous blog on 3/27/06]. Kathy wasn't amused and continued to try and take pictures. I waited for her to come back to the cockpit and then went back to bed.

At 6:30 am Kathy called me to take back over. She wished me happy 40th birthday and gave me my coffee and a very sweet poem she had written for me on her watch. At 12:00 pm we started to approach San Diego. There was a huge sailboat race going on. It was probably an average sailboat race for San Diego, but it was huge to me. As we entered the harbor we dodged boat after boat. San Diego is a very crowded harbor. We worked our way to Shelter Island, where our boat was to be pulled and the bottom painted on Monday. We had no idea where the boat yard was. We looked at our paper charts and I got yelled at because I was spending more time looking for where Rick's (from Simon and Simon) boat was moored then looking for the boat yard.

We called the yard, but it was closed on Saturday. We found a boat yard dock and parked our boat. We asked around and were sent to the boat yard next door. As we entered the yard, we saw that there was a bit of remodeling being done. The whole place was in shambles. I think that it had been bombed earlier in the week. We saw some workers and found that the yard manager was there on his day off. There was one problem though: the spot reserved for us was being occupied by another boat. His engine wasn't working - his friend had accidently lit it on fire with start fluid the previous week. He was waiting for vessel assist to tow him to another dock. We went back to the boat took showers and waited; and waited; and waited for the guy to move. I decided to take a nap.

Kathy woke me up a couple of hours later and told me the scoop: "Okay! I went over there and we have a plan: we're going to push his boat from the dock, pull our boat in, and then raft his boat to the side of ours. There are three people over there to help us. There waiting now, so let's go." I yawned and got my shoes on. We got the engine started and worked our way to the dock. The other boat was being let out from the dock by some guy holding long lines. Kathy maneuvered Adventure in and I made a long jump to the dock and got the stern tied. The guy on the dock was holding the other boat while talking to two women. The two women immediately started to try and talk to me. I tried to be polite, but I had to keep moving. We got the boat secured and the other boat rafted to us. It was then I realized that the man holding the other boat and the two women were very inebriated. When I mentioned this to Kathy she told me that she knew and had decided not to mention that part when telling me the plan. Vessel assist came 30 minutes later - I guess we could have waited, but it was good experience. We met all kinds of people as we finished tying the boat off. I hadn't seen this many people drunk in a single area since college - but these people were old. Kathy and I were alone with the wolves. (One guy was going to France the next day so this was his big sendoff. He hasn't left though...) We decided to go for a walk, mostly because I wanted a Hostess Cupcake for my birthday. We found a mini-mart a few minutes later. The evening ended with two cupcakes and a Simon and Simon.

We get the boat pulled tomorrow. Stay tuned for the mis-Adventures of the O'Neil family.