California or Bust - Missive 7

October 23, 2010: Panta Rhei departed early this morning while Bob & I were sawing logs cuddled in bed. We opted to stay another day and visit the Ventura County Maritime Museum. Boy was it a treat and labor of love. It has an unbelievable collection of model ships on display some dating back to the 1700's built by French prisoners of war by using dried bones from their meals. One group of ship replicas (8 in all) was built by a man using dental tools. It took him 30 years to build these ships; the workmanship was unbelievable with extreme attention to detail. One figurehead alone took 600 hours to carve.

The history and artifacts this small museum has collected was well worth staying another day ... and it was free! Later we enjoyed a delightful dinner aboard Grace with Paul & Judy.

October 24, 2010: I had the rare problem of needing to wear my sunglasses first thing this morning. For the tradeoff of sun, we had no wind but that was ok as we finally got to see the shoreline for a change. We had an easy ride to Marina del Rey while entertained by dolphins, whales and pelicans.

October 25, 2010: We are guests of the Del Rel Yacht Club and it is quite an impressive club including a swimming pool, bar & dining room. From what we can tell, it is a very active yacht club ... yesterday little ghosts and goblins were trick or treating with dressed up adults handing out candy. Tonight the big boys got to enjoy Monday night football in the bar area.

I spent the day mucking out the boat of dust bunnies & mold. Bob was eyeballing the engine and discovered a leak in the exhaust elbow. A small amount of salt crystals were clinging to the outside and that sight raised alarm bells with Bob. Sure enough we had a small hole in the elbow ... it just plain wore out. A year ago we had problems with this part coming apart from the exhaust hose. Fortunately we are at a dock and we didn't have major problems at sea.

October 26, 2010: By noon our exhaust elbow was fixed by a local mechanic - we could get the elbow but Bob didn't have the tools on board to install it. That was fine with me ... he didn't need to worn out by working on the engine. It was worth the $650 of which ½ of this was for the stupid Westerbeke part.

I did my part and did laundry. I really am in southern California; the washers & dryers were outdoors under a patio cover. While in between loads I lounged by the swimming pool reading. Life is tough on the frontier!

October 27, 2010: The high winds and waves have now abated and time to move onto Two Harbors on Santa Catalina Island. During the 30 mile trip I kept humming tunes about this island ... "the island of romance, romance da a da a". Hate to tell you we were wearing shorts & t-shirts for the entire trip.

This was our first time to try the mooring buoys with bow & stern ties. Each mooring consists of a mooring can, pick-up pole and two bottom weights for the bow and stern. Each weight is attached to lines that attach to your boat. And depending on the season, your bow will face the shore in summer while facing away from the shore in winter. The harbormaster assigns the buoy based on boat size, directs you to the correct location and collects the fees ($37/night, UFF DA!)

As you pull in close to the mooring ball, you grab the pole and pull in a small line until a large loop appears. That gets attached to your bow. Continue pulling up the "spreader" line as you walk to the stern of the boat and another loop will appear. This gets attached to your stern cleat. Then you adjust as necessary to get the proper tension. It's relatively quite simple. They can pack in hundreds of boats in harbor with this method. We arrived off season so the anchorage was calm and relaxing.

October 28, 2010: It was a lovely sunny day, mid-70's, as we headed to shore for an excursion. Catalina Harbor was just across the isthmus from Two Harbors, an easy stroll to stretch our legs. Two Harbors, a small community of 70 people, is home to Buccaneer Days in early October. As the harbormaster stated ... "it is spring break for 40, 50 & 60 year olds". They will raft boats up to 3 on a mooring. With all the coves surrounding this area there must be a 1,000 mooring balls ... can you imagine the number of boats coming to this beach to play pirate? It shivers me timbers! Grog and swords are for sale in the general store.

I am not sure what I expected for scenery or wildlife on Catalina island but seeing buffalo??? There are several residing on the island, laying about in the fields and resting in the shade of palm trees. This whole island is dry, arid and full of cactus. However, I got the best cell phone & internet coverage right here attached to the mooring buoy.

October 29, 2010: We moved a whopping 12 miles south to Avalon, a real incorporated city on the island. On our journey along the island, we saw Girl Scout and YMCA camps plus numerous other small resorts. Avalon is quite impressive ... it's like a Friday Harbor on steroids; picturesque, quaint but very Californian. A huge casino was built out on the harbor point with row after row of condos lining the hillside. Once again we are tied to a mooring buoy but it is very comfortable with little swell. Great rate too: pay for 2 nights and get 5 nights free for $70. So we are staying for a week.

An update on Bob and our agenda: We finally got to speak with Bob's cardiologist about this latest hospital stay. In a nutshell, the doctor is worried that his blood pressure is running too high now, so he recommends contacting a doctor in San Diego. (We have been taking daily readings after the hospital discharge.) We have lined up a cardiologist with UCSD Medical Center with an appointment on Nov 12th. The goal is to have him review the meds Bob is taking and adjust as necessary. Additionally, as a follow-up to his hospital stay, some blood draws are required to test his liver and kidney function. As we have found out, uncontrolled blood pressure can cause undue hardship on your kidneys & liver.

That said, we are staying in Avalon until 11/4. From 11/5 to 11/8 we are visiting with family at Dana Point, then moving on to San Diego arriving about 11/10/10 and staying at Marina Cortez. Thanks to Karen & Larry's cousin Kirk, he arranged moorage for us in the same marina he moors his boat. We will stay in SD at least two weeks.

Any decisions to continue south hinges on this doctor visit. Unfortunately, over the past 15 years we have gone thru several medicine changes because they lose their effectiveness or create other side effects. We just have to wait and see what our options will be.

All for now ...