The photo is of Surprise in Santa Barbara and will give you some idea why when we pull into a marina we get a steady stream of visitors who are curious about this fancy, racy sailboat.

Sixty five miles east in Marina del Rey (6,000 boats) we are guests of the California Yacht Club and Surprise is looking, by comparison, a tad shabby, neglected and plain. Our neighbor is Ondine, a 56' Swan with turning blocks as big as our anchor and winches as big as our toilet. Unvarnished teak is non-existant here. All day long there is a steady stream of contract labor washing, polishing, bottom cleaning and repairing the fleet. I counted 6 different divers working on cleaning bottoms, 4 different crews cleaning topsides (chamois dry in every case), and at least 10 mechanics or rig technicans. The parking lot is littered with MBs, Aston Martins, Jaguars, etc. Not surprisingly, we've had no visitors but it hasn't hurt our feelings. We'll move on next week to the Channel Islands, Newport, and then San Diego.