We have been here in Marina Del Rey for about 1 1/2 weeks and we are really enjoying ourselves. And it's all because of the weather. Every morning, the sun shines. You may be saying "Duh", but after living in San Francisco for 10 months, we got used to seeing the sun at 10 am or maybe not untill noon because of the fog. But, here in southern California, the sun shines!!! On top of the sun shining all the time, the temperatures are great! No more jeans and sweatshirts everyday, we wear shorts!! We wear shorts all the time that we are realizing we need to go shopping for more shorts! I could just go on and on about the weather.

Last weekend, we rented bikes and rode over to Venice Beach. After riding for a while, we stopped and walked around. Lots of shops, food, street vendors and street performers. It's a great place to people watch. On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a dinghy ride around the harbor. It's fun just checking the area out by water.

Now, on to projects. Like I had said in a previous post, the cruise down the coast was a "shake down" cruise for us. It gave us a chance to see what we wanted to add, change or fix on Tanga; all to make our sailing experience great.

One of the first things we noticed almost immediately, is that we needed a 2nd thermos. One thermos for coffee and one thermos for soup. We realized early on that soup at night was warming and good. It's very light on the stomach and filling at the same time. Coffee, of course, is a must on the night watches. This purchase has been made.

Next was replacing our starboard running light. The night before we left Santa Barbara, we checked our running lights and all was good. When we arrived in Marina Del Rey, the light was out. Purchased and done.

After a few days of being here, our kitchen faucet began dripping. We had this issue a few months ago, and Tom replaced the washers. But, it started up again, so we just decided to replace the faucet and have no more worry's. The new faucet is just like the one we had at the house. It swivels, pulls out and has a spray option. It also came with a soap dispenser.

We made a hoist for our dinghy. We store our dinghy on the bow of the boat. When we want to launch it, we pick it up and gently toss it in the water or lay it on the dock. It's not a hard process or to heavy, but it's just alittle awkward. So, Tom installed a turning block about a 1/3 the way up the mast. We will use it for launching and retrieving the dinghy.

Some of the other projects that are now complete are: upgrading the ground tackle, purchasing a 2nd Racor fuel filter, installing a solar fan into the hatch that is located in our stateroom and sealing up the back of the solar panels.

Yesturday was a lazy day on Tanga. We layed around and read books, watched tv and ate. We are back on the projects today.