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Hi everyone, Since our last broadcast message from Morro Bay we our now ensconced in theCabrillo Isle Marina in San Diego. For anyone who would like to send us snail mail, the address is: Colin & Patricia Shannon-Garvey, S/V Alcyone, CabrilloI sle Marina, 1450 Harbor Island Drive, San Diego, CA 92101-8446. Our plan isto leave October 28, allow 4 days for transit. We have really lucked out with the weather. We constantly monitor the forecasts on the VHF radio and in the newspapers and we download satellite pictures and weather maps daily through the marine SSB radio. We have delayed our departure from a couple of ports to wait for things to calm down and have been glad we did. Still, our good fortune must be mostly attributed to luck rather than planning. We decided to skip a few of the locations we might have visited (the Channel Islands, Catalina, and some ports down the coast) to get to San Diego early and by doing so missed all the bad weather further north. Our plan is to leave San Diego with the Baja Ha Ha group (now up to 170 boats!) on October 28 for Cabo San Lucas. Everyone is talking about what the weather might do, will the hurricane season be over, what will be the influence of El Nino, will the Ha Ha organizers delay the departure date. We will continue to gather information and make our own decision when we will go. We will be very conservative and will not leave with the group if we don't think it will be safe. As we looked at our plan from here on it became obvious that to get through the Panama Canal and up to Bermuda by May next year would be very aggressive, although quite possible. We would be always pushing, would miss out many places we would like to visit, and would have short stays when we did stop. Also we would be crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec in Mexico and the Gulf of Papagayo in Costa Rica in January, the worst time with the worst winds in the wrong direction. From Mexico to Costa Rica is almost 500 nautical miles, so we would like to make a comfortable passage. So, all things considered, we have decided to take it slower, get to Costa Rica in March/April, transit the Panama Canal and spend June to November 1988 south of the hurricane belt, probably in Venezuela. We would then continue with our original plan to head up to Bermuda and across the Atlantic, only a year later. This would mean, to stick within a three year time frame, we would spend less time than planned in Europe. We are also wondering if we want to transit the canal again on the way back. Alternatives would be to go to Houston, Florida or even up the east coast and up the Hudson or St Lawrence to the Great Lakes and then truck the boat back from there. Those decisions, however, we will make when the time comes. To recap our journey since the last message, we spent a few extra days in Morro Bay to until the swells caused by Hurricane Linda abated. We didn't mind this at all since Morro Bay is so beautiful and we were at anchor. One interesting occurrence was that, while we were doing the laundry, the dingy was stolen from the city dock. We call the harbor patrol and they sent out officers on foot, by vehicle and in a boat. The officer in the boat picked us up, brought us back to Alcyone and took off to look for the dingy. Much to our surprise, half an hour later he returned with it in tow, all intact and undamaged. Turns out it was taken for a joyride by a fourteen year old, he left the painter in the water and the painter wrapped itself around the propeller, stalling the engine. He had to get rescued by another boater who towed him in, where he abandoned it. Needless to say, that taught us a lesson and we are more careful to chain it up when we leave it. We left Morro Bay on September 17 in the afternoon heading for Santa Barbara around the dreaded Point Conception, known as the "Cape Horn of California". Again we lucked out with the weather, motored and motor sailed to the point, rounding at 1:30 a.m. in confused seas and variable winds 12 to 20 knots coming from all directions. It wasn't at all uncomfortable and we then were able to sail to Santa Barbara, arriving at the fuel dock at 9:30 a.m. Due to a low tide at Morro Bay and a difficult approach to the fuel dock there, we opted not to top off our tanks, since we carried a spare 18 gallons in cans on deck. We got to Santa Barbara without touching the spare fuel and put 40.5 gallons into our 40 gallon tank. The Admiral won't let me do that again. Santa Barbara was nice and we stayed a day longer than originally planned. We opted for a slip at the marina after observing the boats rolling at anchor in the unprotected roadstead. Almost all of the original colonial style buildings in Santa Barbara were destroyed in an earthquake in the twenties. When the town was rebuilt, city ordinances were put in place to control the architecture of every new building; they all had to be in the California Spanish Mission style. These controls are still in effect, and apply even to business signs, road signs and telephone kiosks. The results are spectacular as the city rises on a hill behind the beaches. The city hall is the most impressive building and it quite exquisite. Not many cities today could justify that level of opulence to the taxpayers. Of course we visited the mission there, founded by Father Serra. Pretty, but like the city, controlled as to where you could wander. Here they had a definite admission fee instead of a "donation". On Sunday, Lynne and Barry Thompson arrived by train and the four of us sailed (well, mostly motored) to their home marina, the Anacapa Isle, at Channel Islands Harbor. Lynne and Barry have a boat identical to ours which they bought in Seattle and had trucked to California. We had a wonderful time with them and were so glad that their schedule allowed us to get together. Immediately after our visit they took off for a diving vacation in Honduras. We had a great sail down to King Harbor at Redondo Beach, with the winds building to 30 knots from astern, prompting a reef in the sails. We anchored inside the harbor close to the seawall with a stern anchor to keep us from swinging. There we met Gary and Amy out of Tacoma in an Endeavor 43. Gary used to race jet cars which got up to 300 m.p.h. and was involved in a jet car that was built to break the 700 m.p.h. world land speed record. He decided, however, to give it all up to go cruising at a maximum speed of about 7 m.p.h. We have met them again at our next stop at Dana Point and again here in San Diego. The maximum stay at anchor is supposed to be three days, but we got an extension because of high surf warnings and waited a couple of days before heading for Dana Point. We later learned that the surf was so high that the entrance and exit to Morro Bay was closed, so again we lucked out that we had already left there. Our trip on Sunday from Dana Point was interesting. We motored out at 6:30 a.m. with no wind and two miles of visibility. Very quickly visibility dropped to less than 500 feet and stayed that way across San Pedro Bay, the home of thePorts of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest on the West Coast. There are also oil rigs three miles off shore and traffic lanes for the big ships. Radar saved the day, the first time we really needed to use it on our trip, although we had practiced with it a lot to get used to it. We saw and avoided many targets without difficulty, some of which we never saw, just heard the sound of the engines or felt the wake they produced. Our only real problem was with people out in small boats, drifting around and fishing. We could not see them at all on the radar and were almost upon them before we could see them visually. We thought they were all crazy to put themselves in such jeopardy, some of the boats out there were much bigger than us and going a lot faster. The fog started to clear as we came abreast of Newport Beach and entry into Dana Point harbor was easy. We anchored in the west anchorage amongst several other cruising boats on their way south and again stayed a few days longer than planned. The highlight of our stay was a bike ride up to the Mission at Capistrano. The swallows really do return here, but they have to be lured with birdseed and a ready supply of nesting materials as they seem to prefer thefacilities at a nearby shopping center. This mission claims to have the oldest building in California and the whole place has been restored to its original condition. Unlike other missions, there was a hospital and a thriving industrial complex attached to the mission. They even smelted iron ore and had a foundry as well as a blacksmith shop. The early 19th century church was destroyed in an earthquake just after it was build and it was never rebuilt. Our trip to San Diego was uneventful, no wind again, so we motored to Mission Bay at the north end of the city. Mission Bay is a huge state park with lots of bays and islands. It is very strictly controlled with areas for anchorage (limit 72 hours), sailing, power boats, water skiing and even a special area for PWCs (Jet Skis, etc.) where they can do their thing without annoying anyone else. After Mission Bay we were very lucky to get a slip here at Harbor Island for $8.75 a night, a special rate for Ha Ha participants. We had been told they were sold out months ago, but we showed up and somehow they managed to squeeze us in. The harbors and anchorages are full of cruising boats waiting to head south and the marine stores are doing a roaring trade. There are many boats from Seattle, Puget Sound, BC, and Oregon. We met up with Sarah and Darrell whom we last saw at Canal Boat Yard and today we met Wayne and Judith, last seen on their boat at Shilshole. Besides socializing, which the Admiral says I do far too much of, we will finish outfitting (solar panels and some miscellaneous stuff) and provisioning and some sightseeing. On October 22nd. Patricia's Mom and Dad, her sister Mary with husband Jack will fly down from Seattle to visit. We are really looking forward to seeing them. The weather has been just great the whole trip, just a few cloudy days, two days with a little rain, but always warm. Let's hope it continues like this. We get love to get e-mail from you and really enjoy keeping in touch and hearing about life back home. I know its hard to believe it, but our days seem to be so busy. Getting around by bike and public transportation takes a lot longer than hopping into the car to do errands and everything just takes longer to get done. The day is gone before we know it. Maybe when we get to Mexico we will have more time to relax, get some reading in and be more timely in response to your e-mails. So far, getting to use someone's phone jack has worked out well with just a few exceptions. However, I expect it will be a bit more difficult in Mexico and perhaps not possible south of there. Again we will find out as we go along. It certainly beats any other method of communication with regard to timeliness and the number of people we can "talk" to. More later, keep in touch. Colin & Patricia Shannon-Garvey |
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