We left California Yacht Marina in Wilmington and headed down the long channel towards Angels Gate and out to sea. Our friends Craig and Liz showed up to give us a proper send off, with Champagne, veggies and bacon that doesn't need refrigeration! What a great idea. We headed out to Catalina and the Isthmus for a few days to relax and get the dirty air out of our lungs from L.A. harbor. This time our departure seemed so uninspiring, just a normal event. Sort of, been there done that.
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| Lovely Wilmington, quiet, peaceful, and no pollution? This was a dock fire near our slip, The Calif. Yacht marina management was awesome though, |
Catalina was beautiful, clean, clear water and air, calm seas, no noise of trains, trucks, and ships.
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| We even got to exercise our right to vote at the Isthmus! |
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| Finisterra sitting quietly. |
While we were in Avalon, we arranged to try the zip line over at Descanso. It was really fun, and not at all scary. There are 5 lines, and they give a nice crash course on how to stay safe while speeding across a small canyon. It ended up that we did the 3:00 p.m. time, so when we ended it was nearly dark. That was rather interesting, zipping along in the blackness.
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| The happy zippers, still standing after 3 lines. |
Our next stop was Dana Point harbor anchorage, which we decided would make our next leg to San Diego shorter. It was again uneventful, calm, cold. We departed around 5 a.m. and ended up at Southwestern Yacht Club just in time for happy hour. Any hour is happy when you're at a lovely yacht club with friendly members, excellent food and showers. Our friends Tom and Mary Ellen were there to catch our lines and welcome us to their club, as well as their home for several days. We jokingly claim the downstairs bedroom as ours whenever we are there. This time we had many little "to do's" when we arrived and they graciously let us use their car to drive to West Marine daily. The best part though was that Tom pulled out his Sailrite sewing machine and created new side curtains and double layered our bimini for us! What a guy, he's amazing. We overindulged ourselves with good friends and food, and before we knew it, it was time to leave.
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| One more stunning sunset near Ensenada. |
As we left San Diego harbor entrance there was a stealth submarine entering with an escort to keep the riff raff away. So we stayed clear.
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| An interesting view as we left San Diego, always fun to see our Navy in action. |
The sail to Ensenada was not bad, actually sailed most of the way and it was fairly warm, compared to last year when we all froze to death. Our destination was Cruiseport marina, our favorite place in Ensenada as it's easy to walk into town for food, the paperwork to check into the country is done by the marina and they escort you to the port captain's office. All checked in, cell phones transferred to Telcel, and the boat cleaned up, we are ready to depart for our trip down the Baja. Three days after arriving, off we go to Turtle Bay.
