Long Beach to Cost Rica

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 1)

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

by Mike

Bob and I finished up shopping, piddling, and repairing stuff around noon today and headed for the fuel dock. We topped off the fuel tanks and filled about 15 five-gallon jugs with extra diesel. We untied the dock lines, put all the bumpers and ropes away, and headed out to sea.

Leaving the Long Beach area we had to weave around some ships at anchor and quite a few oil platforms. I didn’t realize there were so many oil platforms off the shore of California. We were motoring into the wind. By 2:00pm we were still motoring but had the sails up.

After a couple of hours we neared Catalina Island. There was a big cruise ship there; I think it was Carnival. Who knew Carnival went to Catalina Island? Doesn’t seem like much of a destination to me. Close to the island we had about 30 minutes of cellular service. As soon as the ship (and the town) disappeared around the corner of the island, so did our cell service. Most likely, that will be our last cell service until Costa Rica – which means no pictures for this here blog until then.

Just past Catalina Island the wind improved and we sped from 6-7 knots with a motor to over 10 knots with sails only. San Clemente Island screwed up the wind some and we slowed to 9 knots. In case you forgot, a knot (nautical mile per hour) is a little faster than a regular mph (statute mile per hour). For example, 7 knots = 8 mph.

Fishing Report:

The fishing poles were still in good order after months of storage. Some of the fishing hooks were not. A couple of the great big fishing hooks had rusted so badly that the tip was as blunt as a fork tine, and the barb was essentially rusted away. I replaced the bad hooks with new ones and we fished from mid-afternoon until dark. No bites.

Fine Arts:

On a trip like this it’s helpful to keep in touch with some of the finer things in life. Like fine music and fine art. For the first time in my boating experience I brought a guitar with me. Electric. I also brought headphones and an electronic effects box. Today I played. When you combine enough electronic distortion with my imagination, I’m pretty good!

Bob thinks it’s pretty good that I used headphones.

 

Fine Dining:

It’s hard to top McDonald’s for breakfast and Jack in the Box for lunch. But Bob offered to build (I prefer the term cook but Bob was in charge) a sandwich for supper. It was good. Mmm. I was just finishing up when Bob mentioned that he was trying to use up the old meat. Hmm.