All we wanted for Christmas...was to go Sailing!

Arriving to the Hunter 36 on XMAS eve. Look at the fog layer.

 

  We arrived in San Diego Saturday night and had great weather for our family Christmas gathering on Sunday. We had been following the weather and knew that there would be a change of weather thru the night before Xmas eve. It was fully expected to let up by morning. Our reservations for the boat were for 9:00 a.m. and there we were arriving at the charter office as it was still raining. We were all baffled by the weather as NOAA and local forecasts showed it to be clear weather by then. We delayed a few hours while we went for breakfast arriving back around noon and got the OK we were looking for to be allowed to sail as the weather did improve.

 

Headed out to sea

We had originally planned to head out of the harbor for a course to the Los Coronado's Islands. However with this late start we wouldn't have enough daylight left so we just went out for a good sail. There were very few other boats who had decided to head out on Christmas eve in this weather. Surely it was only us die hard sailors.

 

 

 

We pulled out of Shelter Island on this well equipped Hunter 36 and noticed right away how much easier the sail handling was on it as we hoisted the sails. The big problem was the wind had shifted as well from what was predicted and was coming from the southwest right on our nose as we were headed out of the bay. After a couple hours sailing upwind we took the approaching Navy supply ship entering the channel as a sign to head back into the bay.

 

 

 

 

 After turning back, we picked up speed as we jibed back and forth in the narrow channel heading back into San Diego Harbor. We both got in quite a bit of practice as we took turns at the helm and working the sails.

 

 

 

 

A decision was made to get back to the slip a little early instead of heading further into the bay because of the winds direction. We were having a lot of fun and made it back in better time then expected. So we doused the sails, turned on the engine and made our course back to the slip.

 

 

 

 

 After an easy docking and securing the boat for the night we poured some wine to celebrate another successful day of sailing. We spent some time looking over the harbor chart to see where we had sailed, and looked over the boat getting acoustomed to it's layout and equipment.

 

 

 Going up to the cockpit to lounge for awhile longer and looking out thru the harbor before heading out to another family get together. We relaxed and took in what it will be like to one day soon be living on our own boat. 

 

 

 

 

 

We did come back in the evening after dinner as we had the boat for the night and spent the night sleeping aboard very comfortably. We woke up on Christmas day refreshed from a good nights sleep aboard. We packed our things into the car and locked up the boat saying goodbye for now. We reflected on our focus for this new lifestyle which we had fulfilled in 2012. And knew that we were going to enjoy many more fun filled days sailing in the coming New Year.

 

 

 



 

    And Sailing...... We Did!!!

 

 

 

Finally - Were Sailing Again!!!



Chris is proudly representing in his Nautilus Sailing Shirt
 

  After  5 long months back at work, we finally were able to plan a day sail in San Diego, California. We spent many days over the last few months deciding who to charter a boat from so we could get back out sailing and get some much needed practice time to work on our skills.


We settled on joining  http://www.marinasailing.com/  which charters out of 6 southern California locations to it's members.

Chris motoring out of the slip
 

We decided to start small chartering a Catalina 27 Mark II named "Fury" for our first sailing since we got our ASA 104 back in June. After a quick briefing on the boats systems, local chart's and a docking test we were off sailing.



  We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a perfect clear day with temp's in the low 70's and forecast for 15 to 20 kts of wind. We motored out from Shelter Island and into the main San Diego harbor channel and began to put up the sails. 

A photo to remind us were to turn back in.

View of Pt Loma as we pull out of Shelter Island.
 

 

  

 We viewed Sea Lions sunning themselves on the channel markers and although we were aware that the Marines were doing exercises up the coast were not really prepared for all the Navy ship activity we would encounter.



 

 

After some tense moment's trying to remember our brief instruction on the in mast furling main sail system on this boat we were able to figure out the lines and get the sails up. We shut off the engine and were sailing!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Not long after we made our course for the open sea we were surrounded by small Navy patrol boats keeping tabs on our position as a Nuclear Submarine was entering the harbor. This was a sight you don't see every day.

 

                                                      

 

So once clear of the bay and the tip of Point Loma we made a turn west to get out of the  main shipping channel but recognised there were kelp beds and fishing nets which were hazards the first couple miles off shore in our direction so we kept a good watch. We gained speed as we took on more wind but a wind shift from off shore to onshore from a Santa Ana condition would prove challenging later as we would head back into the harbor.

 

 

Chris sailing offshore 

 

Amanda had it heeled over and loving it.

 

We did see winds pick up off shore from 12 to 19 kts as we practiced different points of sail. We realized rather quickly that we were out of practice and were not getting the full efficiency out of our sails that we would have liked and would need more practice.  

 

 

 

 

 

We continued to sail offshore for about three hours and then decided to go back into the harbor and sail the bay looking for somewhere to stop for lunch.

 

 

 

After entering the main harbor getting ready to pass North Island NAS on a port tack we were quickly approached by a small military craft with a 60 cal gun aboard yelling at us over the P A to sail off from another approaching Nuclear Submarine we hadn't seen. As we looked ahead of us under the sail, sure enough the sub was headed right for us. The patrol boat pulled along side us and forced us over towards the shore as the sub took the full main channel as it passed us. This put us on a course directly into a forbidden military zone shown on our chart and told to us by the charter company as a military nuclear loading dock. We figure we must be allowed since the military themselves put us on the course towards the dock. After the Submarine passed us the military boat sped off  towards the sub leaving us where we were. Unable now to change course sailing into the wind to get away from the approaching ship docked we made the decision to start the engine and motor back into the channel. This was awkward as we had full sail up and no time to douse them. So into the channel we went with a back winded Jib.

 

 

 

 

As we passed Harbor Island, and rounded Coronado Island headed to downtown San Diego to get lunch we were passed by a cruising boat just adding insult to how inefficient we were sailing in the now light winds inside the bay. But after a few more tacks we furled in the Main and Jib, turned on the motor and headed for a dock at Anthony's for some world famous Fish and Chips for our lunch. Getting a fair amount of docking practice as the winds did not cooperate and after several trys we did make it to the restaurant's dock.

 

 

After lunch, we undocked and headed back across the bay to Shelter Island to our slip.

 

 

 

 

Figuring after 7 hours of successful sailing and docking back at our slip for the night we patted ourselves on the back, had a celebratory glass of wine and realized once again how much fun sailing was vowing to do it again soon.

 

Driving passed the harbor on the way to the airport to fly home the next day we gazed into the harbor were the transient boats were moored taking a photo of the dingy dock and vowing to return for another day sail in a couple weeks time.