Lots and lots of people coming and going this weekend! We deliberately chose the nicest yacht club we could find (using the internet to check them out) for docking this weekend. I managed to find one that not only looked luxurious, but had a rowing facility too. Never met any of the rowers, although their equipment and docks look wonderful. They must row entirely within this huge marina, it's about 1.5 miles to get out of the harbor.
We pulled into a guest space at the California Yacht Club on Friday afternoon, to find that we were on a row of Tartans! It was disconcerting, there are only a few Tartans in the Bay Area, and but I am docked next to another Tartan 37c, with a Tartan 3800 on the other side of it, and a 3700 a few slips away. A couple great things about that: I got to check my mast angle right up against a sister boat, and it's identical. That's comforting. The best thing was that the owner of the 3800 met us as we pulled in, identified me as a fellow "Tartonian" and proceeded to offer an incredible amount of help and advice. My new friend showe
d me that my aging marine radio actually worked, then introduced me to some experts who were able to explain exactly what I have, and why I will eventually want to replace it with a more modern ham/marine radio. He also gave me three Tartan t-shirts, a dental pick to remove o-rings, a ride to get my propane refilled, and bought me lunch on Saturday at the yacht club. Meeting new people in marinas has been one of the highlights of the trip.Lori was here for Friday night, she joined us for cocktails at the yacht club (you can't play cards in their bar during the dinner hour!) and then for a nice dinner at a near by restaurant. Doug and Catherine left early on Saturday morning, and although it was really sad to see them go, it left me with the first solitary hours I've had aboard the boat since departing three weeks ago. I spent the time cleaning and organizing, then went for a walk around the marina.
Tom and Paul flew down Saturday, arriving in the afternoon at the Santa Monica airport in N8444S. It was about a three hour flight for them. It was great to see them, we all stayed on the boat last night, and Tom flew back alone this afternoon. He lost his ability to transmit from his radio, and then fog kept him out of the Oakland airport so he flew into Livermore and rented a car. Planes are pretty exciting, they don't just float on the water when things go wrong. I much prefer the "crack open a beertand think about it" method of dealing with problems on the boat.
Scott, Andree, Rick, Rosi and Ruby Rose Albert (7 months) all showed up this morning. We had brunch on the boat and probably created more noise and activity than this yacht club is used to. When everyone finally left, Paul and I worked on getting ready for departure to Catalina tomorrow morning, then went out for a quick dinner and a movie.
We're in what appears to be the "nice" part of this marina, and this morning Tom, Paul and I went to get a look at 125 foot sail boat named Kaori. It's double masted, and we noticed the boat last night because the masts are tall enough to merit red warning lights for aircraft!
