Oceanside to San Diego, October 15, 2011

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We left Oceanside Harbor at 8:10 AM without breakfast, showers or stopping at the fuel dock. We topped off the tank from our jerry cans on deck. The weather was clear and the forecast favorable, light winds and patchy fog, temperatures in the high 60’s. We were anxious to get to San Diego to meet up with the rest of the Baja Ha Ha sailors and to find repair services to fix our outboard motor and auto pilot. We planned to stay in San Diego for 10-days, hopefully that would be long enough to complete our repairs and re-provision the boat.

The wind was light forcing us to motor the 40 nautical miles from Oceanside to San Diego. We motored through several pods of porpoise. Some porpoise came very close to the boat while others kept their distance. At one point the water was alive with 50 or more porpoise that leaped out of the water every few seconds. Some flew entirely out of the water, others broke the surface only long enough to catch a quick breath then submerge. In the midst of all these porpoise, a small whale with a white back surfaced not far away. It almost looked like the whale had snow on its black body. When the fog began to engulf us the porpoise vanished. I took a picture of Cindy bundled up in her fleece jacket and hood, it was not the picture we had in mind when we were dreaming about our trip from the comfort of our home in Woodinville. We thought temperatures would have been warmer this close to San Diego.

Cindy bundled up on a foggy day

The fog and clouds lifted a few miles away from the entrance to San Diego harbor and the wind picked up to 15 miles per hour. We could have sailed the last hour but we didn't. As we neared the harbor the number of motor and sail yachts increased to the point that we had to pay attention to avoid running into another boat. We saw one beautiful topsail schooner that had the logo of the San Diego Maritime Museum its main sail. As we approached the harbor entrance we saw more US Navy vessels and helicopters. Several sailboats sailed into the entrance and made me feel like we weren't really sailors since we were motoring. I keep telling Cindy we should practice sailing into marinas and sailing up to mooring buoys. The old time sailors prided themselves on their skills at sailing in and out of anchorages. But they also embarrassed themselves when they missed their mark or ran into another boat already at anchor. Throughout the ages it’s always been entertaining to watch boats docking. Wind, current and the lack of a break makes navigating in tight quarters difficult at the best of times.

San Diego Harbor Light



Top mast schooner

The high price of moorage in marinas in the area had been a concern for us. Luckily, I was able to get a two week lease at Bay Club Marina that saved us about $600 over the daily rate of $2 to $3 dollars per foot per night. The Baja Ha Ha group had negotiated some discounts at local marinas for those signed up for the Ha Ha, but it was not low enough to make daily rates affordable for anyone staying 10 days.

Bay Club Marina is behind Shelter Island, and very close to the road that connects the island with the main land. The docks, restrooms and laundry at the marina are brand, spanking new, and the marina is in walking distance to a sail loft, several electronics repair shops, a Yanmar dealer that services outboard motors, Downwind Marine and West Marine. The only place that's too far to walk is the supermarket. Shortly after we arrived at the marina people from the other boats began to walk up to us to say hello; offer rides to the supermarket or Costco; invite us to a dock parties; ask about our sail from Washington; or comment on our boat. Two couples told us that our 37-foot, Pacific Seacraft is their dream boat: we always tell them it's ours too.



B&G Autopilot Linear Hydraulic Control

 One major challenge at this stop was to get our autopilot and outboard fixed. The outboard didn't concern us too much, that's a common thing to get fixed. However, our 16-year old B&G autopilot was a problem. The hydraulic unit was leaking and I knew net to nothing about hydraulic systems or where to get them fixed. A live aboard sailor and employee of Downwind Marine said that Custom Marine Electronics on Shelter Island Drive was the only place to take our leaky autopilot and so I did. But after more than a day at their shop they said B&G didn't have any replacement parts for our old autopilot and without spare parts they couldn't fix it. But they said they had worked with San Diego Hydraulics before and recommended their work. So, we rented a car and drove the unit to the hydraulic repair shop. We had two weekdays remaining in San Diego to get the thing fixed, so I told the good people at San Diego Hydraulics that I was sailing to Mexico and really needed this thing fixed. "Could you make this a priority and fix this in the next two days". Now, I'm sure that they had a long line of military systems that needed to be repaired so our armed forces can conduct some combat mission, remove the next dictator or save some sailors from pirates in the Gulf of Aden; but apparently it was a slow week for saving the world and they agreed to give it their best effort. The next morning I called and learned that UPS just delivered two sets of hydraulic seals to the hydraulic shop and that they would have my autopilot rebuilt by noon. You could have blown me over with a feather! The impossible had not only been possible but it was done. Even more amazing was the fact that the electronics shop had completely cleaned the motor and repaired the bushing at the end of the hydraulic ram by 2:00 PM that same day. So, by 3:00PM on Friday I had a rebuilt linear hydraulic unit for my autopilot in my hands. This has to be some kind of a record. Only when all the planets are aligned perfectly and your karma is perfect can you hope for something like this to work out so well (and believe me, my karma isn't really that good). There's so much potential for something to fall through the cracks, it didn't. That’s amazing!

While we were waiting for all this stuff to be done, we had time to visit Savanna, another friend from home, who is starting her first year at San Diego State University. Savanna was gracious enough to take us on a walking tour of her university. We visited her dorm room, commons, and gymnasium and walked past the library, study hall, and art history building. The library looked like the largest building on campus and it had a cool dome entrance that connected to the library and study hall by two glass tubes that looked similar to those we saw in Monterey's aquarium. When Alex learned that SDSU had a paintball club he was ready to sign up for spring semester! Alex asked many questions about college life and wanted to know more about running start, the program that allows high school students to take college courses in the last two years of height school. We finished our visit at a favorite Mexican restaurant of Savanna’s. 

During our stay here, Alex has been studying matrix algebra and I've begun studying it too so I can answer some of his questions. He's also been fishing on the pier with his new fishing pole. Although he's gotten many bites he hasn’t landed a fish here yet.

Since we've been here in San Diego we've met the friendliest and most helpful people you could imagine. The guys at the fuel dock and marine supply store were as helpful as the guys at the hydraulics shop and everyone at the marina from boat owners to marina staff have treated us like old friends. If the Baja Ha Ha crew is anything like the folks we met in San Diego, we'll have a heck of a good time!