A few days later, we went to a AAA baseball game in Lancaster. It was kind of exciting as the home team went ahead in the 5th with like 8 runs, then the opposing team came back and in the 9th, won the game 9-8. It was fun seeing all those hits of course. Too bad about losing the game though.
A couple weeks later, Brennan asks me if I’m interested in doing some sailing off of Santa Barbara? Well, hell yes I am. So we drive the 1 & 1/2 hours down there and jump in our rental boat from Blue Water Sailing. This is a newer 42 foot boat that has the fancy roll up sails that tuck away into the mast. We’d invited a couple women along, Kim and Kat, and they arrived just as we were done with the prep and ready to push off.
We don’t have all the shrouds taken off yet. That takes a good 45 minutes there’s so many of them. Brennan’s an old hand at it though so we didn’t have to take any sailing classes or anything.
Here’s a shot of our boat in it’s slip. We have about half of the shrouds off the hatches, booms, and portholes by this time.
Here’s the mainsail with the sail still safely tucked away inside the boom and mast.
Someone else on the way out to sea.
Concentrating on missing those racers in our path.
Here we are in the channel heading out to the breakwater.
Ya know, it’s kind of cool having a friend like Brennan around. Our interests are fairly similar and he’s a nice guy and all. Fun to hang out with. AND he’s a sailor!
Finally we’re in the open water, and this was after dodging some sailboats out on the ocean racing. Here’s where I noticed we got a little breeze and Brennan started trying to get the sail to extend.
We’re puttering around with the Yanmar diesel engine making around 12 knots. Not a bad speed.
Kim and Kat get a little sun.
A boat pretty much like ours, only they have their sails out.
And a tri-master sailing ship makes it out of the harbor. Beautiful boat.
Ahh, now I can see that it’s only a two master with two spinnakers out. Or whatever they’re called.
That’s a boatload of people right there.
So we’re out here sailing around, and cannot get the sails deployed. It seems as though the mainsail has got a hitch in it’s get along so it’s stuck inside the mast and won’t unfurl. Damn it! This shot shows the extent of the sail extending.
After 4 hours of puttering around back and forth in front of Santa Barbara, we head back into the harbor. Watched as this boat took too much wind and toppled over. There was a boat over there in a hurry to help so we didn’t stop. These were all people learning to sail so they had guardians. 
Cruise boat that takes people over to Catalina I believe.
And we’re back in our slip. Very much fun time.
One of the neighboring boats. Kinda pretty.
Here’s how a lot of people were getting around…
Big ass boat here.
And a big catamaran too.
And then it was time to say goodbye to Marina Del Rey for today.
Back onto the infamous LA freeway system. We lucked out though and really didn’t have much trouble the entire trip. Just one short slowdown was about all.
We passed this brush fire on the way home and hours later, it got out of hand and several cars were burned. No one hurt, but several cars and trucks were totalled. Made the national news and everything.
And that was the end of a very nice adventure on the ocean. Too bad about the sail being stuck and us not being able to extend it. So we went ‘boating’ but not ‘sailing’ today. Rats. Cost me $200 for my share of the rental too.
If the equipment on a rental failed, it would seem you guys would be due at least a partial refund. Or at least a deep discount on the next attempt. Not your fault the sail apparently wasn’t stowed properly by the previous user, or the agency didn’t check it all out before renting again.
Oh, I know, and I encouraged Brennan to demand a partial refund. Never got a clear answer of whether or not he did, but I didn’t listen all that carefully or ask a direct question about it either. It was fun being out on the water in any case so I felt I got my money’s worth.
Great pix. And Brennan a darned nice guy to have as a friend. I agree!
In ’76 I got a 25′ sport cruiser and took Power Squadron courses to safely navigate the Columbia and its Bar, and the San Juan Islands. Got about 8 years of some great memories. Made my share of dumb goofs, but learned a lot about boating. My cousins used to own St. Helens Marina, and one has his own sailboat, similar to the one you rented. He races it regularly, even on long hauls up the coast I think. He has to put out feelers for volunteer crewmembers every season, but expects you to pretty much know what you’re doing and have experience, which I don’t when it comes to sailboats. If he doesn’t get enough crew, he doesn’t enter the race.
I would love to sail, or even boat the lower Columbia. Basically grew up in the area. Someday.
Quite the hobby, but I still like the more leisurely power boat, without all the technical stuff and work involved with sails. We went through Bonneville locks a couple times, and once through the locks on the Snake River dams. Great fun fishing for smallmouths up there. Had family reunions aboard multiple boats on Sucia Island in the San Juans, with Salmon Derbys – what great fun and memories that produced. Lots of Salmon caught off the Columbia Bar’s south jetty too. Crossing the bar on the wrong tide… not so much fun – stayed out too long catching fish.
Had to give up the boat in ’84 when my job went belly up. But after a new job, we went for the land yacht concept and got the Pace Arrow in ’85. Then moved to a Beaver Coach in ’06. But we still sure miss boating.
Don’t get too much sun down there, Dude. Never mind… it’s been hotter than ever here in Portland too, so it can’t be easily avoided anywhere this year.
I’m over in Bend now. At 3600 feet it’s around 10°F cooler here during the day so I’m enjoying the weather now. Next week I head up to Walla Walla for a mini family reunion.