Another Sailing trip…

The 2nd weekend after arriving at Rosamond, Brennan, neighbor Bob, and I went sailing. It was short notice so the types of vessels for rent were limited but we got a 35 foot cruiser. And it turned out the weather was the best yet. Nice strong winds, fairly heavy seas (or at least a novice like me thought so), and lots of sunshine. It was a great day for a sail along the Los Angeles shoreline.

It takes and hour and a half to get down to Blue Water Sailing at Marina Del Rey so we leave early in the AM. Dodging traffic the entire way we luck out and are only slowed down a couple times, and just for a few minutes each time. Eventually, we’re signed in, pays our money, drag our gear to the boat, prep it (which entails removing all the covers from the sails, windows, door, helm, electronics, etc.). But soon, we’re on our way, motoring out of the harbor.

Still motoring…this is a big harbor. I think it’s all man made too.

That 3 master that was parked here last time has moved on, giving a view of this two master.

A bit of the extensive seawall. Couldn’t see them, but there were a bunch of seals barking over there.

And finally, we’re out of the harbor and off sailing. This early in the day, 10:30AM or so, it was still fairly calm and winds were light. Tried my hand at the helm after the winds picked up around 11AM.

Bob tried his hand at the helm after I’d had my turn. Brennan lounging with his pretzels. You can see the sea is all choppy. And the wind had been steadily getting stronger this entire day. That gives us more leeway in choosing what what we want to try…sailing wise. But it’s also kind of more like work handling things. Brennan’s skill really helped here. He knows how to adjust the sails and steering direction to take advantage of the strong winds while making us novices comfortable. When we headed back into the harbor, it turned out the seas were heavy enough, combined with the strong winds, to make it a rockin’-an-rollin’ trip.   If you look carefully, you can see a seal in the middle of this next picture.Took this shot to show the heavy-ish seas. Way off in the distance where that sail is, is where we were a while ago.

Lots of rock and roll here as we entered the sheltered bay area…that large sailboat heading for us was moving fast and heeled over due to the wind. Meanwhile, we had to do our own gyrations in order to get positioned against the wind so we could drop the sails and motor into the harbor. The heavy winds by this time of day, near 3:30pm, are not helping but Brennan’s skill saved the day and we easily made it back in. Really hauling ass…Oh, this guy and crew in the power boat, huh, where’d he come from. Sort of snuck up on us. You gotta pay attention I guess. I was taking pictures of the boat, the pilot noticed, and gave me a really strange stare. Like he was a drug kingpin or something. Or a big shot who hates the paparazzi. He was soon joined by a guy and gal and they’re all staring at me like I’m doing something wrong, so I give them a big smile and wave, and they all finally relax, and wave back. People are weird.

Soon after, we’re tied up at the dock in our assigned slip and have worked at stowing all the boating gear and covering all the equipment along with the sails. Brennan directs the work from the foc’sle.

And after we dock and spend at least 30 minutes, maybe 45, we’re all battened down and have stowed everything. Off we go to the restaurant for some food!

We sat out on the restaurant’s deck and although the wind was still pretty strong, on this side of the building it was mostly calm, with just an occasional gust. Cool enough that we did leave our jackets on while eating. We all ordered and since they were busy, it took 20 odd minutes to get our meals. And Brennan’s was wrong. Not even close to what he ordered. So the server took it back to the kitchen. The waitress returned and apologises. Then comes back a few minutes later with the 2nd try, and again, not what he ordered. She has to take that one back too. Each time took 10 minutes more. So Bob and I have finished our meals by the time Brennan finally gets his. Hah! The thing was though, we were trying to kill time in order to miss the rush hour traffic. Who wants to sit in gridlock traffic for an hour or more? We would rather sit here enjoying the sun & sea and have a beer or three. Because of the repeated screw up of the order, we killed 2 hours here.

While waiting for our meals, this nice, all automatic boat was parked nearby and eventually, the owners and their guests came along. I was hoping I’d get a pic of them unfurling the sails, but no such luck. It has lines suggesting an older design, but the automatic sails indicated otherwise. Here comes the owner. After everyone was aboard, they head off.

Well, after dinner and all, off we head towards Rosamond through the famously bad LA traffic…but, being smarty pants type guys, we took a long time at dinner so when we left the harbor at 7pm, we didn’t have that much trouble with traffic. Got home after dark, but, no problem…

Thanks for visiting!