October 29, 09 - San Diego

We are in San Diego at the Cabrillo Isle Marina which is pretty deluxe. The weather today is beautiful and clear – but we have been accused of bringing northern temperatures with us, since it is a very chilly (by local standards only) 65 degrees.

After we left Serenity on October 1, we had a quick trip to Anchorage. It was too short for me. On our first day in Anchorage, I saw Amelia and Bella who were both running fevers. Bella came and spent the night and by the next morning was clearly ill and very limp. She ran a fever for over a week and the doctor was pretty sure it was pig ick. She shared it with me, and I also ran a fever for a week, but it was very low grade. Earl seems immune. However, with only 2 and half weeks to spend with family, spending one week sick really cut into my time. We did manage to see everyone. Steve’s children are growing like weeds. According to the marks on my kitchen wall, Elora and Jamie grew almost two inches since April, while John managed a more modest 1 inch. It really makes me aware of how time flies. We look forward to seeing them at Christmas in Mexico. Before we left, Bella and Isha took off for Colorado to see Isha’s new niece and nephew. I saw as much of Amelia, nine months and delightful, as I could before we left , but it was not enough. It will probably be February before we see the two little girls again.

We then took a very brief trip to LaConner, five days, to catch up with a few friends and check out the finished new roof, before returning to Dana Point on the 22^nd. We found Serenity looking very well. We had splurged and had her waxed while we were away and she was gleaming. Our tie up lines, however, looked pretty sad. The surge in the boat basin had taken its toll on them and we had to replace at least one.

The next few days were busy with the Nordhavn Rondezvous. Nordhavn treated us all very well and there were some excellent speakers. They also made it easy to spend some money by having vendors right on site. Earl bought LED lights for the back deck. (They were sold to me on the basis that we could keep them on all night without using much of any power and discourage pirates.) It was fun meeting other owners. We found that other 43s had had the same minor issues as Serenity, which was interesting. On Sunday we hosted an open house for people looking at 43’s. It was fun showing off our girl and Earl got lots of compliments on how well ‘tricked out’ she was. We also managed to find a good home for our northern sit-in model kayaks. Since we had bought two new sit on kayaks, we had four which was more than Earl would allow. Anyway, the Sea Scouts were delighted with them, and we had a warm feeling watching the excited kids who came to collect them. To top off a great weekend, my cousin Brad Wheeler who lives in LA came down for lunch with his delicious 3 year old daughter Cassie. To avoid any problems, I immediately put a life jacket on her. We toured the boat, had lunch on shore, and then Brad, Cassie and I went to the beach. I wish I had photos of that. It was my first chance to meet Cassie and first opportunity to see Brad since his wedding in Vancouver BC. It was good to catch up with some other western members of the clan.

On Tuesday the 26^th we finally left Dana Point for the 6 hour run to San Diego. It was a glorious day – flat calm and sunny. The Baja Haha sail boat fleet , 180 some boats, left San Diego the same day and cannot have had much sailing that day. We saw about 100 mylar balloons on our way. Earl promised me that we did not have to pick them up because they would eventually blow on the shore. I hope he is right. More exciting, we saw three blue whales during the trip. The first was right in front of the boat, and we were so excited that we did not get photos until it had moved off a ways. Coming into San Diego, we saw a submarine on the surface. The speed it was making was extraordinary. The conning tower really made a wake.

We are using our time here to get final things done. Earl has installed a flopper stopper type stabilizer on the port side. He has done a pretty professional looking job and we hope that it will prove itself when we are anchored in rolly waters. The new LED lights have also been installed, and today he plans on attaching the new dingy wheels to the dingy so that we can pull it up beached in Mexico. I have taken inventory of our provisions and spend most of the days running around town picking up odd items, like marine toilet paper etc. Clark and Joan Scarboro arrive tomorrow from LaConner and will go as far as La Paz with us. Weather permitting, we will leave on Sunday, November 1.