Sunday May 4, 2014 - Dana Point

Sunday, May 4, 2014 – Enroute from San Diego to Dana Point

Friday night Clark treated us to an awesome dinner at the Punta Moro Resort near the marina.  It is a spectacular setting, reminiscent of La Joya and the restaurant was on a par with the view.  Everything was beautifully prepared and served.  It was a wonderful last dinner in Mexico.

View from the restaurant at Punto Moro

Joan looking for the green flash

Post dinner stroll at Punta Moro

Sometime around 5 am on Saturday we took off for San Diego, blessed with smooth seas and a favorable current that boosted our speed to 7+ knots.  Would that all days going north could be the same!  

Blowing 40 plus

Seas as they ought to be

As we travelled north, I knew we were getting close to Southern California when I spotted the first mylar balloon.  On the way down, the sea was spotted with hundreds of them.  A very sad thing to see. 

As we approached San Diego the traffic and activity increased.  Several sail boats races where underway and we enjoyed watching the boats drop their jibs and lift their colorful spinnakers as they rounded the buoy.  In addition to racers, there were many other assorted craft enjoying the beautiful weather.  We particular enjoyed a couple of classic multi sailed boats

Boats in front of San Diego

Beautiful Sailor!

Coming into San Diego, we felt like country bumpkins hitting the big city for the first time.  After 5 years of boating in Mexico, we were unaccustomed to the hurly burly of a major port.  Although there were clearly marked traffic lanes going into the harbor, we seemed to be one of the few boats to honor them.  Vessels of all descriptions, from freighters to kayaks and paddleboards, were going every which way!  The only things not moving were the piles of sea lions hauled out on the buoys, something we had not seen since we left the USA in 2009. 

Sea lions let you know you are back in California

We were pretty stressed by the time we managed to tie up at the police dock to clear customs. 

Earl had asked me to check on the hours that customs were open before we left Ensenada.  The website I had found indicated that they were opened until 5 everyday but Sunday and listed procedures for contacting them.  Happily Earl had written down the information because it turned out that they were not on hand on Saturdays.  After an hour or so, a couple of very nice men came down and did the paperwork for us to reenter.  Turns out they were originally from New York and one of them gave me a big hug before leaving. 

We had made reservations at the Cabrillo Marina.  When we finally found our slip, not an easy task in this giant place, it turned out to be too narrow.  Earl did manage to slip in, but there was no room for bumpers on either side.  Fuming, Earl went to the marina office to demand a slip to fit us.  He did well.  In compensation for our trouble, we got a 72 foot slip gratis. 

We had done such a good job of eating all the food that might be confiscated at customs that our larder was pretty bare.  I had hoped to make a quick trip to Trader Joes that is only a mile from our moorage, but happily settled for pizza delivered to the marina from Pizza Nova.  It was very good and Joan and Clark are now converts to Thai Chicken Pizza.  After dinner we walked up to the little deli near the marina office and picked up eggs to make French toast for breakfast from the sour dough bread that had come along with the pizza.  Joan spied a freezer of ice cream bars, so we all had Hagen Daas ice cream bars for dessert.  A wonderful welcome home to the USA meal!

We said goodbye to Joan and Clark a little before 8 am and were off within minutes for our run to Dana Point where we will be spending a few day.  In 2007 when we bought the boat, we had rugs made by Jeddy in Dana Point.  Now after 7 years of use and abuse (what else could you call spilling a whole jar of Yoy Soy Sauce) they are rather sad and we are looking forward to replacements.

In addition, despite Earl’s best efforts with the toilet plunger, the master head after complaining for the last few months has finally said no mas!  A new toilet awaits us in Dana Point.  Fortunately we only had to share the forward head with guests for a couple of days.  During that time, we developed a new meaning to the verb facilitate.  For us it meant using the facilities as in asking others if they had any objections to our facilitating.

Two things to which we will need to become reaccustomed:  NOAA weather forecasts over the radio and reliable charts on the plotter.  Both are blessings that before cruising in Mexico we took for granted. I for one will take a while to internalize the reliability of the plotter after years of having it show us crossing islands in the Sea of Cortez.

I am doing a whole day of laundry as we head north.  Our laundry bag which is on Earl’s side of the bed when we have guests, had long since reached capacity and there was a small mountain that threated to soon reach the as high as the bed.  We have so many things hanging out to dry on the railing that Earl says someone may think we are trying to signal distress.