ENROUTE TO SAN DIEGO

Repairs at Redondo Beach

We left Channel Islands Harbour on October 08 for a day sail to Redondo Beach which is about forty miles further south. It was a glorious day but very little wind. As we motored down the coast in shorts and t-shirt after our restful few days in Channel Islands Harbour we thought we had finally made it to cruising heaven. Our fleeces and foulies had been washed and stowed. The sky was blue to the horizon without a trace of clouds or fog.  Time to break out the sunscreen.

About three hours into our trip, I heard the bilge pump go on for a few seconds. Oh, oh! Then I noticed that there was some water seeping out on to the floor from the engine housing in our quarter berth. What is going on? I opened up the floorboard that gives visual access to the deepest part of the bilge and saw only a small amount of water below the pump. Okay - at least we were not sinking. As I mutter various epithets while mopping up the water on the quarter-berth floor, John who is having a rest is alerted and gets up to see what my concern is. He opens up the engine compartment and we can see water dripping from a bend in the exhaust pipe, splashing onto the drip tray and overflowing out onto the floor on one end and over the engine and into the bilge on the other end. There is a crack at the bend of the exhaust pipe, right where it goes under our quarter-berth and the storage compartment under the bed now has a pool of oily water in it. We mop up and pack the area behind the crack to slow down the collection of water under the bed and try and divert all the leaking into the bilge. It definitely helps things but there is a problem that will need to be dealt with. We keep plugging away and arrive at Redondo Beach Yacht Club at about 1600h. We are met by the smiling ‘Officer of the Day’ who assists with our mooring lines and welcomes us to the yacht club. The dock space is limited but everyone is anxious to make room for us and the two other Canadian boats, Iridium and Tahnoo who are also expected to arrive.

We are glad to be at harbor as we consider our options. Do we continue on to San Diego where we plan on staying for a week to ten days or do we fix the problem before leaving Redondo Beach? After consulting with fellow yachties and some of the local yacht club members, John decides that there is help close at hand and that we should do the repairs before leaving. That night the yacht club is hosting a spaghetti and western night. It is an annual fund raising event and the movie been shown is, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” starring a very young Clint Eastwood. We seem to be hitting the yacht clubs at all the right times. Channel Islands Yacht Club had a fish fry and ‘horse races’ when we visited and now we’re being served dinner and a movie. Quite a few people are dressed for the occasion and the MC is in character, complete with poncho, a cheroot and a bandoleer of lead. After supper in the dining area everyone piles up to the bar, which has been re-arranged into a cinema with rows of couches for very comfy viewing and even a snuggle for those inclined. I don’t suppose I’ll forget that movie in a hurry, though it won’t make my A list.

Next day John tackles the very daunting task of dismantling the exhaust system so that the crack can be welded properly. The vanity in our quarter-berth sits in front and on top of the engine housing. It has to be taken out. Our berth has to be partially taken apart also. It is a slow task with everything difficult and awkward to get at - but John preservers. I head off up town to look for groceries. When I return two hours later the vanity is sitting in the cockpit, our bedding has been piled up into the V-berth along with everything else that has no particular place to go and the salon looks like a auto-repair shop with tools strewn all over the place. Sigh! That night we clear enough space to sleep on the salon berths. Next day John with the assistance of Peter, one of the YC members, heads off to a welding shop with the exhaust under his arm. He returns around 1300h with the repair completed and after a quick lunch starts the task of putting everything back together again.

It’s October 10 and Cathy and Carolyn aboard Shannon are hosting ‘appies’ at 1600h to celebrate Thanksgiving. John is still up to his ‘oxter’ in parts and boat pieces and not sure if he can participate but Bill from Tahnoo convinces him that he is well ahead and in need of a break. We all have a great get together on the dock with some wonderful ‘appies’ and yarns to share between the three boats.

Dodging the Navy enroute to San Diego

“Just because you’re paranoid – doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you!”

October 11 - The exhaust has been repaired and remounted and everything is back in order. Time to make the last push to San Diego. We have decided to set out in the afternoon and do an overnight leg so that we will be arriving at daylight. The fog rolls in at about 1100h and sullenly obliterates the mouth of the harbor for the next several hours. We leave as planned at 1400h and hope that it will burn off as we get further from shore and as the afternoon wears on.  I hate fog and find it very stressful especially for coastal cruising in busy waters. We have both radar and AIS so we have a pretty good idea of what’s happening around us but you can’t trust the other guy now can you! I’m finding it difficult to comprehend that the fog is still following us. I thought that was all supposed to change after Point Conception. The coast guard looms out of the fog off our starboard bow. I see from the AIS that it is called CG George. There is not much coming up on the AIS to worry about but the radar is showing several small boats in the vicinity. We plan to stay out of the shipping lane. I’m not so worried about the small guys. They are either slow vessels like us in which case we’ll have enough time to avoid each other. Or they are fast little sports fishing boats with good maneuverability. I’m starting to relax. Then I check the AIS again and CG George is heading our way with a CPA (closest point of approach) of 0.04nm, no, make that 0.02 nm. No – now it’s on a collision course! I pick up the VHF and try hailing it. No answer – but suddenly it veers off in some other direction and that’s the last we see of it. 

By 1600 the fog is lifting and visibility is much improved. Perfect timing as we approach the Los Angeles Bay and the shipping lanes that we have to cross at its entrance. The wind pipes up to about 14k. We put up the sails and have a wonderful broad reach across the bay with great visibility.  As we are reaching towards the shipping lanes we are given the rare bounty of seeing two blue whales who are feeding on krill in the deeper colder water.  We had heard that they were in the vicinity but had been too pre-occupied by fog to try and spot them. A loud expulsion of air off the port draws our attention. About half a mile away we can see the massive back emerge out of the water and glide effortlessly forward for several seconds before sounding again. What an awesome sight. Five minutes later we have a similar display off to our starboard. We sit poised with cameras but it is a moment to be shared only in the telling. These gentle giants have come and gone and left us enchanted.

Oil rig in Los Angeles Bay

There are several tankers at anchor in the bay but no vessels transiting as we cross.  Across the Bay we turn in a more southerly direction with wind now on our beam but starting to lose steam. We pass close to three more oilrigs as the sun is setting. These waters are active areas for the several naval bases along the coast. At 1900h just as we are losing daylight the first of many ‘securite’ calls comes over channel 16. There is both a warship and an aircraft-carrier carrying out exercises somewhere along the route we are traveling on. I take down the lat. and long. that they have broadcast. I figure that the warship will probably remain far enough away from us as it’s about 20 miles west of us but the aircraft carrier is a lot closer to our intended route.  I change the heading to keep further away from the aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier wants vessel to stay three miles away from it and the warship wants vessels to stay five miles away. Considering that it has stated that it is using live ammunition in its exercises, I’m on full alert to comply with its request.  At about 2030h I notice several lights to starboard that suggest a very large vessel. There is no AIS match for them. Something that big should be on AIS unless it’s the navy. I hear the C.O. on the warship contacting a ship that I have on AIS telling him that he will pass port to port and that he is doing high-speed manoeuvers in reverse! I decide that I’m going to call them on Channel 16. I just do not feel like being backed into by a warship.

I do a general hail to the aircraft carrier. I get a very polite reply back asking me to change to channel 22. I then give them my particulars and they scan me on AIS and determine that at this point on my present course I should be fine. I say that I will stay on this course for the next several hours.  I ask about the warship. No- it’s quite far away right now and should not be a problem.  Those lights I see are not the navy after all. As I continue on my course the lights get more spread apart and I surmise that they are a small group of fishing vessels and not one single large ship at all. Very few fishing vessels have AIS or if they do it’s not turned on. I turn the watch over the John at 2100h and go to bed feeling pretty confident that we are not going to be run over by the U.S. navy. Towards the end of my blissful three hours I can hear John having a conversation with the aircraft carrier. Apparently someone has changed course and the aircraft carrier is calling us to see what our intentions are. Oops! John had changed course a bit (I guess I hadn’t been clear about my conversation with the aircraft carrier and sticking to a course) to make more of a B-line for San Diego - cutting a little too close to the path of the aircraft carrier that now states that it’s CPA will be less than two miles, a little too close for comfort. John is quite willing to change course as they see fit – but they politely tell him that it’s okay that they will change course 20 degrees to starboard to give us a clearer berth and that we can continue on our present course. Phew!

As I come back on watch I have the opportunity to see the shadow of the massive aircraft carrier glide past our stern at – maybe three miles away – but it sure looked closer than that. I don’t know how much more of this carefree cruising life that I can take. John has to endure fog again for most of his 0300h-0600h watch and I am thankfully comatose. At 0800h on October 12 we enter the San Diego Bay area under a clear blue sky and rising temperatures. We stop briefly at the fuel dock to top up the tanks and get directions from Caprillo Isle Marina. The directions were necessary. San Diego Bay is huge with several yacht clubs, marinas, a naval base and various security zones. We are both tired. I do a terrible docking at the fuel dock and John opens the wrong tank to fill. We make our way slowly up the channel looking for our slip. It’s pretty tight in here. I hope we are in the right place. Then we see two friendly faces asking us which slip we are looking for.  Wouldn’t you know, one is BCA member Russ Alfreds from August Moon. They help us find our spot and John slowly inches the boat into the very tight space. We’re here. San Diego  - the second leg of our odyssey completed. Wahoo!

Entrance to San Diego Bay

Sea Reach at rest Caprillo Isle Marina