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 I
just graduated from University of Maryland in May. I am taking a
year of to travel. I am trying to sail to Australia and everywhere
in between and came to California from DC to find a boat to crew
on. Basically, it is like hitchhiking by boat. I came to San Fran
July 2nd and also saw Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara
before coming to San Diego.
To get a ride, I hang around Marinas and post flyers and talk to
people with boats. I was walking the docks in San Diego when I met
Ross. He had a Catalina trip planned, and I was mostly waiting for
responses from my flyers so it sounded like a nice vacation for
a week.
We were to leave a week later so I went to Mexico and learned to
surf.
When I got back, we left. The way over way great. It was a good
sail to Oceanside, and we passed the America's Cup boat the day
before it sank. From Oceanside to Avalon, it was a little rough,
but not too bad, and we saw a herd of thousands of dolphins. Avalon
was OK for about a day and a half, but I wouldn't want to stay there
much longer than what we did. It was here that everyone drove golf
carts. There are too many cruise ship tourists,even after the cruise
ship
leaves. I went scuba diving with one of the companies one. We went
out for a 2 tank dive. The kelp forests were really interesting
and I saw some fish too. Later, Ross paid for me to get a hot rock
massage which was really great.
The sail to two harbors was strong. The wind was 15-20 and we were
close-hauled and tacking. Friendship is fast and points well, but
isoverpowered for upwind and we had to furl the jib of the way,
and should have reefed the main. At times we were heeled over 30
or 40 degrees with a
wet rail. On the way in to Two Harbors, we saw Buffalo grazing on
the hillside. Two
Harbors is a general store, a restaurant, a bar, a couple yacht
clubs,palm trees, and dirt roads. It was almost all boaters, and
mostly sailors. I went hiking on one of the days, up a mountain
in the west end. The mountain is only about 1800 ft high, but all
around is sea level water so that makes
it more interesting.
We sailed back to San Diego starting at 7 AM. It was all down wind
once the wind picked up around 10, fair wind and following seas.
We gull-winged it for a good part of the way. There were dolphins
again, and they came closer and played in the bow wake since the
engine was off and we were going fast. We arrived in San Diego at
2:30 AM. I am on a plane now to Hawaii. In a
week I am crewing on a delivery to San Francisco. It is sort of
the wrong direction, but that's OK because it will be good experience
and lots of blue miles. The Catalina trip was a blast. I learned
a lot from the medicine man.
An excerpt from Dan's personal Newsletter - "I went back up to San Diego just in time to leave for Catalina, which took
two days. We passed by the America's Cup boat that sank the very next day,
and saw a herd of a thousand dolphins. We spent a week or so in Avalon and
Two harbors. I went scuba diving in a kelp forest one day. It was a really
fun trip with good food and interesting people, and Ross turned out to be
pretty cool for an old guy, haha. Ross is a medicine man and a jeweler. He
will have some trip summary up with pictures and more details on his website
which you can get to through www.lewallenjewelry.com. also buy his jewelry"
Aloha
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