< Back to Overview << Prev | Next >>

12/3/2003 9:31:00 AM
San Diego, CA
Shelter Island in SanDiego - The cruising mekka in Southern California

Arrived a while ago

I had written you last on Thursday from Morro Bay shortly before we wanted (emphasize on ?wanted?) to leave for our 20 hour trip around Conception Point ...

Hallo you all,

You probably think you will never hear from us again.... We actually got to San Diego 2 weeks ago and I still haven?t been able to write, what a shame. Well, at least you get to read from us now. In the future you will hopefully here more often (and shorter) since Robert will synchronize our logbook with our webpage and changed our distribution list into a newslist. We have put you all on this list but it is your decision if you want to unsubscribe, how often you want to receive our news or if you have an address change.

Here a update on our second part of our trip ? Morro Bay to San Diego. I had written you last on Thursday from Morro Bay shortly before we wanted (emphasize on ?wanted?) to leave for our 20 hour trip around Conception Point to the Channel Islands.... At around 4pm we got ready after a nice lunch, getting everything sea worthy, getting dressed into our warm outfits (well here at the West Coast of California it unfortunately is pretty cold out at the sea, we will only be able to wear shorts after we have passed the Baja California peninsula in Mexico). We drove over to the fuel dock and during the docking process Robert cries ?I just broke my little finger? - Frank and I looked at each other and without many words he jumped up to take over the helm. The pier seemed to come closer quite quickly and with the help of the fuel dock worker we managed well. Robert had caught the tip of his pinky between the helm and the instrument remote control. Frank and I showed our immediate concern and we had just turned around to check on Robert when we saw him coming up with the 5 min. Epoxy mix  to fix the broken off remote ? what a MAN! We had wrapped it in ice right away and thanks to the popsicle sticks I had taken along for art projects we built a brace for it. He debated whether he should go and see a doctor but after a short thought decided against it. Besides that they will do long and expensive x-rays they really can?t do anything else since a cast on the little finger is not doable. Much to the excitement we then filled the full water tank with diesel ? oops ? we immediately went over to the waste dock but could not really manage to do much. Since it got late and almost dark we decided at 5.30pm that maybe it was not meant to happen that day and turned around, went back to the Yachtclub dock and spent another day in Morro Bay. After a good dinner at a Japanese Restaurant we finished the movie ?Captain Ron? (Frank?s present for our DVD collection) and enjoyed another good night sleep. Robert?s finger luckily did not swell up and he has been running around with his self made brace the last 3 weeks.

The next morning we once more enjoyed the showers and took it real easy. Frank and Robert tried to clean out the diesel as good as possible from the water tank, the rest we will do in San Diego, thank God we have 2 water tanks. A bit earlier that day around 2pm we then finally started off with blue skies and sunshine. At 6pm we started our 3 hour shifts, Frank first, then Robert ? just when we were at Conception Point, besides some light rain the winds and swells were very low and we passed the ?Cape Horn of the West Coast ?very well. At Midnight to 3am it was my turn, and even though I was a bit nervous about my first watch alone it went quite well and I felt good. I was up just when we crossed the big shipping channel off the coast of Santa Barbara and it was very impressive to see 2 tankers or cruisers (I could not see it too well) pass us before and after, they are so fast compared to us. Frank was up again from 3am to 6am and joined Robert on his shift since we got into Santa Cruz Island around 7.30am.

It was a beautiful sunny morning and we enjoyed breakfast on the deck with a view of the rocky island and a few other anchored boats. We originally had planned a relaxed quiet day but a few ?hooplas? came in-between. The night before, just when the kids went to bed and Robert took a snooze before his 9pm shift, Sebastian came running to me ?Mami, Mami there is water coming through the floor in the galley (kitchen)!? I don?t think I had woken Robert that quickly ever since my water broke at 3am 2 hours before Benjamin?s birth... He was up very fast and immediately lifted the floor board finding the problem. Our bilge seems to be clogged up from one compartment to the other and cannot drain well. After our first shock out in the ocean (we aren?t sinking!) he fixed it quickly pumping it with a hand pump that seemed to do the trick. Since we did not want it to happen again Robert and Frank got to work right after breakfast and cleaned out the bilge almost until 4pm. They got most of it done but there is still some left to do in San Diego.

The next thing that was a bit of a shock was the failure of our instruments (depth sounder, speed, wind, etc.) right at the end of my shift at around 3am! Frank assured me that it was quite alright and that we did not need them since the compass and map told us where we needed to go and how deep it was. Nevertheless Robert wanted to have a look at it and tried to repair it for 3 hours, with not much luck ? another project for San Diego... We all were so tired and since the anchorage in front of Santa Cruz Island was very rocky it did not make things any easier. I even cooked a full meal that night ? despite the rocking, but at 8pm we all were dead tired and went to bed at the same time as the kids. The boys were great that day, played and themselves and did not even complain about being seasick.

The day after we were all well rested and had a nice short sail to the other side of the island hoping we would find calmer waters ? Success! We again enjoyed a beautiful sunset (no pictures this time) and a smooth night. Robert and Frank got up at 4am on our way to Catalina Island (about 24 miles offshore Los Angeles). It was a beautiful warm and sunny day, we definitely realized to be in Southern California ? what a weather and temperature difference! The sea is also a lot more blue and much to our joy we had tons of dolphins visit us. We took the boys to the bow (front of the boat) and they were almost close enough for us to reach when they got out of the water ? WONDERFUL ? what an experience! We arrived around 4pm in Avalon (the main town on Catalina ? 3000 people during the year ? 10.000 during the summer!). Dinner out that night sounded too good, so we got the dingy ready and went on shore. The boys enjoyed running around, the next day we took a little hike (1 mile each way) up to the botanical gardens and the Wrigley (chewing gum dynasty) Memorial building which we all liked a lot, specially since there is certain plants that only grow on Catalina Island, so we learned a lot that day!

Wednesday we had our last passage to San Diego (10 days after our start in Santa Cruz). Robert got up at 4am and managed to do it all by himself, take the mooring off, leave the harbor, set the mainsail and get us on our way ? a good feeling! We even had some wind that day and we could sail some ? how exciting! The boys spent most of the day down below playing that told us they had adjusted well. We arrived in San Diego at the police dock 4.30pm, this is a place were you can rent a dock for 10 days, we were all very happy and satisfied with our first leg of our journey. Frank was a big help to us, besides the sailing and motoring, but he helped us to ease into our new life on the boat. We all did not know how we will do on this ? will we get terribly sea sick, will the boys be afraid and whiny, how will I do cooking when it rocks, and so many other things. He was a great support incase one of those things would have not been positive. He himself was not quite sure how this trip will turn out, not only is it unusual to come along as crew with a family (usually you deliver with an independent crew, without the boat owner or you are in charge of it) on such tight quarters and with 2 small children. He was very surprised how well it worked out and we all adjusted to the change and new living. How relaxed it all was and the boys quite some pleasure. They really took to him and started chatting with him the moment they got up and he was wonderful and patient with them.  We all got along so well and even though Frank stayed in the main cabin and we had so little space due to the stuff we took with us to San Diego for the storage. We bonded a lot and have made a new friendship that we certainly will cherish and thanks to him and his confidence in us (being in the background) we had a SUPER start into our family adventure!

I actually had not planned to write that long but I guess a few stories had accumulated. Here the last 2 weeks in just a few sentences. Thursday was a big cleaning day ? inside and outside of the boat. Jimmy and Barbie took two big car loads of stuff (lots of sails and things that accumulated over the last 5 months that we want to keep) to Temecula that we brought to the storage next day. We came along as well and stayed until Monday, Friday and Saturday we did a lot of errands for the boat, dropped Frank at the airport and on Sunday we met Roberts ?old? boss and his wife along with 4 children! (4 months to 6 y) at Legoland. The boys had a blast and enjoyed the company of the other kids. They both stayed with Barbie and Jimmy during the week, which gave us time to find a new docking spot and do a few boat projects. Wednesday night we met up with Austrian Friends, Thomas studied with Robert in Leoben and joined Procter and Gamble for a year in Vienna. He and Sonja (they now have a 9 months old son Marco) moved to SF 4 years ago and then to San Diego 1 1/2 years ago. On Thursday we went back to Temecula for Thanksgiving ? Barbie and Jimmy prepared a wonderful turkey meal. My cousin Mike and Barbara with their families came as well and we had a very relaxed ?Turkey day?. The kids Lara (almost 8) and Taylor Ann (3 1/2) and our boys had a good time as well. We came back to the boat on Sunday and have a week full of projects, Robert is also studying for his HAM Radio license and I finally started home school (what?s another 3 months of vacation....)

We will probably be here for a few more weeks depending on how things will proceed specially with the order of a radar arch since the steel workers are a bit busier than we thought they would be. We do enjoy having the shore power, the access to our surroundings and family and friends. Barbie and Jimmy are a big help with the kids, lending us their cars if we need them, being our postal address and the support during our second phase on ?Project Marquesas?.

For today I will come to an end otherwise you will never get this report. Please forgive us if we do not reply to your last mails but since we do not have the access to an Internet café at the moment and lots of projects we won?t have time to write back to so many people. We did love to hear from you and get so many reactions to our first update, we hope you will follow us with the same interest even if we don?t write back all the time ? it will get better!

Many dear regards and hugs from the sunny but still sudsy (from the big fires a month ago!) San Diego

Yours the 4 Austro-pirates    

 

 

 

< Back to Overview << Prev | Next >>