Lyn's Log, 10th November 2008
Southern California

San Diego, California
N32º43', W117º14'
19,861 miles.

While we still had the car, we did a major shop at the supermarket and Andrew had his doctor’s appointment in UCLA hospital. The specialist told him he was doing well, he would soon be off the medication and should not need any operation. It sounded very encouraging, though the guy saw Andrew for less than five minutes, and Andrew was sceptical. However, it has given us the encouragement we needed to plan for our travels over the Pacific Ocean next year.

Friday 7th November the wind was light and we motored most of the fifty miles to Newport where we anchored just after dark. Our pilot-book marked several large anchorages, but as these tended to attract vagrants the local policy has been to replace them by marinas and moorings. The only remaining anchorage in that huge harbour is a tiny triangle where we had barely room to swing, and we were warned we might well get the maritime police come and check us out. So early next morning we set off towards San Diego.

By midday the wind filled in and we had a good sail, first with the spinnaker and then wing on wing with the genoa, making five to six knots. By late afternoon we were near the little port of Oceanside. San Diego was a further 45 miles, so rather lazily we opted to stop overnight in Oceanside. This still left one day to reach San Diego from where Jan could return. But in Oceanside we met Tom and Shirley on Rio Nimpkish, one of the yachts we had met down the coast, who told us that gales were forecast for the next day. Sure enough, during the night the wind started to blow and it rained hard with forecasts of very rough sea conditions. We were relieved we hadn't tried to sail through the night to San Diego.

I telephoned Rolande on Periclees and discovered that they were in San Diego along with Bristol Blue and Naida. They were going to a free barbeque put on by the Downwind Marine store and perhaps we could join them. So we managed to rent a car and did just that, followed by a visit to San Diego's Maritime Museum. The museum is actually a collection of historical ships that can be explored. They includ the Star of India, two replicas of classic sailing ships, Surprise and Californian (which we watched sail in - see left), a Russian submarine, and a couple of others. I think it must take a special kind of sailor to be able to live and work in a submarine. It is even more cramped than Sentinel! The crew had to ‘hot bunk’, one out and one in, as there were only half as many bunks as men.

Back in Oceanside the next day, we used the car to drive Jan to a hotel near the airport in LA ready for his flight home, and we prepared to leave Oceanside. There were no problems sailing to San Diego and the winds were good. We saw the collosal 105ft trimaran Oracle doing sea trials and got just about close enough to take a photograph. Oracle is a contender for the next America’s Cup race series. Its tall narrow main sail made it look from a distance like a lighthouse out at sea.