Tuesday March 2012 - We officially start cruising. Yipee! 

Avalon Harbour on the eastern Catalina island  - First stop only 4 hours away at a cruising speed of 6 knots.  Famous little island - owned by Mr Wrigley and a popular holiday destination, especially for celebrities! 

Avalon Harbour from above. 

We made it! - a 4 hour walk to the other side of the island and our first view of the open Pacific ocean!

The hostile Western side of the Island.

Onward to San Diego.  

We were making good time with our code zero and 15 to 20 knots of wind downwind. A neat cruising speed of 7-8 knots and peak speed of 9.8 knots! At that speed the 77 Nm journey would take less than 10 hours but we weren't that fortunate and the wind died after sunset. We persevered for the next 8 hours cruising at a snail speed of 1-2.5 knots. Eventually after listening to the sails banging all night we decided to turn on the engine and motored the last 25 Nm into San Diego Harbour.  Journey time 17 hours.

Beautiful Harbor sailing in front of the city much like Sydney. 

Happy hour  - Dennis and cuz Tina enjoying Mai Hai. They must have been strong Dennis was drunk after one!   

17th Saturday March 2012 - Storm - thankfully we are chilling out in San Diego, waiting for the blow to pass and then we're off.  Goodbye America! Next stop isles of the Marquesas!

We have been so busy that we have had no time to tend to our blog.   Finally we have made a few spare minutes to update it.


We have been in the USA for almost a month now and we were due to leave Tomorrow.    But between working on the boat, and a little going out for dinners and drinks and enjoying ourselves time has run away on us.    So we have pushed it back another week and we plan to start cruising on the 12th March. and with a gale warning current, its not a bad idea to stay put and start provisioning and finalize any projects ( a list as long as my arm!) that need doing on the boat.


Our boat has been moored in the heart of Wilmington for the past 4 months.  Wilmington is an industrial area with a lot of trucks, cranes, oil rigs and ships. It was amazing to see the dirt gather on the boat - cleaning the deck of the boat was a never ending chore. We must mention how lovely the people at the marina were - so nice and friendly.


Finally after two weeks of working on the boat, we made our maiden voyage - 23rd Feb.


So onto some pics!  Our first day sailing in pics.....   We moved onto  a more expensive marina close to the sea called Shoreline Marina at Longbeach.    Here you can take a 2 minute walk and order a $50 steak.

Feels good to just get the boat moving

Bye bye Wilmington, but we are still friends with many people we met here. 

Just as we left the channel and before we even had a chance to raise our sail we had to perform a rescue.

We had to take a kayaker aboard as he had fallen off his kayak and was unable to get back on!    

The taste of a $2500 glass of water.   Desalinated to perfection.  almost...... The high pressure pump died minutes later.  It wasn't Dennis's fault though, there was a manufacturing defect with the pump - which he later repaired.

New furling cruising code zero by Island Planet Sails works well.

Safe arrival at Shoreline Marina, Longbeach. 

Sitting Pretty.

Fixing the bimini - now we can turn the winch all the way around, a small victory!   Previously the metal tube level with my shoulder continued on down at a 45 deg angle finishing up right in front of the winch.     I took it out and had it bent off site then re fastened it forward of the winch.

Neat work - Dennis has learnt the art of splicing. End to end splice for our endless line furler!

TV installation  - Now Knotty Lady is complete with a Panasonic 37" led flat screen - and at only 2.8A current draw we will actually be able to use it whilst we cruise.    Note the mess below.  A daily occurrence for the past month!   

Dennis up the mast!   Quick trip up to add blocks for the lazy jacks and to remove mast head wires which were needed to re-enforce the davits for the old 300kg tender.

 

Sightseeing from the top of the mast! 

A few presents for each other before we leave.   These should keep me busy on those long calm watches.    I have a little roland battery amp too!

Nikon D-SLR 5100 - something for Nikki, now we  will be able to capture all those Kodak moments in quality.