Weather Helmed

Ok, so not quite, but this sailing stuff is at least more interesting than Jersey Shore, right?!?!?!?
Anyway:  I thought I’d share a few of our “firsts” for those who love us and so I can remember them next month when, I hope, we’ll already be old hats at all this stuff 🙂 (HAHAHA)
– First hailing: Matt to a container ship that was about 3 miles in front of us and ended up passing us within less than 1/2 a mile!
– First being hailed: An AIRCRAFT CARRIER to us just north of San Diego, informing us that they were “20,000 yards” away and suggesting we keep a “5,000 yards” distance.  I really hope they didn’t hear me when I yelled to Matt, “Can you ask them to convert that to nautical miles?!”
– First SSB contact: With Randy of SV Mystic as we were heading out of Santa Barbara.  Randy and his girlfriend are fellow cruisers who left SF a few days before us and are also on their way to Mexico.  We’ve been trying to physically meet up with them but haven’t yet managed to be in the same place at the same time!

– First Rescue Assist: In Catalina, Matt was hanging out at the little cafe and a woman nearby was trying to help a seagull with fishing line entangled around his neck.  Matt asked if he could help and he held the little guy while the woman and another man managed to unwind the line and cut it off.  When free, the seagull took a huge gulp of air and then frantically ate a handful of french fries tossed to him by a little girl.  He then just stood there and slowly looked around as though he couldn’t believe he had a new lease on life, until an enormous raven swooped in and ran him off the patio, angry that he’d missed out on the fries.

– First Anchoring Experience: After 3 days of sailing, we arrived in Santa Barbara at 2AM, unable to really see anything because of the lights of the city confusing the lights of the marina and anchorages.  We saw a pier and a nice anchoring area next to it and dropped the hook (inadvertently breaking our windlass in the process, but that’s a boring tale, Matt mentions it briefly on his blog).  We woke up the next morning to the Harbor Patrol saying, “Um, did you know you’re not allowed to park here?” and a hoard of tourists and other folk ogling us as we hauled up anchor about 200 feet away from the infamous Stearn’s Wharf. Oops.

– First Glass Breakage: This past weekend, I decided to make brownies while we were at anchor in Catalina.  Our stove/oven is “gimbaled” meaning it can be situated so that it swings back and forth with the motion of the boat, keeping the stovetop surprisingly level in all conditions.  For some reason, I thought it better to have the oven gimbaled so that, regardless of the boat rolling from the wakes of passing boats, our brownies would be level and the mix wouldn’t slosh all over.  At one point, I opened the stove to check on the brownies, at that exact moment, the boat rocked violently, Matt yelled, “OH NO!”, I looked up to see a coffee pot precariously balanced right above my head, took my eyes off the stove, and the brownies in their glass pyrex dish came sliding right out of the tilted oven.  I jumped up, straddling the galley floor, the dish flew out the oven, BOUNCED between my legs, and then came to a crashing halt near our nav table, breaking into three large pieces, brownies amazingly mostly intact.  Both of us shocked, Matt looks down and says calmly, “Well, I guess that’s one way to find out if they’re done.”
– First Request for Advice from another Cruiser: We had just pulled into the “cop dock” at Shelter Island, San Diego when another boat passed by and asked if we knew where the “long dock” was.  We pointed it out to them, noting that the only reason we knew where it was is because we came in at 4:30AM and were told to moor along a quarantine buoy across from the long dock.  Apparently, the cops are a lot nicer and more accommodating to those who come in at 4 in the afternoon.
– First Crew: Pete Dow & Ray Conner.  Thanks so much for braving the first few days with us!!

– First Offshore/Coastal Passage by Ourselves: Feb. 21, 2010  Two Harbors, Catalina to Shelter Island, San Diego!!!!!    (80 miles)