Towed into San Diego California - Blog

Are you tired of your boring life? Are you looking for that bit of excitement in your life that you remembered from your youth? Well you can have that and more. All you need to do is sign up for a sailing trip with me. One week minimum will guarantee that you will have an adventure that you can talk to your friends about for months to come. If you are not sure about this claim then contact Kurt Petersen and he will be happy to share his adventure while sailing on Dolce Vita. But before I get into any details, let me first bring you up to date from the time we left Dana Point.

There was no mutiny as I had feared when telling the crew that we were pulling anchor at 6:00 am. As been the usual case, the winds were calm and we motored for the first 4 hours and then there was enough wind to turn the engine off. We were sailing downwind with winds between 10-15 kts. Boat speed was between 4.5 -5.5 kts. I put together a selection of music from my computer, lit a cigar and sat back to watch Kurt behind the helm with a grin that would make a child proud. The weather was perfect for shorts and tee-shirts. Eat your heart out girls. You wish your legs were as good as my own. We had wonderful scenery along the coast to look at and while off of La Jolla, I called Robin to tell her we were looking at a special place from 5 miles off of the coast that she would never forget. It was at La Jolla that her boy friend Hector proposed marriage to her. Robin is engaged to become married at a date yet to be determined. YEA.

Now to the adventure(S). A pin broke off of an attachment that holds the boom down to a car on the traveler through the use of the main sheet. Don’t worry if you have no idea what I am talking about. It is not important. Well through my Yankee ingenuity and the correct spares and the help of Kurt, I was able to make repairs while under way. SUCCESS. Again what does one do when you have a victory over evil? You split a beer! Adventure one

Some miles later after a gentle jibe, another pin broke on the other side. Not a problem. I am getting good at this at this point. One more spare and a few minutes later all was well again. Adventure two

Life is good again. Were are now about to enter the main channel into San Diego Bay. Almost there. We went to start the engine since winds were becoming lite so we could bring down that sails and more to save time. It was now about 5:00pm. The engine starter did not turn over…… Not a problem since I have a backup starter switch…..It didn’t work…….Not a problem, I will jump start the engine by shorting a couple of terminals on the starter motor……..Didn’t work. Starter motor must be jammed. Why?; I have no idea. It worked fine the last time I used it. Adventure three

I asked the helmsman to jibe and take us on a course down the channel while I considered our options on what to do next. BANG! An accidental jibe. I ran up to the cockpit to see what broke. The two pins that I had replaced earlier had sheered of the pins to hold them in. Now we don’t have a traveler and a way to trim the mainsail. After a fashion, we were able to bring the mainsail down and sail with the jib until we lost all wind. That is when vessel assist arrived to tow us to our marina. I had called them earlier. Had to call them by phone rather than radio since the Coast Guard was working an emergency on a motor yacht that was sinking from water coming through a hole in his boat. And I thought I had problems.

We made to our slip that was assigned us in the marina. Cleaned ourselves up and went out for dinner and drinks. Life is almost back to normal. Adventure four

Today, Bob and I went to West Marine to order parts to replace the traveler. I worked on the starter and that is working fine again and need to take the outboard engine into the shop on Monday to replace the water pump impellor. We hope to be out of here on Friday headed for Mexico and our next adventure.

You want adventure in your life? Come sail with me. Ask Kurt. He will tell you. Kurt sailed with us from Marina Del Rey to San Diego via Channel Islands and Dana Point where we met my very best friends Steve and Betsy Pirrone. A co-worker, Andrew Sebok, from CSAA also met us for a drink and to say hello.

I woke up this morning with the alarming realization of why things went wrong last Friday. IT WAS FRIDAY! I read a great book that my son gave be some years ago; Dove. It is a book about the adventures of a young boy that sailed from Los Angeles on a single handed trip around the world. For the ladies out there there is another book that has been published about a young girl from New England that did the same, but let me get back to the point I was about to make. One does NOT EVER start a voyage, even the next leg, on a Friday. BAD KARMA or if you rather, very bad luck will befall you. It happened to Dove and it happened to me. Dolce Vita will not set sail from this point forward on a Friday.

We are being towed to our marina. Very embarrassing way to enter San Diego Bay for the first time.

We spent two days in Dana Point kicking back to enjoy the warm weather and meeting of great friends and co-workers. Steve and Betsy came by baring great gifts. An 18 year old fifth of Macallan scotch which we immediately broke into for a toast and of course with a fresh cigar. They also brought a book that my son Steve and wife Jessie gave me for my upcoming birthday. A book on what to do and see while in Mexico. They also wrote me some words of wisdom in the cover encouraging me to learn how to chill when finding myself in long lines that move very slow. Good advice. Andrew Seboc, that I had the pleasure to work with at CSAA also came by to say hello and to share a glass of wine with us.

As we neared the San Diego coast it began to reach out to us, to welcome us to town. Bob almost jumped ship and swam ashore. There were others that were leaving for parts unknown in a large vessel call cruise ship. I am sure there we those that took photos of this beautiful sailing boat that was under tow.
We will be staying in San Diego until next Saturday when hopefully all repairs are finished. Who else can stay in San Diego for $20 a day on the water with a great view. We are not in a hurry to leave.

So until next time, be safe out there.

Denny

There probably will not be any more blogs for awhile as our next stop is Mexico. When i find an Internet cafe, I will update the blog.