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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

11/2/2010 - A dinghy ride

Some time during the early morning a big ol' Carnival cruise liner anchored off Avalon. The water taxis were running back and forth constantly and the town was three deep in folks with name tags on lanyards declaring them part of the cruise.

We took the dinghy over to shore and braved the crowds for a little while. But, ultimately we decided that life was better on the boat. On our way back, as we were tying up alongside Siempre Sabado, the super clear water allowed me to notice that the bolt that holds the sacrificial zinc to the propeller had backed off quite a ways. We talked about what to do and Lulu, being the whackadoodle she is, decided that she really wanted to go in the water and fix it. I tried to explain that the water was going to be VERY cold but she knew what she wanted to do. Finally, she suited up (not in a wetsuit mind you) and lowered herself down into the water. And, sure enough, it was COLD! She spent a couple minutes in the water before deciding that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Tomorrow is supposed to be something like 86 degrees. We've decided that we'll both suit up, IN WETSUITS, and make the repair tomorrow. After all, if we can't fix this little thing, in super clear water, with the boat stationary, then what chance do we have if we ever get tangled up with a crab pot line out at sea?

About the time that Lulu was first getting ready to go in the water, our friends Bob and Sherry from s/v Ponderosa came by in their dinghy. Having nothing particularly better to do, they were planning on taking a dinghy ride and invited us along. We gladly accepted.

We were both thinking in terms of our own dinghy. Our little Portabote with it's 3.5 hp motor would have meant that a dinghy ride was basically a tour of the anchorage. But Bob & Sherry have a larger Achilles rigid-bottom inflatable boat (RIB) for a dinghy with a 15 hp outboard. Their dinghy can go places.

We headed out of the anchorage and first explored the kelp forest adjacent to the dive park. After untangling the kelp from the prop, Bob headed SE towards the southern tip of the island. We continued on around the bottom of Catalina. We passed the dock where the supply barges come in, a boatyard that we had trouble figuring how they got the boats out of the water (no Travelift), a major quarry operation (haven't seen that on any postcards) and finally, a beach where there were a bunch of sea lions and pelicans.


Afterwards, we motored a little north of Avalon Bay. It was amazing to be able to look down through probably 20' of water and see the bottom as well as see schools of fish swimming by.

Long about 3:30 or so, Bob & Sherry dropped us back off at our boat. They were planning to go see "Secretariat" at the Casino theater and we headed up to the Sand Trap for tacos and beer. The crew from s/v Dorial met us there. They're headed out at 1:00 tomorrow morning for San Diego and then Mexico. We'll follow in their wake on Friday, although I doubt that we'll head out at 1:00 AM.

All in all, another fine day on Catalina.


1 comment:

Cody said...

Pelicans are super cool. We saw some in Mexico. One was trying to swallow a whole fish sideways and kept failing. So he would hack it back up and try again. =o). It sounds like you guys are having a good time. Talk to ya soon.