Aries 32 - Thistledown
ahh... this is my second time writing this update because I lost the first one just before I could send it :-P
I'm still in san diego. I've been here about a month. I'm still working on the boat, taking care of some things before I leave the country. It will be harder to find parts in mexico. I pulled my transmission and gave it to a transmission shop; they said they'd have it back in a few days but ended up having it three weeks, and when I got it back it still didn't work. I'm looking into getting a new transmission now, and so I'll probably be here at least another week or two.
If I don't manage to leave before hurricane season I'll just need to sail west without going to mexico. Hopefully I'll be out of here by then though.
We had a storm pass through the anchorage a couple of weeks ago. It didn't seem that bad, but I think the boats here were less prepared. A lot of people were away for the holidays, leaving their boats unattended. The winds seemed stronger in santa barbara, but we didn't witness any problems there. A few boats dragged their anchors here. One boat, owned by a guy named casey, hit my boat, and hit another boat named "stinger," when it's anchor slid. I caled obi, who knew Casey, and started rigging up a second anchor to put out on Casey's boat. While I was doing that, Casey called me back and said there was a secondary anchor in his lazarette hatch. Casey's primary anchor (the one that was slipping) ended up getting hooked on stingers anchor, and both boats held in place tied together. Figuring that bought us time, I rowed out a second anchor on my boat, and then rowed over to Casey's boat and rowed out his secondary anchor so his boat and stinger wouldn't slip farther and end up on the rocks. As I was doing this a couple of guys came over in an inflatable motor dingy (which was completely filled with water), saying they'd got a call from the coast gaurd to look out for someone "adrift" in a small dingy in the anchorage. It was pretty choppy, but it wasn't *that* bad that I needed some kind of rescue... it was pretty funny.
Another boat that dragged anchor, was stopped from drifting when the dingy he was towing got stuck between two pontoons of a trimaran. It was pretty ammusing, though the owner didn't have any idea how to handle the situation. It didn't seem that he even realized how he was stuck. He just fended off against the trimaran, and called the coast gaurd who came out and rescued him. The anchorage is right next to the coast gaurd base so at least it was a short trip for them. The coast gaurd just cut the dingy line, and towed him away. Later we went with a friend of obi's and took the dingy. (coast gaurd o.k.'d this since it was washed up on their land... salvage laws anyways since it's abandoned). The storm certainly added some excitement to life in the anchorage.
Stinger, the second boat casey hit, is owned by a lady with some medical troubles, who lives aboard (though wasn't there at the time) and currently has no-where to go. She can' get a slip, has used up all her allowed anchoring time here, and is tryin to move her boat to ensenada mexico, where she can get a slip. Her motor is a tiny outboard though that she's afraid wouldn't work well at sea, and she doesn't know how to sail. David and I offered to give her a sailing lesson on her boat, but she has some cleaning to do first... she stores a lot of stuff in her cockpit that would have to be moved before she could sail. Currently she just gets around using her little outboard. She stopped by this morning, saying that the cops are following her around. she just keeps moving because has nowhere to go, and can't leave her boat anywhere long enough even to go get an anchor permit somewhere else. similarly she got a ticket because her registration is expired, but she hasn't been able to leave the boat long enough to go to the DMV.
I think I'm starting to look like a bum. My mother thought my appearance might have caused some of the strange reactions I've recieved from people I met earlier in the trip, and I didn't think much of this, but I'm starting to think she might be right. One day me and david were sitting outside a supermarket with our backpacks eating bagels, when some guy in a cowboy hat walked up and handed us a twenty. David took it and said "thanks," kind of assuming he'd dropped it or something.... and then we realized we hadn't dropped it; the guy just thought we were homeless or something.
Another time we were walking down embarcadero with our packs on, and some guy came frantically running down the sidewalk, stopping at some luggage by the side of the walkway. No one else was around. "what was all that about?" david wondered. "He thought we were going to steal his bags" I said.
Then, a few days ago, I was walking back from the supermarket with my pack on and a bunch of groceries... some guy with a thick accent said "hey, where are you going? You want a drink?" and started walking towards his car with his keys out. I was a little confused. We were in a parking lot. I had too much stuff with me to be going to a bar, and was wondering what he had in mind. He just opened his trunk and pulled out a few natty lights and handed them to me. he said "someone gave em to me, I don't drink." I didn't think so much of it, and said "thanks," and continued on. I wouldn't have thought anything of it really, besides that about 5 minutes later, still walking home, some old lady sitting on the sidewalk, who looked homeless herself, called out to me saying "hey, do you want some food?" (no, I didn't accept). If homeless people are offering me food, maybe I really do need to trim this beard.
David went home. We've been here a while and it was kind of a waste of his time just hanging out here. I'm still not sure when I'll leave or anything, so he went back to san francisco. He might come back down to sail some more depending on when I leave, but he wants to save up and get his own boat, and he's taking care of his father who was having some medical troubles. We were starting to get on each others nerves a bit anyways, and I think I was starting to feel a little need for some space.
I'm feeling more and more comfortable with the idea of sailing solo, especially if I have a working transmission. I sailed the other day for the first time in a while, back from "la playa," an anchorage I stayed at for the weekend. I think that was the first time I've sailed this boat solo. I was able to sail into the anchorage without using the engine, droping the anchor alone, which gave me additional confidence. I do hope I manage to get these engine troubles sorted out though. It would be nice to be able to comfortably manuver in a crowded marina.
David's mass-email, with some of the same stories, is below. I don't have any new pictures to post because I haven't got my roll film developed yet, and I forgot my digital camera in santa barbara.
---todo: need to put david's email here---