Harbor Cruise
Voyage 11, Marina del Rey, June 15, 2004
The Robot is dead, long live the Robot. The Robot in this case being I, Robot. It was done, finished, wrapped, in the can...I have two weeks off and a lot of sailing to catch up on...
After some second thoughts about going out, I recruited Danny for a brief spin thru the harbor—complete with about 20 tacks thrown into the mix. We pulled out, motored to just outside of D basin and cut the engine.
Sailing thru the Marina del Rey harbor on a weekday is like a dream come true. There were maybe three other boats, and one of those was a USC snipe, it was like having the channel all to yourself. Quite a change from the bumper boats on the weekends.
We sailed down the main channel, alternating from breezy when we had an open basin abeam to brief lulls as we had docks abeam. When we passed A Basin, the tacking began. With Danny at the lines and myself at the helm we tacked at least a dozen times—probably more. Taking the boat to within 10 feet of the breakwater on either side was quite a fun ride. However, on several tacks I stalled the boat. Due mainly to not falling off enough after the tack to maintain boat speed. I tried to pay more attention to sail trim, but with rocks maybe 10 feet away I had other things on my mind!
After about 30 minutes we reached the breakwater and the screams of joy from some passing powerboat with a rider on the bow. We headed back setting the sails in the V (or wing and wing if you prefer) for a nice, leisurely return to the slip.
