Post Emmy Sailing
Voyage 19, Marina del Rey, September 20, 2004
I had a day off!! Well, sort of...I had been told I could have Monday off before started on the dreaded Stealth project on Tuesday. But there was a hitch, I had training from noon to one. So actually I didn’t have the day off. But I did have time for a sail and Ron was a willing victim.
The previous day had seen 35 knot winds in the marina and some large wind whipped swells. It was even white capping in the marina! However, the forecast seemed to suggest somewhat calmer conditions for today. So once I had finished my training, I checked the waves and wind and decided it was within a toleration. I ran off and picked up Ron, making a slight detour to drop off his tux from the previous nights Emmy party. About 4pm we pushed back and headed out. Going down the main channel we were greeted with a bizarre sight. The previous days gale had beached a couple of smaller boats which were anchored off the south side of the sea wall. We still had some doubts about the swell, because we could see an occasional wave break over the rocks. But once we exited the north entrance, it turned out to nice. A bit of wind chop, but by no means rough. The breakers coming over the breakwater were due to the high tide.
We set course for “the buoy” and trimmed the sails. The sail was uneventful, except for maybe one or two really large swells and the lack of M&Ms in the trail mix (Ron spotted that). We tacked back about after we hit the halfway point to the Santa Monica buoy. Coming in the south breakwater entrance, we had a good look at the beached sail boats. Ron or I could not make out what type they were, however Ron subsequently paid a visit to them and discovered one was a Catalina 27.
As we sailed and then motored up the channel, we crossed paths with two very aggressive little sailboats out for match practice. Once they grew tired of using us as a hazard they took off for the Fantasea charter boat, which prompted a collision warning from the larger boat. We then eased into the slip and then eased into some drinks at Tony P’s.