Windless in Marina del Rey
Voyage 10, Marina del Rey, March 28,2004
For late March, it was warm. Earlier in the week had seen temperatures in the eighties at the beach. Checking the forecast, it looked as if the weather would hold for the weekend and perhaps a sail.
Convening at about 1:30pm, Danny, Leslie and myself set up the boat and prepared to disembark. Maneuvering out of the slip was once again smooth. As I told the crew, my memories are still haunted by the incident of nearly a year earlier. But how often will I have to take my boat out in Santa Ana conditions ? Regardless, we pulled into the channel, raised the main and powered up. Rounding the breakwater, we set course for the Santa Monica buoy and cut the engine. At about this time we saw our only glimpse of sea life. A pod of dolphins was hanging just outside the entrance to the harbor. We caught a brief glimpse as we passed by.
At this point we cut power and realized that there was nothing resembling a breeze. As we lost our momentum from the engine, we stalled and just started rocking in the surf—never a fun experience. After a minute we powered up and headed further offshore in search of a breeze. After a couple of minutes we found some brief gusts and again cut the engine. Although we couldn’t manage more than 3 or 4 knots, it was better than having the engine running. So we headed out to sea and towards some incoming race boats.
We watched as several Merit 25s passed by with spinnakers up, on a run for the breakwater. We had a couple of drinks and just settled back and enjoyed the day. As the breeze built, it got a little cooler, but it was a warm day.
After a couple of jibes, we headed back in behind the breakwater, passing a Farr 40, another Catalina 27 and several other sail and power boats. The channel was pretty full as we made our way back. Arriving at the dock was once again very smooth, even with a slight breeze. A very smooth and relaxing sail for March...
