San Diego: down to seal level
San Diego: down to seal level
From our balcony at the Hyatt, we saw and heard sea lions, swimming, lolling on the bait barge, barking, grunting. At least three and perhaps more have taken up residence in Quivira Basin. They are big animals. When together they sink the end of the bait barge beneath the water. We wondered where else they might come out of the water to bask. As we found once GANNET was in her slip, one favored place is the end of the next dock, about three GANNET lengths away.
I’ve never seen more than two there at a time, and, after waking me just before 6 a.m., they haven’t been around much today.
There are also herons, egrets, cranes, cormorants, pelicans, sea gulls, and as we saw close at hand while sipping wine on our last afternoon at the Hyatt, peregrine falcons.
One missile was followed by another, which swooped on the first, passing within inches on the fly by, then landing on another balcony three stories above us.
This second falcon made repeated swoops at the first, who retreated along the railing until his or her back was against the building. We noticed that the railing was covered with droppings, and Carol pointed out that it is a false balcony because our room was next to the elevator landings. That bird or others had discovered no people would bother them there.
After a while the second bird stopped buzzing the first, and eventually the first flew away.
GANNET is essentially a boat again.
Carol dropped me off at 10:00 a.m. on her way to her flight yesterday, and two hours later I had imposed order on the chaos of her interior.
I then sealed a deck plate which I feared could pop out with disastrous consequences in rough weather with 5200, put the bow sprit in place and reattached the solid boom vang.
As planned Carol helped me get the furling jib on the day before she left. It went up much more easily this time than in the spring, perhaps because I carefully sprayed the luff tape with McLube, perhaps because I tightened the backstay which kept the foil straighter.
In fact the sail went up twice.
When I went to furl it the first time the halyard started to wrap around the top of the foil. Fortunately it also unwrapped. So after a couple of attempts, I lowered the sail, which came down without too much difficulty, then raised it with the other jib halyard, which did not wrap when I furled the sail. I’m not sure why, except perhaps because I winched this halyard even tighter before furling.
Today I sanded and got a first coat of paint on the spot on GANNET’s bow and partially sanded some spots in the cockpit in preparation for eventually painting the deck.
I’ve been told that sanding anti-fouling paint is not permitted in California, as I have noted here before it is not in New Zealand. I may just have to try to put Pettit Vivid over the remaining diamonds of VC17, although the manufacturer says it won’t stick, until maybe some day I’m in a place where I can sand the VC17 off.
The same source, a man named Kevin who has a boat near GANNET and came by to chat, said the marina is also serious about not using power sanders in the slips. So hand sanding it is. Fortunately I don’t have much to do.
Quivira Basin is part of Mission Bay Park, which means no shops except for a few tourist oriented ones. I can catch a bus on the other side of the basin that will get me to supermarkets and chandleries, but nothing is within a mile. The closest little market may be a ¾ mile row west to South Mission Beach, which I have done in the past. I’ll pump up the RedStart one of these days, and maybe buy a bicycle.
I do not know when I will post this. The date of entries from here will be the day they were written, which probably will not be the day they are posted.
The Moore owner who is buying the trailer is picking it up this weekend, but I don’t yet know which day.
I need to put a second coat of paint on the bow tomorrow.
Weather permitting, which in San Diego it almost always does, I will go sailing next week. Maybe a daysail; maybe farther. I have enough food on board to make Hawaii or even the Marquesas. That I won’t do, but I might sail to or around San Clemente or Catalina Island or up the coast to another marina.
If I do go sailing, I’ll turn on the SPOT. The tracking page will be the same as when she was being towed:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0G4Vm011XB7Ors0poyEFYJK0lstIxbCoo
If you’re interested check it from time to time.
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The sunset photos were taken from GANNET Wednesday evening, my first aboard in her new home.
Carol took the falcon photo with her iPhone.
Thursday, October 18, 2012