Long Beach -Long Beach Yacht Club Jan. 2-4, 2009

Long Beach – Long Beach Yacht Club Jan. 2-4, 2009

After spending a great new years evening, New Years day we moved into a guest slip provided by the Long Beach Yacht Club. We went to the club house, met a number of folks, and had a relaxing and pleasant New Years day.

There are great people in Long Beach that I had worked with long ago, 14 years to be exact and I decided to try and find them and if lucky, give them a call. I was very lucky!! It was wonderful to synch up with Sharon, Teri, Paul and T O’B and have them meet Alexus. What fun and what joy to catch up and share what had happened in our lives over those 14 years. On Sunday, Sharon and Teri invited us to dinner at their house. They were so sweet to pick us up and bring us back to the boat. Their house is beautiful and Sharon made a great dinner and we met some of their friends. They were a charming group and we talked and laughed the night away! We said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch via Facebook. Yea Teri and Sharon!!!

Long Beach to Newport Beach – Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club Jan. 5 -7^th, 2009

We cruised from Long Beach to Newport Beach, again lovely flat seas, little wind, and warm skies. The weather has been a Sailors nightmare and a Cruisers dream. We pulled into the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club and stayed on their guest dock. We walked all over Balboa Island and just enjoyed the warm weather, 74 degrees.

We called a broker about a boat we wanted to see. It was the Nordhavn 56’ Motor-Sailer. She is hull number one and the first entry into a motor- sailer by Nordhavn. The boat would be in Dana Point for commissioning, so we walked to the Hyatt and rented a car for our drive to Dana Point. We met the broker, Jerry and went aboard. She is some boat…and would be amazing to own. With a Nordhavn pedigree and combined sail, motor design, she will have the ultimate in passage making and blue water crossing capability and reliability. We met the owner John… he is one proud parent and rightly so..she is simply a beautiful and exciting boat! After our drive to see John’s Nordhavn Motor Sailer, we checked out the Dana point Yacht Club and made a reservation for a slip at their guest dock. We drove back to Newport Beach, returned the car and walked back to NuMoon.

Redondo Beach King Harbor to Long Beach Marina

We left King Harbor around 10:30am on a sunny day. Not quite as warm as the day before, about 64 degrees with calms seas again in the 1-3 foot at 12 to 15 seconds and a small breeze from the west around 9 knots.

We were headed for Long Beach Harbor and the Shoreline Yacht Club. We cruised for about 4 hours and arrived in the Harbor at about 2:00pm. Alexus had called the Yacht Club and Bob was the Port Captain. He did not have a space for us that day, but would the next day. So we decided to anchor out just behind the man-made Island White in the general anchorage area. It was still well protected, being behind the breakwater.. There were three other boats anchored in the area, in about 45 feet with good holding. It was mud and shells when we brought up the anchor. We spent a very peaceful evening and night with the only rolling occurring when the Harbor Tour Ferries went by. The fog rolled in that night and we could not see the boats anchored only 100 yards away. The fog was very thick and the air had become cold as the wind was out of the west.

The next day, New Years Eve, we had a spot that belonged to Bob, the Yacht Club Port Captain, Slip Z - 103. So around 1:30 we headed for his slip and to the Harbor Master to register for the guest dock for New Years day and possibly spend Thursday, Friday depending on the weather before heading to Catalina Island.

We pulled into Bob’s slip, Z-103 and tied up for the afternoon and that night. There was a Borders Books nearby, and Alexus wanted Season Two of Dexter, so we went off for a walk. We passed a number of restaurants and the “Laugh Factory” a comedy club. After buying season two of Dexter and a calendar, we checked to see if there were tickets available at the comedy club and there was. So we bought tickets for the 8pm show and decided to find a place for dinner. We ended up at “Gladstones” where they had a great deal on a lobster dinner for $19.95 or Alaskan Crab legs for $29.95.

The 8 pm show at the comedy club was fun and after the show we walked around Shoreline Village and headed back to the boat. The weather had become cold and damp with a slight breeze off the water. There was to be a huge fireworks display at midnight. While we could hear the booms, but with the fog we could not see even a flash of light, we could barely see the next dock over. So we watched Dick Clark and the replay of the New York countdown at midnight, Happy New Year!!! Then after two sessions of season two of Dexter we went off to bed around 1:30pm. The next day we would need to move to Q dock from Z dock before noon when Bob returned to his slip from his overnight trip.

Marina Del Rey to King Harbor Redondo Beach

We left Marina Del Rey at about 1:00pm on a warm 70 degree sunny day, and headed towards Redondo Beach and King Harbor. Seas were 1 foot at 12 seconds and the wind was less than 5 knots out of the east. We hoped to stay at the King Harbor Yacht Club when we arrived. After traveling at 7 knots for about an hour and a half, we arrived at King Harbor. There was room at the Yacht Club dock and even a few hands there to catch lines. The dock is about 80 feet long and you side tie. There is water and power at the dock.

After meeting the Rear Commodore and a few members, we registered with Dina and were set for the night. We walked around the marina to the Blue Water Grill and had an early dinner.

We returned to the yacht club and met more members, April, Hutch and Smitty. We had a great time and found out that April was a Kansas Jayhawk Alumni, so she and Alexus compared notes from their college days. Smitty has cruised extensively in Mexico and he shared a great deal of helpful information. Holly also introduced us to a wonderful drink called an oatmeal cookie.... well we had one too many of those and we returned to the boat at 9:30 to watch TV and relax before turning in.

Holidays in So. California

Well,

Wanted to give just a quick update. We are still in Marina Del Rey. Alexus' family came in from out of state and her mom and dad stayed with us on the boat and we had a big family Thanksgiving at her nieces house.

Erika is staying with us until Dec 19th when she leaves for Denver. Then we have our good friends Lori and Jude coming for Christmas eve and Christmas day will be with my family in Glendora.

So we will be in the LA, Long Beach area until after Christmas, then we will head further south hitting habors and marinas that will be all new for us. I will upate the blog when we start moving south again. Right now we are safely and well cared for docked here at the beautiful California Yacht Club, thanks to our good friends Neal and Eva.

Once we start off, we will keep going as we see fit to San Diego and then possibly on to Mexico.