Author: sailawaysarantium

It was full of decomposed seaweed! Engine will be happy!

But…. now the strainer lid is leaking! It’s never straight forward with boats! …. easy fix😊

While waiting for hurricane season to be over, prepping for Mexico, we’re growing healthy bacteria for our guts! Sourdough bread is baking, kefir culture is being made, kumbucha is brewing, garlic is pickled and wine is being drank❣️

San Diego has been a good stop; loading up on nuts from Costco, baking goods from Vons, mail retrieved from Canada, boat parts from Sailing Mecca, Shelter Island, and expertise advice from various sailors! Every day, I swim off Sarantium and I find somewhere interesting in SanDiego to walk to…

The anchorage is starting to fill up with “Bajahaha” sailors who are waiting for hurricane season to end (Nov 1st ish) in southern Mexico! A few are heading to Ensenada, MX, earlier, to dock at marinas. others are hanging out here where it’s free anchoring!

Evening ….

I forget what season it is!!!

We motored out from Avalon around 10am as wind was low and forecasted at 5 nm per hour between Catalina Island and San Diego! Wind popped up pretty quickly and again we were enjoying it on our beam! We sailed for 14 hours straight! The closer we got to San Diego the more freighters, tankers and warships we encountered! We arrived into San Diego harbour in the dark and anchored outside the police station (in an illegal parking zone). I slept in the cockpit until 08.00 when a police boat was doing donuts around us! We motored in to the police dock for inspections by police and to report arrival with the boarder patrol! It all was done in a couple of hours and we got our permit to stay in their non-residency anchorage, A9! First boat I saw in A9 was Kittywake!

With the plan to leave tomorrow morning I’ve been going through the boat to make sure that bolts and screws are fastened! With the rough seas on our past offshore leg, screws wandered out where the boom vang attaches, on the Schaefer in boom furlor. The 8 screws have slowly fallen out and luckily the boom vang is pretty secure on a track underneath the boom holding it together. Having said that the boom vang had moved enough so the holes didn’t line up anymore. We raised the boom up with halyard until the screw holes lined up and fastened the vang to the boom again.

I also filled up some more gerycans with diesel, looked over other fasteners, lines and blocks!

Although the anchorage has been rolley, I’ve enjoyed the blue, turquoise water and kelp forest beside the boat! 🤿

Tonight, red sky so “delight” tomorrow…. 🤷‍♀️

Looks like we are again waiting for wind.. we’ve spent two nights in Avalon and expecting to leave in two days, on Wednesday, as wind is filling in. Our goal is to get up at dawn and start sailing at first light and arrive in San Diego by evening! Maybe a tall order, but I’m hopeful!

We moved the boat from mooring buoy to the outside of Avalon and anchored. It’s a bit more rolley however a bit less touristy! I’m making a list for San Diego; documents for Mexico, spinnaker pole, diesel, propane and a plan for the, new to me, inverter! With some sun and only running instruments and charging phone every 2-3 days I actually don’t need a large inverter! It’s more of luxury. Over the last week I’ve realized that the whole charging system and battery bank is poorly set up. All the important electronics and instruments, fridge, mazerator, running lights and cabin lights are running on the battery that is being charged by the smallest solar panel. The big solar panel is charging the battery first which has very little load on it. This second battery is also quite far away from the main battery. So the “sharing” between the batteries seems poor! I’m just learning…..

Anyhow, my view for day….

Taking advantage of early (and quiet) morning in a busy Avalon! Feels like a mixture of the Meds and the Mex!

Main Street!

After a beauty of a sail from San Miguel, Catalina island, we arrived to Avolon on Catalina Island. A “slight” different energy from our remote anchorage on the night before! We decided to tie up to a mooring buoy in a very busy harbour. We quickly flagged the shore boat down to get into town to have a shower! Well worth it!

On my early shift one morning I noticed a cargo ship 10 nmiles away. I did my calculations and realized we where definitely on collision course give or take a couple of hundred meters. This cargo ship was 350m in length and 50 m wide. So a couple of hundred meters is not a lot. Texas Highway was moving at 19.88 nm/hour so I needed to make a decision to either change course or slow down from going a whopping 7nm/hour! I thought about it and decided to hail them! A sleepy captain with an Eastern European accent answered! First he says “who arrre you?” I answered by saying “sailing vessel Sarantium” and stated my position and heading, and my speed. He mumbled something and disappeared. Hmmmm…. I waited and waited. And then he came back and said “Sarantium, we will alter our course starboard to give you more clearance, good watch…out” I watched the giant cargo ship do a wide berth around us and felt proud!

🙏🏼