Laule'a is now in her slip at Cabrillo Way Marina. What a fun trip. I appreciate all the support from everyone about all the little details getting ready. It turned out, there wasn't much wind either day until we got into the harbor at the end of the trip. The engine did it's sewing-machine impersonation without any complaint, we motored. The label on the Yanmar 3GM30F says "3400 rpm continuous", I stayed at 3000. GPS reported 6.5+ knots.
Along the way, there was lots to see. Literally, hundreds of dolphins were everywhere. We saw maybe 5 whales, one of which was so close when it came up for air, it looked like a collision was imminent. My first thought was, "I don't want to be the guy on the news whose boat was disabled by a whale ramming." My second was, "dang, I hate having fear of large animals." It may be he just wanted to look at us up close. The experience did remind me of having to clean sea lion crap off the dock lines prior to leaving Oceanside.
On the dog leg around the "don't go" area for Camp Pendleton, we noticed the fog was increasing. Better whale watching, harder for navigation. We had the paper chart and had labeled a course with estimates for time. The GPS coordinates confirmed we were nearly on the line very near predicted times. Didn't see any landmarks until the oil platforms showed up, tankers, container ships, then all-of-a-sudden, the Spruce Goose building. I do have to admit the fish farm was nowhere near as much fun as the Giant Artichoke off Hwy 183.
