San Diego Day 1

It's 7:00 and its already 80 and humid. Had a nice steak dinner last night here on the boat. Just relaxed and enjoyed our new surroundings. Met our neighbor Jose, he has a 60' Hatteras. Very friendly and helpful, telling us about the marina. Mark and Nicole Rowe are coming over this morning to loan us their truck to use while we are here. We need to get out and wash the JB and get all the salt scrubbed off of her. I've already done two batches of laundry and have 3 more to go. It feels good to be in our new home. San Diego, we like it!

Nice sunrise, very quiet and calm, except for the planes, but they are nothing like the planes at Salpare in PDX.

Got the boat all washed up. Kevin and Cindy came over to welcome us to San Diego. They brought us a nice little filet of Durado and fresh veggies out of their garden. Yellow pear tomatoes, yellow squash, green pepper and a green Anaheim pepper. Thanks for being our first visitors!

Thanks for the welcome gift Kevin and Cindy!

Mark and Nicole and their 16 month old son Carter came to visit around 1:30. They also brought us one of their vehicles, a very nice Ford truck to use while we are here. Thanks a ton!

Carter is a happy boy, partying down on the JB.

Carter has the bluest eyes. See you Monday Carter.

Google mapped Von's so we could take the truck and get some groceries. I used Yelp for the address and it took us to some random neighborhood. Tried again and we found it. It was the weirdest Von's I've ever been to. Two separate stores with an open area in the middle with some produce and the florist department. One side had produce, wine, beer, meat, deli, dairy and the other side had all the frozen food and everything else. Weird.

Sat on the back deck at cocktail time. Watching UFC at 7. Dinner was amazing, thanks again for the Durado Clark"s.

Fresh fish and UFC

 

 

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Day 32 - Marina Del Rey to San Diego!

Left the dock at 6:30 this morning. Beautiful sunrise. Not sure how far we will get today....Oceanside or all the way to Cabrillo Isle Marina in San Diego Harbor.

Nice in the ocean this morning

Beautiful sunrise

At about 11:00, David kicked up the RPM's so we are traveling at about 14 knots. Think we will just cruise ahead for San Diego.

 

Rounded Point Loma around 3:00. San Diego here we come!

Downtown

Turning into Harbor Island

Our new home for the JB, our view.

All tied up.

Nice marina

 

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Day 31 - in Port Marina Del Rey

Beautiful sunny day today. Published my blog for yesterday this morning and was disappointed that two pictures that I didn't have captions on turned out blank. So here they are.

This place is huge

Very colorful

Walked up to the shopping center, big! Nice Ralph's, West Marine, California Pizza Kitchen and lots more. Most importantly, Bellagio Nails, a huge nice salon. I got my nails done, a whole new full set and a deluxe pedicure and while my toes dried I even had a shoulder and neck massage. It was wonderful! Walked home and then we cruised around this entire harbor in the dinghy. I don't know how many boats are in here but it's safe to say there are thousands. I wouldn't mind mooring the JB here for a month or so. This is a cool place with a lot going on. Tried to get fuel for the dinghy but the fuel dock lost power all day. How can there be only one fuel dock with this many boats and then be closed because of no power? Amazing. We can't get into Dana Point tomorrow, nothing available, so we'll try to get a spot at Oceanside. It's first come first serve so if we can't stay there, it'll be a really long day all the way to San Diego.

Lisa asked me last night if I'm sad that this leg of our journey is almost over. Yes, I'm sad because this has been the best vacation, adventure journey of our lifetime so far. It's been a blast and we have been so happy and excited the whole trip. Happy that we've had beautiful, calm seas and no problems. Happy that we can go home for a couple of weeks but know that we'll pack up and head to the desert in the Coach and enjoy the desert and ocean before we head to LaPaz for the next adventure this November.

 

First of many sunset shots tonight.

Ahhhhh

And ahhhh again

Time to cook

Final pic of the day

 

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Day 30 - Ventura to Marina Del Rey

Left the dock at 8:00. Swell is hitting us sideways as we make our way out to the 3 mile line. Not very comfortable. At least it's clear and sunny with no fog. Lisa is in Los Angeles for work training. She gets the afternoon off and is going to look into meeting up with us this afternoon. It would be so great to see her!

Point Dume at Malibu, going by at 11:00

We saw a lot of dolphins today. They swim right for us and stay right in front of us.

Pretty cool huh?

Los Angeles from the water, a little smoggy.

Approaching Marina Del Rey Harbor, we were excited to see the Invictus anchored off of Venice Beach!

Invictus is owned by Billionaire developer Rick Caruso. Thanks to Kevin Clark for discovering out who the owner is for me. The owner just took delivery of this new ship in June, built by Delta Marine in Washington. There were several sighting of this mega yacht in June and July up in the Puget Sound area. I could see on AIS that we were very close to her when we were in Monteray Bay but we didn't get to see her. I am very excited to be able to see her now.

David drove right around her while she is anchored off the beach. Big crew quarters with lots of toy storage open in the back.

Invictus is 216 feet long, carries more than 50,000 gallons of fuel and has a range of 5,000 nautical miles at 12 knots. Max speed is 16.8 knots. We could see someone, maybe Rick, running on the treadmill through the open window on the upper deck. The whole upper deck is for the owner with a huge master stateroom, salon and office and gym. This pleasure boat also has a theater, a dining table for 20, a large sun deck and spa and a fold down beach cabana. There are accommodations for a crew of 22.

She is a beauty!

Coming into Marina Del Rey

This place is huge!

We will moor for a a couple of nights there in front of Burton W Chace park.

Yay! Lisa came to hang out with us for the afternoon and evening.

While we were enjoying cocktails, a non-stop parade of sailboats sailed right in front us. You can see the Invictus across the channel, moored now at the fuel dock.

Lisa took this shot later as the sun was going down. Good shot Lisa!

Lisa took this picture of us going out for dinner. Beautiful sunset.

 

Our ride to dinner, Lisa's little red Versa rental, isn't she cute?

Awe, fun dinner at Yardhouse.

Thanks for coming to see us Lisa!!!!

 

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Day 29 - in Port Ventura

One more day here. The Ventura Harbor Village was very slow. Not sure how the shops and restaurants stay in business. David got the dinghy down last night and we went on a short cocktail cruise. We'll explore more of the three marinas here today. Supposed to be 78 today, nice and warm.

Hello!

Hello from David

Sunset last night

Beautiful sunset

Gorgeous sunshine this morning

Went". B on a long walk this morning. The beach was beautiful.

Went on a ride around the harbor and found Ventura Keys. Beautiful homes on the water and they all have their own docks. Three different fingers just like this.

 

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