We were planning on puttering out to Catalina. However, earlier in the week the weather was pretty ugly. We figured that we would follow the weather and see if things got better. They sort of did actually! We looked at the weather the evening before our launch to determine if we would be going out at all, following the shore line, or sailing out to Catalina. All the weather reports said that the morning would look great but that a storm was to roll in as the day went on. With chances of full on rain come afternoon.
This made us think that perhaps a trip to Catalina was out of the question but a trip down the coast would be ok. So that was the plan!
We packed up the boat, did our shopping, did some more shopping and finally went to bed (around 3am!). We then got up at 5am, finished packing the boat. Roused the kids (Drake, Trinity, Logan, Mathias, and McKayla). Once everyone was ready to go we made our way to Costco for slightly cheaper gas to fill the Siemer Steamer and the Fisharoo. We then doubled back to pick up some odds and ends for breakfast as well as the ice for the day.
Finally we were totally ready to go at 6:15. We started our journey towards Marina Del Ray (from Lancaster) and were pleasantly surprised that there was absolutely NO traffic! Yeah! Also, we had no problems towing the trailer! Last time we had a tire blow out that resulted in a roadside stop and replacing all the rubber on the trailer. We made it to Marina Del Ray problem free by 8am.
Of course things couldn't have possibly been 100% glitch free - though this was close. The guy that was collecting the fee for launching the boat only had $22 - in 1 dollar bills. We only had $20 bills. Egad. This ended up with Jess hiking across the launch parking lot across to Ralph's to make some change. No worries otherwise.
The Launch
The weather so far looked absolutely wonderful. We settled up with "Toll Booth Willy" and backed the boat down the ramp. We got the boat in the water around 8:30 or so. It started (it is a 1965 boat...so this is a major point don't ya know!). All was well.
I started calling the other two parties that were joining us for the day to see how far away they were. This day must have been destined to be a success as they were both very close. I packed all the monsters, my wife, and the dog (Taylor) in the boat and we waited. Just as I was finishing stowing the rubber boat Derek and his girl friend Anastasia walked up. Shortly there after Frank and his wife Claudia strolled up.
We all packed in, tossed the kids on the cabin's roof, passed out some doughnuts, and got ready to go. We started to putter through the Marina Del Ray harbor and out to sea. If you have not been in this harbor it is really quite pretty!
Seals
Once out of the harbor we were on our way. It was still quite beautiful outside. After cruising down the coastline for a while we came across some seals basking in the sun. These guys lay out on just about any flat (or almost flat) surface (look in the back ground at the seals laying on the anchoring barrels).
Having Fun
It seemed like we were all having quite a bit of fun bumping along in the very calm ocean.
Anastasia with her followers. All the kids really liked hanging out with her.
My 2nd mate feeling the breeze in his hair.
Derek Jackson taking in the view.
Kayla vs. Wind - the wind won!
Trinity and her new crocs.
The boys being boys.
Drake had the best view of us all from the cabin roof.
Frank taking pictures of the kelp beds.
Claudia was checking out the kelp too.
Trinity smiling for her papa!
And we can't forget about Taylor! She has really become quite the boat dog. Especially when the gulls hover over us.
Kelp Beds
Among all the boats and wild life that we came across we also found ourselves in the middle of a huge kelp bed off the cliffs of Palos Verdes.
All the kelp was very pretty to look at.
But it was quite a pain in the rear to get out of! It clogged the prop a couple of times and caused us not to be able to move very far very fast. I had to clean the prop a couple of times to get us going again. No worries!
Long Beach
After a couple hours of site seeing we finally made it to Long Beach Harbor. This is quite the place if you have not been there before. There are many large freight boats that come and go out of here. Lots of sail boat traffic too. There is quite a lot to look at!
The Good Year blimp was out and about too!
Entering the break.
A random sail boat.
More of the ship yards.
Lunch Time
Long Beach was going to be the middle of our trip on the way down to Huntington Beach. However we did so much site seeing along the way that it took us a full tank of gas to get from Marina Del Ray to Long Beach. I know this because we ran out just as we entered the Long Beach harbor. No worries...tank number two to the rescue.
This changed our thinking though on continuing the trip down to Huntington Harbor!
So we puttered into the Long Beach harbor to look for a filling station. We found one. We had no idea how much gas would cost in this ultra expensive community. I could barely see the sign for the gas station let alone the prices of gas. Derek and I were joking back and forth regarding the price of gas. Then he looked at me all serious and said it was $9.45 per gallon! I asked "are you shitting me?". Yes - he was. We all had a good laugh over that one.
Once we filled up the gas tanks we turned around and headed back out of the harbor towards the Harbor Master. Once we located the Harbor Master we pulled up to the dock and tied off. Everyone got out to stretch their legs a bit (and take a bio break!).
The plan was that we would find somewhere to stop in the harbor to make lunch - but we figured that this stop would be just as good as anywhere else. I have stopped at other docks previously and we were shooed away as we were not worthy of parking our lowly white trash boat next to everyone else's yacht! So we busted out the barbecue, hot dogs, hamburgers, condiments, chips, dips, etc. We started grilling up some first class red neck food and what do you know...the Long Beach Harbor Fire Department pulls up next to us at the dock. We thought for sure that they would tell us to go away.
Nope...that was not the case. They chatted with us a bit. Then they started to tell us about the weather that was coming in. How they were expecting some large swells. And how they expected rain any minute!
GREAT!
So we continued cooking but cast off to head out of the harbor and be on our way home. Sure enough...it started to rain.
Our trip home
Man oh man. The first half of our trip was a bright, sunny, warm, and pleasant "3 hour tour". The second half of our trip was a cold, wet, bumpy, gray, 2 hours. Once we got everything stowed away and tied down, everyone hunkered down for the trip home.
To put the weather difference in perspective look at these pictures:
The trip home though was quite a bit faster then the trip out.
We tried to avoid the kelp beds and stuck to just going from major point to point. The red line was our path to Long Beach. The yellow was our flight home.
Back at Marina Del Ray
We finally made it back to Marina Del Ray. I think everyone was happy for the day to be over. The trip home was a bumpy and wet ride! It was nice to see some color after all that doom and gloom though.
Of course once we got into the harbor the rain sort of stopped long enough for us to get the boat on the trailer. Then we all parted ways and headed home.
Headed home
Once on our way home all of my kids crashed. It was a long day. It didn't take to much longer for that sleep bug to hit me though. I found that I kept falling asleep. Not good with all that boat behind you. Jess took over driving. This immediately woke me up! Jess had never driven our big van with the big boat tied to it. Every bump or loud noise woke me right up...Wahh blahh...uhhh...zzzzzzzzzz. We made it home in one piece though.
What a great day.
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