Dear F&F,
Long Beach is very large with many marinas & an active boating community. We
enjoyed watching the many dinghy racers, kayaks, outrigger canoes & shells.
A highlight for Cindy was docking anywhere that she could go swimming. We
enjoyed being guests of the Long Beach Yacht Club and their lovely pool.
October 26, 2007
We were invited by our friends Mike & Beth Lonnes to the October dinner
meeting of the Blue Water Cruising Club. To get there, we dinghied 10
minutes from where *Beach House *was docked, over to Bob & Terri\’s Cal 48 *
Listo* at Alimitos Bay Yacht Club. The family of 4 live aboard. We are
always impressed to meet people with children on boats. We rode in their
van to Croatian restaurant Ante\’s in San Pedro. We were already acquainted
with many of the other members due to frequent trips to Big Geiger Cove,
Catalina, the club\’s anchorage. We enjoyed the evening of swapping sea
stories. Cindy won a soft blue blanket in the raffle drawing which we have
used nightly.
October 27, 2007
We were surprised our first morning to see John Carroll of *Arana* paddling
by on his paddleboard. He keeps his boat at California Yacht Club & we were
used to see him paddling in Marina del Rey. We weren\’t aware that he spends
much time in Long Beach also. Always fun to see a familiar face in a new
place.
Scott\’s Aunt Barbara drove down from the San Fernando Valley & joined us at
the Long Beach Yacht Club for a delicious lunch buffet. She then gave Cindy
a ride back to Marina del Rey to retrieve our car. Despite sitting neglected
for 5 weeks, Old Bessie started right up. Before departing our old stomping
grounds, Cindy\’s PT friend Barbara met her for a walk. And one more trip to
beloved Gelsons. She reported feeling kind of odd, that she didn\’t really
belong there anymore…
October 28, 2007
The next day friends Linda & Martin drove down (also from SF Valley) for
Cindy\’s pancakes & to report on the land-based Beach House. They are kindly
overseeing it for us. Linda & Cindy are used to seeing each other regularly,
so treasured one more dock walk, not sure when or where they would meet
next.
Later that day the amazing & wonderful \”T\” from House of Stainless showed up
to take our old dive ladder for modification. Since we raised the swim steps
it needed to be lengthened. He took his measurements for the ladder & also
to design a bracket to hold our 3rd anchor on the stern of the boat. \”T\”
miraculously finished the ladder modifications in three days!
October 29, 2007
Cindy is thrilled to have the car to zip over to Trader Joes. Scott made a
couple of trips to West Marine.
We finally forced ourselves to stow \”the elephant\”. The elephant was a
collection of dive gear & miscellaneous other items kicking around the
cockpit for which we did not easily find a place. By completely emptying
out all the cockpit lockers, tossing out some items and repacking the
lockers more efficiently, we are proud to report that we took care of the
elephant problem. Well, that particular elephant anyway. Boats do have a
tendency to \”grow\” elephants. It is a constant challenge to have a place for
everything & put everything in its place. Which is really important to feel
ship-shape & not cluttered.
October 30, 2007
Mike Lonnes & 2 chaps from Safe Navigation helped us swing our compass. This
involves aligning our magnetic compass to a known corrected gyro compass to
eliminate any errors due to influences of the boating equipment around the
compasses fixed location. Mike also helped Scott finish up some projects
that didn\’t quite get done in Marina del Rey.
October 31, 2007
We made a quick trip by car to Marina del Rey to pick up our mail, put
things into & take things out of our storage unit and the obligatory trip to
our hometown West Marine. When we returned to Long Beach we set sail for
Newport. Yes, we had good wind & were actually able to sail for most of the
20 mile trip.
Friends Tom & Gail Levy picked us up & took us to dinner at PF Changs at
Fashion Island. Tom was an endodontist in Scott\’s dental practice, in
addition to being a clinical instructor at USC School of Dentistry. After
dinner they generously gave us a ride back to Long Beach so we could
retrieve our car. With the help of friends such as these, we were able to
leap-frog our car down the coast all the way to San Diego. It was a huge
convenience to have land transportation to buy food, supplies & parts.