SF > SAN: Day 4 - written by sgp

We somehow managed to get back to the sailboat in the middle of the night. No one remembers it, but we did it. We woke at 7am, heads pounding in agony, three hours later than planned, and cast off from the mooring ball. It was a sad morning. We headed to Avalon to drop off Matt so he could grab the ferry to Los Angeles.

The winds again called in sick and the seas lay calm. The crew of three was now two. We set out the fishing line and set Otto for San Diego. Monitoring channel 16 since leaving the bay we noticed a distinct increase in banter as we headed across to San Diego. Lots of activity but no boats to be seen. On the horizon we spotted two very large container ships. They seemed awfully close together, so close our AIS reading thought it was one ship. Hours passed. When you can see so far away and move at 6 or 7 knots nothing approaches very fast. It can take hours to reach something. We were within 3 miles now of the ships and the pilot boat was a mile from us. As we passed across his bow he hailed us. "Sailing vessel off my bow...these ships are transferring...please change your course to keep at least 1 1/2 miles distance...possible off gassing or explosion..." What? We couldn't figure out what was going on, but altered course and inched slowly by the hulking tankers rafter together out at sea. Given the phrase, "sailing is hours and hours of boredom punctuated by shear terror" it was notable how anything the appeared on the horizon was cause for hours of intrigue. Check the binoculars, check the AIS, zoom in, zoom out, check charts, binoculars, "Are we getting closer?", "what's their heading?", zoom out, nap, sip, zzz, check AIS, zoom in, out...etc. for hours.

La Jolla appeared out of the marine layer. The waters we busy with birds soaring up and dive bombing. What was going on. There was definitely some activity under the surface over there. A few more dive bombs and then rather than a bird popping up, a dorsel fin. And then another and another. Seals here, dolphins there. Then it seemed though they realized there was an audience nearby and the dolphins swam over to check us out. We were escorted through the swells on and off by different groups of dolphins for hours. Under the bow they'd dodge and sway then suddenly dive down and reappear off the stern wake. If it was a race, we would surely lose to these elegant swimmers.



Point Loma was now visible and our first journey almost complete. Keeping watch on the bow we slalomed through lobster pots and kelp beds. Rounding the point and entering the channel we motored in just before sunset.