Newport Beach

Made it to Newport Beach on the heels of the best wind so far. Full sail, not too much chop, light swell and Cadence pushing a steady 7-7.5 knots the whole 45 miles. And, my old college friend Lawrence joined me, so we basically just hung out for 8 hours while the windvane auto-pilot did most of the work. Arrived in Newport just before sunset, picked up a mooring, and have been here since. My friend Chuck from Moss Landing moved down here two years ago, and has shown me the ropes regarding how to live here, as Newport is not a friendly place toward cruisers. I've been rowing ¾ mile each way to get to the public dock where I can park my dinghy. Sometimes I sail there if there's wind, but the dinghy doesn't sail well upwind, so it's a one-way ticket unless the breeze is just right or I've got lots of time to kill.

Boz is still down for the count, though feeling better every day, thankfully. He's going back to school for a semester, and I've decided to get a job and replenish the cruising kitty so we can be ready to go when the real time comes. School's out mid-December; in the meantime I've got an anchor roller to install, HAM radio antenna to string up, toilet to replace, bilge pump to hook up, handrail to fix, doors to build, zinc to put on, songs to write, blogs to catch up on, job to find... at least I don't have to worry about getting bored.

Sharing time. When Pete and I sailed from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz Island, there was a pod of dolphins headed right in our direction so I killed the motor and parked right in their path. Check out the video: