Laundry and blogging, what could be better? We arrived in San Diego after a motor from Dana Point that was uneventful until about an hour out, where we encountered a minefield of kelp and crabpots. I stood on the bow directing Herman through and fortunately we didn’t catch anything. As we got into the channel, a Navy ship announced it was departing, which meant we needed to get out of the channel, while trying to avoid the shallow depths. Eek!

The removal of the rigging was fascinating and now Tieton looks like a motor boat. Because the rigging was thirteen years old, we couldn’t get insurance on the rigging although it seemed to be in good shape. Thus, we decided to have the boat re-rigged before we head across the Pacific.

We met Gary and Sue who’ve been cruising for over twenty years, when they weren’t working and living on their boat on Bainbridge Island! Gary suggested Tieton looks so good without rigging that we should just keep her as a motor boat when we’re done sailing.

The 29th BajaHaHa rally left on Monday which emptied the harbor of about 130 boats. A local marine shop held nightly seminars for folks departing for Mexico, and we attended a few. We spent the weekend at anchor in La Playa and enjoyed kayak rides where we had opportunities to chat with other sailors. We were also thrilled to see Joe Hulsey and Mary Gorman before they departed on the Blues Cruise. They’re working hard to pull together the https://poulsborotary.org/poulsbo-blues-jazz-festival/ (AKA PB&J).

Now a bit about Tieton. For the benefit of those who might get seasick watching the video, here’s an explanation of what we see from the helm: An iPad with the Navionics navigation system is above the helm instruments. We input our routes and waypoints into both the iPad and the B&G system on the boat, which is at the navigation station inside the boat. The iPad shows our location on the Navionics charts, which in the states are pretty reliable. For the helm instruments, we can choose between a variety of screens. The right screen is always the auto pilot, which we can activate and adjust from either the helm or the nav station inside the boat. The center screen shows the wind direction, speed, and current in relation to the boat. The left screen, we typically alternate between our latitude and longitude, plus distance to waypoint, or our depth if this might be an issue. From the cockpit (but not the helm), we can also see the nav station inside the boat. That’s steering and navigation. Next week, we’ll talk about the inside.

And here are some photos of fun in San Diego