San Diego at Last

A quick stopover in Oceanside provided an enjoyable evening and curbside parking at Jolly Roger's restaurant.

Sirena at Jolly Roger's famous restaurant Oceanside, CA

Over coffee in the morning we checked the marine weather predictions and saw a storm was on the way so we threw off the lines and sailed down the coast as clouds gathered to the Northwest.

Clouds gather ahead of a gale

Nearing SanDiego we were escorted by still more dolphins and I was fortunate enough to glimpse a full breach of  a whale while gazing through the binoculars at two other sailboats seemingly driftting several miles west of Point Lomas. Just as I was about to ask Chris, "I wonder if one of those sailboats is on distress?" the whale burst fully out of the water and arched its enormous body through the air, dwarfing the 36 plus foot long sailboats before crashing back into its watery home and sending the sailboats it could have easily crushed scurrying away to a safer distance.

Our first night was safely spent in a slip on Shelter Island, an appropriately named location as it sits nestled in the northern curve of San Diego Bay. There we rode out the gale that howled through the rigging all night. Several times we awoke to check the dock lines, assuring ourselves that Sirena would not be pushed against a nearby piling, but all turned out well. A neighboring boat was not so lucky when her staysail was tugged from it's furling by the fingers of the gale.

We spent several days at the "Cop Doc" as it is affectionately known, since the Harbor Police Station sits at the entrance to the public dock with slips open to transient boats for a fee. The number of nights any boat may stay there is limited, so after a few days of provisioning and hauling off items for repair we moved to the Cruising Anchorage located on the East side of Harbor Island near the Coast Guard station. The view of downtown San Diego at night was stunning.

View of downtown SanDiego at night

We plan to stay here in San Diego for several weeks while we perform a complete system check of the boat and make some upgrades. We are looking forward to catching up with family and friends while we're here!