Saturday, November 28, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great thanksgiving with Denis and Holly (Tango) and Ben and Marion on Guinevere (from Alberta!), complete with turkey and all the delightful fixings that accompany a proper feast!! I was expecting that we'd have to sacrifice some traditions for boat living...but this is not one of them!

Our next few days were spent enjoying the hot tub at the San Diego Yacht Club, doing odd jobs around the boat, shopping, and enjoying the company of the cruisers around us. Amazing how many Canadians are here. Jordan and Judy (Sea Turtle) are from Victoria, and Tenacious Grace, an Alberta boat, who we met previously in Santa Barbara, have just pulled in beside us. And many, many more.

Today we joined forces with Tango and Sea Turtle and headed into town with the intention of visiting the Maritime Museum and perhaps the Aircraft Carrier. Well...we only saw the Aircraft Carrier. It was my first time on such a ship, and it was pretty interesting....but imagine John's delight! Needless to say...between the two pilots and John, we spent most of the afternoon wandering around, glued to our headsets. Tomorrow...we continue our touristing...and then back to this cruising business...

Other blog-able news....I just bought a super-duper-wifi-antenna-gizmo. And now I can poach wi-fi signals from even further away! Yippee!!! Yahooo!! So once again, I have internet on the boat. Just before we leave.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Newport Beach to San Diego - Happy Thanksgiving

With our theme park fix satisfied, we set off on a heading to San Diego. En route we stopped at the communnity of Oceanside. What a gem.

The Oceanside Yacht Club was soon to be our best friends. They welcomed us in and we arrived during a critical game for the San Diego Chargers, determining the winners of the Western Conference. The club lounge was decorated in team colours and we happily took advantage of offers of food and drink that was freely flowing! After the game we wandered along the town's waterfront walkway, and drooled over all the great smelling restaurants. But after our $$ day with Mickey, we decided that pasta on the boat was all our budget would allow.
The trip from Oceanside to San Diego was in keeping with the rest of the week...light winds, warm sun, and smooth seas. We arrived in the early afternoon and were able to get quickly checked in with customs and found that there were at least 6 or 8 other Canadian vessels at the police docks!! So we decided to stay...at $10.50 a night, it is the best deal around and our cheapest moorage yet (with the exception of the complimentary Yacht Clubs). It has been a bit of a hike to get to the shops and to the grocery store, but I'm already a bus pro. Internet, on the other hand, has been devilishly difficult. I'm now on a quest for a wifi booster.

We were assigned a slip at the bottom of the ramp, so we quickly got to know many of the other boats in the marina. Almost all of the boats were also heading to Mexico, so it wasn't hard to find commonalities. We were invited to a Thanksgiving potluck in a neighboring harbour for the long weekend.

We'll be moving tomorrow (Thursday), in order to take advantage of a reciprocal moorage at the San Diego Yacht Club (and be closer to the turkey feast). Even though we will have access to internet again, I imagine we won't be able to update the blog as I'll be too busy lounging in the pool. So sorry.

And a happy turkey day to all ye yanks...