Sea Trial Leg 3 - Cat Harbor to San Diego - 89NN, 5.5 hours sailing, 8 hours motor

On Monday morning we got up at 5:30 am and weighed anchor and were on our way by 6:30 or so. It was pretty uneventful as we motored along the west side of Catalina Island and made a slight turn to the south to put us on a course back to SD Buoy #1. We motored in shifts, occasionally spotting a few dolphins and listening to the ever present military traffic on the VHF until about 1:00 pm, when a slight breeze came up and we were able to sail for some 5 hours on a beam reach, directly on our course to San Diego.

The biggest thrill of the day was when a "boomer" (a USN nuclear submarine) surfaced about a mile away just as we were putting the sails up. We watched it stream along at 20 knots leaving a huge wake in it's trail. We also played with the MARPA (target tracking capabilities) of the Radar, and in general just chatted and lounged around all day until we finally ran out of wind and started motoring again just off Point Loma at about 5:30 pm. We made the turn into San Diego Bay at about 6:45 as the sun was setting, tried sailing one more time (to no avail), and motored back to the slip. As we pulled into the slip at about 7:45, Gary from Wandrin' Star was there to help us tie off. We had a celebratory "tot" at 8:00 and, as he had to work the next day, Steve left us about 9:00 pm to drive back to Tijuana.

All in all a very good three day trip!

Also note the great photos that Steve took with his camera!

Pics from Steves Camera