Dear Family and Friends,

Well it seems that sailing, exploring and general boat maintenance has pushed communications with our friends ashore to the back burner. Hopefully as Interlude gets into more exotic ports the communications officer will be more responsible in keeping you up on our adventures.

Since our last communication we started by spending two weeks with our friends Dave and Diane Wyman at their home with a dock in the Ventura Keys. Their generosity in letting us use their dock was only exceeded by the strength of the docks water pressure with our ¾ inch dock hose. For those of you not used to boat living, this is a critical variable in marina life as with any marina come birds and with all types of birds, bird shit. The ideal marina is one where the water pressure is sufficient to blast the bird shit off without having to bend over with the scrub brush to help the process. The Wyman’s dock fit this description; however, every time this procedure was under way Diane lost almost all water pressure in the house. Tolerating cleanliness freaks on their dock truly became the definition of hospitality for the Wymans.

Ventura is highly recommended as a place to visit. The weather was sunny and in the 80’s.There is a great marina and a beautiful beach. Additionally, there is one of the best stocked dive shops we have ever seen at a marina. The dive shop folks were nice enough to help adjust our newly purchased hookah (a regulator on 100 feet of hose). Kurt used the hookah and Katie donned dive gear to scrub the bottom of ‘Interlude’. Kurt thought the hookah was perfectly designed for this application as it gives great mobility while avoiding the weight and awkwardness of a tank/BCD setup. Remember, we only need to dive down 7 feet at the deepest to clean the hull. It remains to be seen if the air pressure is enough to actually use the setup for deeper diving but as cruisers we felt the $350 was well spent even if we only use the hookah for cleaning the hull.

We were lucky enough to meet up with Steve and Linda Dashew while in Ventura. They brought their 78 foot ketch, Beowulf in for some bottom work as they were in the process of selling her. Interlude was designed by the Dashews so it was a real pleasure to share with them some of our recent improvements. Steve was especially impressed with Kurt’s new audio/video system the centerpiece of which is a 22 inch Luce LCD screen. Obviously the sound system makes extensive use of Soundpipe speakers, the main product in Kurt’s recently sold business. However, Steve was shocked to learn we actually keep our DVD’s in their original packaging as he takes his out of the cases and stores them in sleeves to minimize weight (just one of the many reasons why Beowulf can easily reach speeds of 25 knots while we are excited with anything in the double digits).

We left Ventura on September 8 and with 12 knots of wind we had a wonderful 5 hour sail to Santa Cruz Island. We anchored in Prisoner’s cove in 40 feet of sand with two other boats. The next day we had a nice shore hike of six miles and 2600 feet of vertical. The wildlife mostly consists of wild pigs sea lions and birds. Santa Cruz Island, like all of the Channel Islands, with the exception of Catalina, is only accessible by private plane/yacht or the National park Services ferry service for the few adventurous campers. The entire two plus weeks we were in the Channel Islands we only saw a handful of campers and an occasional yacht anchored alongside of us.

After two nights on Santa Cruz Island we headed back to Santa Barbara for two nights at the marina. We were Diane Wyman’s guests for a televised September 11 rememberance at the Civic Center Auditorium. Diane sang in a production of Mozart’s Requiem which made for a very memorable evening.

On September 12 it was our turn to reciprocate the Wyman’s hospitality by taking them for a Channel Islands cruise. We spent the first night in Fry’s Harbor with seals everywhere diving along side the boat for their evening meal. The next day with 15 knots of wind and choppy seas Kurt and Katie braved a wet ‘n wild dinghy ride to visit the Painted Cave while Dave and Diane motored around on ‘Interlude’. This is really the only way to see the cave as there is no close anchorage and unless the seas are flat calm a dinghy ride would be too far. The cave is said to be one of the largest, sea caves in the world. It is not unheard of for some captains with rigs less than 40 or so feet to motor inside the cave. The cave is supposed to be 1800 feet deep, however we were only able to go back about 200 feet as it was close to high tide and the wind outside was generating too many swells. Nonetheless, the coloring of the mineral deposits and the sheer size of the cave made the trip well worthwhile.

After our cave adventure we had a hearty sail to windward to Santa Rosa Island where we anchored at Beachers Bay in 22 knots of wind. Here we had the most wind we had seen since leaving San Francisco Bay and the wind, cold and fog, made us a little homesick. We will never complain about the conditions of SF Bay sailing; strong wind and robust sailing, even if it does tend to be cold.

September 14 we launched the dinghy and climbed a 20 foot pier ladder for a 4 mile hike on Santa Rosa Island to Lobos Canyon. Only after our return did we notice the sign that prohibited hiking in the months of September through December. Apparently, the National Park Service hosts game hunters to help cull the deer and wild horses. Fortunately, we were the only people we saw for the three hours we were ashore

On September 15 we sailed to the "back side" of Santa Cruz Island, anchoring at Coches Prietos with two other boats in the small bay. Kurt and Dave deployed our new stainless steel ‘flopper stopper’ with reasonably good success using a spinnaker halyard and pole. This device can make a rolly anchorage livable. By opening up in the water, it provides resistance which keeps the boat from rolling side to side at anchor

September 16 we were treated to 20 knots of downwind, wing and wing, sailing to Santa Barbara Island. This was the most remote, and together with San Miguel Island, gets our vote for the best places to visit. In both cases, there was no one else on the island, not even a park ranger. Santa Barbara Island is literally a rock with no beaches and limited vegetation. What it does have is great hiking trails and total serenity occasionally interrupted by the low roar emulating from a sea lion rookery or elephant seal. After enjoying a morning hike ashore we raised anchor for Santa Catalina Island

Located (26 miles) from Los Angeles, Catalina is far more popular with yachts. This has created numerous mooring fields, virtually eliminating anchoring possibilities. Fortunately for us, most of the moorings were vacant as it was off season. Unless you carry a massive anchor and 300 feet of ground tackle, be prepared for the equivalent of a KOA campground for boats in peak season. With this disclaimer, Catalina is still full of natural beauty. To begin with, it always seems to have its own weather with air temperature in the 80’s and the water a warmer 68 degrees while the other islands have temperature in the 70’s and water at 61. We snorkled around the rock in Emerald bay where we were anchored and with 50 feet of visibility saw giant kelp growing up from more than from 100 feet belowas well as meadows of three foot long ocean grass gently swaying in the ocean surge. The beauty about California snorkeling is not in the variety of fish but rather in the sea vegetation (although we do like seeing the bright orange Garibaldi) If only it didn’t take the confinement of a full length wetsuit to appreciate.

September 20 saw us back on the mainland moored to the municipal marina in Marina del Rey. Among the cooks and crazies (Katie shared the marina bathroom with a woman fixing her bicycle while in the handicap stall), we enjoyed catching up with Stan Dashew, Steve’s father, and Errol, the owner and skipper of ‘Interlude’s’ sistership, Deerfoot II. Kurt enjoyed a nice lunch and sail with Stan and Errol, comparing the performance of Deerfoot II and Interlude. Deerfoot II is equipped with newer sails that help considerably going upwind but Interlude will have to wait a year for new sails until we are in New Zealand where boat upgrades are so much more affordable. In the meantime, it should be mostly downwind sailing through the South Pacific.

On September 24 Errol was very nice to let us borrow his car so that we could go tour the new Our Lady of the Angels cathedral in Los Angeles. The cathedral is quite controversial as the Catholic Church spent $280 million to build it after the other church in L.A., St. Vibiana’s, was damaged in the last quake. Objectors would argue that the church could have spent half as much to build a church and used the balance to help the unfortunate. No matter who you side with, the church is a must see for anyone visiting the area. It is entirely modern and open, constructed mostly of stone, concrete and glass with little ornamentation and an alter that you are encouraged to walk up to. It can seat up to 3,000 worshipers who can meditate in numerous gardens when not inside. The entry doors are solid bronze, some 30 feet by 30 feet, each weighing 25,000 lbs. The baptismal area is large enough for an adult to be immersed entirely, quite a departure from the traditional catholic ritual of only touching holy water to the head during baptism. The whole lower floor is a mausoleum with room for 4,000 urns and 1,200 caskets, making it the only cathedral in the US where a layperson can be buried within its walls. The whole facility takes up an entire city block and includes an underground parking structure. It even has a wonderful cafeteria that not only serves good affordable food but also BEER and WINE. Any church where you can enjoy a bottle of its own label wine before or after service is a hit in my good book.

On September 25 we left L.A. for a 7½ hour motor to Newport Beach. Unfortunately the kindness of the Balboa Yacht club in granting us a mooring for 2 nights could not offset our impression that Newport Beach is not visitor friendly. Wealthy harbor homes with private docks dot the 5 mph harbor and even the restaurants have no place to tie your dinghy up, having sold the valuable marina rights. Additionally, there is only ONE small area to anchor and someone is required to stay on board at all times (being a double handed crew, this would make for solo shore visits). We read, after our visit, that one can tie up their dinghy to the fishing docks but there were no signs indicating this and even if you do the limit is 20 minutes.

On September 27 we left for San Diego for an 11 hour motor-sail to the Southwestern Yacht Club were we had a guest slip for the night. After a quick dinner on the boat we headed for the yacht club bar where we danced to a live band playing cover tunes from the 60’s and 70’s. (Now there’s a place that knows how to have fun!). For any of you that have seen Katie dance, she woke up the next day with a sore neck for performing her Eddie Van Halen imitation.

On September 29 we headed further into San Diego Bay for our current home at the Loew’s Coronado Resort and Marina. The marina is very far away from the boat repair and chandlery services but this lack of proximity is more than made up for by the resort amenities. We have access to a gym, sauna, steam room, pools, restaurants, shops and full sized washers and dryers. We also took advantage of the hotel’s shuttle service to visit Downtown San Diego with our visitors from the Bay Area: Tom and Jan Crothers (our good friends), Elly (Kurt’s mother), Renate (Kurt’s sister), Jim (Renate’s better half), Peter Anastos (a client of Katie’s that retired this year as well) and his significant other, Liz Hillman. Having visitors off and on for 20 days has given us a great reason to take some time off from last minute boat maintenance to enjoy some of the sights of San Diego: Hotel del Coronado, Balboa Park, Star of India, Aeronautical Museum, Zoo, etc.

We still plan on leaving Tuesday October 29 with the Baja Haha fleet heading to Cabo San Lucas via Turtle Bay and Santa Maria Bay. However there is Hurricane Kenna heading north to Mexico that bears watching…

Our next report should be in mid November.

Love,