Posting from Rainbow harbor in Long Beach.
Bob, Shana, Heather, and I brought the boat down from Santa Barbara this weekend. It’s a 17 hour sail/motor. We motored out of the SB harbor, hoisted the sails after about an hour (mostly 10-15 under the spare 3/4 oz that Charlie gave us), and took them down at about 10PM when the wind died. We motored into LB, arriving at about 4AM. It was really exciting navigating for the first time in through the harbor at night (busiest commercial harbor on the west coast, I believe), but I’m really glad to have had a full moon and a good chart. It’s like the Oakland estuary, only 3 times as big and 4 times as busy. Coming in reminded me of flying to a new airport at night.
Rainbow harbor is in the back of the main harbor, just across a channel from the Queen Mary. It’s quite different than Santa Barbara. It’s like mooring in fisherman’s wharf, with lots of cutesy shops and chain resturaunts, baby strollers and matching his/hers tracksuits. And, unlike FW, 90-foot custom Maxi racers just down the dock.
Bob flew his 182 down on Friday night, so after we drove the rental car back up to SB, everyone had a nice flight back up to the bay area. I picked up the truck and came back down for the final week of pre-race prep. And the waffle cones.