San Diego Morning

We arrived in San Diego bay, on the 6th of October about three weeks before the Baja HaHa. Initially we anchored in the transient anchorage just east of Harbor Island. You are only allowed to stay here for three days. This anchorage is next to the San Diego Airport with jets taking off every minute or so. The noise was phenomenal. When the Coast Guard called us to let us know that we were anchored inside their security zone, just outside the anchorage, we left….

Moon Rise at Glorietta Bay

Motoring for just 15 minutes or so found us anchored at Glorietta Bay a temporary anchorage for HaHa participants and good for the month. Glorietta Bay is off of Coronado Island. We were anchored off of the Coronado Golf course. Downtown Coronado was an easy dingy ride away. We laid low for a few days reading and SUPing. We did a little shopping in Coronado stopping to admire the multimillion dollar properties advertised in Real Estate windows. After a good walk we stopped for a drink at the “Del” once a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe.  On another day, we dingied to the beach to play nine holes at the Coronado golf course. As a new golfer I don’t know how anyone puts up with 18 holes.

Golf at Coronado – Footloose in the Background

Glorietta bay is also home to a Naval amphibious base so we were treated to morning reveille, and small boat operations in the bay including groups of marines practicing paddling their small inflatables..stroke, stroke, stroke, hopefully they don’t shout the cadence during covert ops. Another group took a swim across the bay to the Coronado Bridge and back…

Here is a link to Guys training at Glorietta bay

For the rest of the month we are tied up at the “Police Dock” Clean, convenient to more boat stores than I’ve ever seen in one place. The San Diego Marine Exchange gets very high marks. We are having new lifelines made. Ed and the rigging crew are really great. A welcome to San Diego party hosted by them included 40% off everything in the store. WOW, their pricing is already pretty good, much better than West Marine.

Another happy moment was filling our tackle box for trolling with the help of Captain Art.  Art is long time friend who operates Searcher and specializes in Sport Fishing, Whale Watching, and Pelagic Bird watching.  Want a trip with a great outfit, Click Here

Boat Yoga – Cleaning Bilges

The police dock is a little weird. With a large population of cruising boats, many flying the HaHa Flag  like us. But at night homeless vagabonds bring their boats into any empty space to take advantage of the water and power. Then it gets a little rowdier as they greet their buddies and help each other bring their often engineless and undoubtedly uninsured craft into the dock.

Strange Doings at the Police Dock

Mark has a pretty nice looking 46 foot Jeanneau, not sure how he came to own it. We had seen him in Glorietta bay using the Jeanneau to tow an old William Garden Ketch and wondered about the story. One evening after the police went home, the Jeanneau pulled into the slip next to us. Mark began cleaning and tidying immediately. About 8:00pm we were ready to eat dinner and offered to share our simple dinner so he joined us. He had been moving the ketch every three days for over a year hoping to sell the ketch. Proudly he told us the boat was solid teak and a bargain at only $2500. The next morning at 7:00 am we awoke to a loud rapping on the hull. I jumped out of bed, but it was actually the harbor police knocking on the Jeanneau.. “Mark, Mark, we are gonna tow this boat” shouted the burly harbor policeman. Tough life.