Sunday we woke up and made eggs with bacon and got into the school work. Max zipped through his and Ben is finally starting to better at paying attention. He's trying hard but there are a lot of distractions and it is difficult for him. Samey and I played for a bit and then she played downstairs by herself as the boys and Jen continued to wade through their work.
So I rebuilt the macerator prior to leaving Ventura. We tested it on the dock and it didn't work. I took it apart again and cleaned the brushes and checked the motor out and everything appeared fine. Put it in the tank and nothing. So I walked down to Beacon Marine and dropped $200 on a new one. Plugged it into the holding tank and since it was new and we were leaving in 15 minutes, left it and went about casting off. We got well away from shore and tested the macerator out and nothing. She no work. Grrrrr. Ok so I am getting 13 volts at the pump with the wires disconnected, once I connect wires, nothing. Breaker. Another damn breaker gone bad. Water pump first and now this. I feel so dumb. Used another breaker and the pump works like a champ. I am always going to start at the breaker first from now on when having electrical problems. That seems like a no brainer actually but I just assume that the beaker is ok. Dumb. But problem solved. Now I have 2 pumps. Both new.
The battery charger for shore power is failing but I already wrote about that. It will invert so we watched movies once or twice while at anchor. The engine charges the batteries fine but we really need to figure this out and get a new one.
Other than that, Appa has been great. Touch wood.
So we spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Smugglers Cove. We thought about leaving and finding another anchorage but really, the island looks the same from all areas and we had a nice beach.
Saturday we hiked up to Yellowbanks Beach. About 3.4 mile round trip hike. Hot and dusty but beautiful.
Max, Ben and I made the trek and when back to the beach, the water never felt nicer. Big rollers coming in made for fun surfing and since the diapers were now back, Samey could go "number 2". Good times, eh?
We played in the surf for couple hours and then loaded up the dinghy and actually made it off the beach with only a couple drops getting in the dinghy. On our way back to Appa, we saw Discovery anchored next to us. They are our dock mates from Seattle. We never really knew them all that well but Andy putted over in his dink and we now have more friends. They are sailing their Passport 42 to mexico also but not doing the haha. Nice people.
Max and I cleaned the waterline of the boat and then we had dinner and watched Tales of Earthsea. Weird flick. Animated. Good but weird.
No wind, light swell. We slept good.
Sunday was almost repeat of Saturday. School then we got into the dink and explored a bit. Went over the Yellowbanks and the water was this Caribbean blue. Beautiful. The beach looked treacherous but beautiful and as we were discussing about landing the dink on it, Samey says "Let's try it!" So cute that we had to. Never ever take direction from a three year old. Ever.
We caught a great wave in but the outgoing current slowed us enough that the next wave caught us. The beach gets deep quick so the waves break close in. The wave picked up the boat and slammed us onto the beach. We didn't tip or roll but the impact was harsh. No injuries and the dink was ok. Just a rough landing. The trouble would be getting off this beach.
We played for a bit then decided to get out of there and back to "our" beach. Pretty big surf so I got the two kids in the dink and launched with Max and Jen swimming out through the breakers to the dinghy. I love my wife. She just swam nice as you please out to us and up into the dinghy and we were off. We picked a good time as I think we all could have gotten in the dink and been alright but it was kinda crazy conditions so we played it safe. So to speak.
We decided that we had enough beach landings for the day so we swam off the boat. Dinner then we all read books then off to bed. I finished Passage to Juneau and started a John Sanford novel. Killed that last night and am reading Down River by John Hart.
Running low on food so we decided to hoist anchor and head for Marina Del Rey. We actually have enough food but we are out of veggies, milk is low, eggs gone, all meat gone, plenty of ramen however.
Woke up at 7 this morning and pulled the Rocna out of it's home for the past three days and headed due east. No wind but as soon as we were past Anacapa island.....dolphins. Maybe two hundred of them. Swarmed the boat like bees to a flower. A baby was learning among them and got real close to us. Ben and Jen iPhone videoed some of it. I called down to Samey who was drawing at the table that dolphins were near us. She looked at me with a moment of uncertainty, then flung her pencils down and ran up to me. We walked to the bow and she just stared. Mesmerized. Ben was shaking he was so excited. Max also. Five of us at the bow, rolling along watching the dolphins for about 20 minutes. Loved it. No one missing. Didn't have to say "Mom, you missed it...." or "Max, you should have seen...." Hard to explain. So glad that we were all there. All the toil and frustration that comes with planning a trip like this felt worth it.
Jen and Ben will post pictures and such of the dolphins on their blogs.
No comments:
Post a Comment