Mission Bay

By Rob

An early departure from Avalon Harbor gave us a good chance of making it to Mission Bay by nightfall.
Just as we were leaving an monster Carnival Cruise ship was arriving.  With the masses in our wake and the bow pointing South we enjoyed another dolphin escort.

Dolphins chasing Shindig and playing on the bow wake never gets old.

The 65 mile trip was mostly motorsailing until the afternoon when the 15 knot North-westerlies filled in.  It was a relief to finally turn off the "D-Sail."

There are a lot of Navy exercises going on.  Every 15 minutes or so we would receive a broadcast on the VHF alerting us to their activities.

Something like this.

"Security, Security, Security, This is war ship 79 at appropriate location 32 degrees, 39  minutes North by 117 degrees 25 minutes West.  We are conducting live ammunition test.  All vessels are required to stay 15 miles from our position, break."

"This is war ship 79 standing by on channel 12, 13 and 16"

When we first heard this message we were 6 miles from the ship but they were going so fast out to sea than in no time we were out of the 15 mile security zone.

Once in the jetty that separates Mission Beach with Ocean Beach we located a perfect spot to anchor in Mariners Basin.  Vessels in transit are allowed to say for free for 72 hours.  This anchorage was the calmest of the trip.  We slept well after a long day on the water.  

Shindig in Mariners Basin.  I forgot that SD had so many palm trees.

Grooming the beach at South Mission Beach

Back in college I taught sailing at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center and I enjoyed swinging by the facility.  I even ran into Glen, the director that was running the place when I was there 23 years ago.   The place has not changed much at all.  They have a good formula and I have fond memories as a "professor of sailing"

MBAC at Santa Clara Point