Dana Point Stop

Sunday, October 23

We are learning California's coast harbor by harbor. Sometimes it’s confusing. Last night for example, looking for a free slip in Newport we found ourselves next to the Balboa YC. Actually it’s in Corona Del Mar. To us these sounded like different places. BYC was a very nice club with a great chef. Finally I found sand dabs on the menu.

In the morning we hopped down to Dana Point to visit the Pilgrim, a replica of the ship Richard Dana described in Two Years before the Mast. Anchoring conveniently off the Ocean Institute dock, we rowed in, signed up for a Pilgrim tour, and visited the exhibits including one on the addition of plastics to ocean beaches. (Results of one study locally yielded 11% plastics in the sand.)

The “captain” of the ship met us at the dock and entertained an enthusiastic group for about an hour with salty stories including a ghost story of Jack Tar whose frozen hands we found locked onto a ship’s wheel after a dreadful storm at Cape Horn. The kids ate it up. (See Charlie in photo.)

Making it a rare two stop day, we headed off to spend the night in Oceanside.

A Real Bike Trip

Saturday, October 22

Under the gun to vacate our slip at noon, we decided to go for a very early morning bike ride to the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, an estuary in Huntington Beach, a spot our friend Carolyn had recommended visiting. As it has been for days, the morning was foggy, so foggy that we could barely see. Luckily the paved trail along Long Beach is the best we’ve pedaled, wide and smooth (no tree roots!) with three lanes. Long Beach really deserves the name. It must be about 4 miles long. Oncoming bikes were few as we felt our way through the water droplets, my glasses hiding in a pocket. Charlie wondered how the gulls could see to land.

When we reached the end, it was early enough that few travelers were out. We continued along canals with every inch of mooring space occupied, mostly by white motorboats, and finally met the Pacific Coast Highway. Although in places it’s a 50 mph road, the biking world has claimed it for recreational use, at least on weekends. Following several friendly encounters with lycra clad athletes, we stopped for breakfast at a bike clogged Starbuck’s in Peter’s Landing, just a mile short of our destination.

Bolsa Chica was a military site now being restored to its natural state by the efforts of a lot of local people. A large crew of students had gathered to be instructed in the removal of invasive plants. The kids were having a great time hauling huge bags of weeds and smashing them into dumpsters. We walked out the trail to a gun emplacement passing lots of shorebirds drilling into the mud, a few mourning doves, sparrows and black peewees sitting on the wire fence. Coyotes roamed on the other side. I would have like to spend the whole day there, especially on a guided walk. Instead we zipped back, in lessening fog, and sailed off. Good-bye L.A. Hello Newport!

Consorting with the old Queen

Friday, October 20
Why would we make two stops in L.A. ? Some people have asked. The short answer was Long Beach, the home of that grand old lady of the seas, Queen Mary. Both Charlie and I had sailed on her during our youth, he in 1959 and I in 1962. We had to see what had become of her. As kids we weren’t interested the décor or the history. As adults we were amazed at what we hadn’t appreciated then. Of course we weren’t allowed in the beautiful art deco bar.

Edie, the shuffleboard patterns are still painted on the deck, but the ping pong room is gone! Charlie’s favorite part was the engine “room” of course. Finding a propeller in its own water box was a thrill, too.



The radio room is still is use, operated by the local Ham club and usable during emergencies as a communications base.

We also toured her dockmate, the Scorpion, a Russian sub retired in 1994.

Most amazing fact: Submariners were allowed one shower per week. They had the luxury of hot salt water for one whole minute.

L. A. Take Two

Thursday October 20
On Thursday we sailed around to the south side of L. A. passing the longest, most complex series of breakwaters ever. San Pedro Bay, a.k.a. Los Angeles harbor makes all the other U. S. harbors look like one zip code towns. There are so many different loading docks spread out so far that it's impossible to distinguish them all, but at one time I counted at least 130 cranes. Threading our way past the three entry channels and noting next to the third the handsome Cunard ocean liner Queen Mary, we tied up at the Rainbow Harbor Marina. Perhaps it was named for the tacky cement constructions in fading tropical colors on the island bordering one side. There was an aqua blue paneled tower and several mango and papaya walls we couldn't figure out. At night, hearing water rushing, we looked out and saw it transformed into a lighted panorama with two waterfalls, all created for our entertainment? Upon inquiry we found that the oil wells on the island had been camouflaged by civic demand.

L. A.'s Top Two

Tuesday, October 18

The choices for tourist activities in L.A. are even more overwhelming than in S.F. Our top 5 included the La Brea Tar Pits and the Page Museum both, surprisingly, set in a lush green park framed with the ubiquitous palm trees. In spite of the challenging odds against creating a Pleistocene era feeling, the eloquent docent in the current excavation and the historic recreations of the museum do quite well. Oily patches in the lawn helped to add a slightly ominous note to the bucolic manscaped veneer.

That afternoon we set off in a rented car for the wilds of Universal Studios. Expecting a total, overpriced tourist trap, we weren’t disappointed. However we had no sense of the scale of the place. First you park, then wander through a giant 2-storey mall called City Walk with every franchised label in America, until you finally run into the entry gates for the “Studios.” Ha! It’s actually an amusement park. We should have googled ahead, but that would have reduced the shock and awe.

To get in you need as much ID as for travel to a foreign land. They pressure you to get a VIP pass to go to the head of all the lines. True to Stillman form, we stuck with the bare bones pass even though we only had 3 hours til closing. As soon as we were inside we ran for the Jurassic Park river ride. It was at the far end of everything, including a series of three towering escalators that moved as if lubricated with library paste. We rushed into the very short line and boarded the boat, by chance in the front row seats.

I got out my camera and, heeding the sign “Hats will Fly Off” took off my hat. In the early stages of the ride I got unblocked pix of dinos, though a couple spat streams of water at us. Then came the dire and funny T-Rex lunges and signs saying Danger Water Treatment Facility Do Not Enter. We climbed high in the darkness and I hid my camera under my sweatshirt on my lap. At the top we saw that we were going to fall the same distance as all three escalators stacked on top of each other. Don’t you love to scream! The splash at the bottom was all real.

I spent the rest of the time at U. S. drying out and getting stared at.

Viewing the Getty Villa

Monday, October 17

Steve fetched us in his big white van, drove us across the canals of Venice and past the shore beaches to visit the Getty Villa. Mr. Getty’s ambition was to create the feeling of life in Roman times with the buildings and gardens, a great deal of it being outdoors. We loved the varied floor tiling and parquet patterns as well as the exhibited classical period art.

Dinner was at the Marina del Rey YC where we were staying. It's a wonderful YC. Their Monday night football dinner for $5, run by members, is a great idea. We sat at the bar (staffed and open) to eat. It was very social and most of the members ignored the game on t.v. Later I browsed through their large exchange library. Lots of contemporary books, several we've read for book groups, were shelved and organized in a large room. I swapped an enormous hard cover Wolf Hall for The Bone People.

Marina del Rey, our Introduction to L.A

Sunday, October 16

I biked out early for an Oxnard farmers’ market reconnaissance in preparation for dinner at Marina del Rey with my cousin Steve and his partner Jeannine. Fantastic blueberries, strawberries and greenstuff plus rockfish right off the boat.

Our arrival in Marina del Rey coincided with the height of Sunday afternoon activity. The entrance was completely full of boats. We could see why they’ve legislated three lanes between the breakwaters! The center lane is for boats that are sailing in (with spinnakers) or short tacking out. Or, in the case of the UCLA sailing team, practicing their buoy rounding in short races.

At the dogleg we got our first glimpse of L. A. whimsy with the colorful shoreline village showing typical Los Angelinos' coastal living.