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.