8/25/2002 - 10/28/2002
Exploring San Diego
Overlooking San Diego Bay
We left Oceanside early on Sunday, 9/24, and enjoyed a beautiful day sail into San Diego Bay. This is our final destination in the U.S. before heading to Mexico and the Baja. We rounded Point Loma and the kelp beds and headed into the Bay with about 50 other sail boats. Whisper pulled ahead of several other boats, but to our competitive dismay, a Pacific Seacraft 37 stays neck and neck the entire way in. That's not supposed to happen -- what is that all about? Duncan trimmed and trimmed to pull ahead, but could not. Hmmm, maybe he had his engine running? We did not have a slip lined up, and we knew we wanted a marina near Shelter Island to complete all of our final boat projects.
Brad the dockmaster at San Diego Yacht Club came through for us in the 11th hour. Robin had been schmoozing Brad for several months with the hope that he would remember our boat name when we arrived in San Diego. Brad did remember, and he came through with a great upwind slip at SDYC. Unlike Dana Point, where we moved slips every day, we have been in the same slip for the entire two months at SDYC.
San Diego offers a multitude of options for having fun including concerts, festivals, museums, great restaurants and beaches. We explored two Balboa Park museums -- the Aerospace Museum and the Science and Technology museum. San Diego's Street Scene three day concert allowed us to listen to bands we knew such as The Violent Femmes and Ziggy Marley as well as bands/genres of music new to us. Hip-hop was fun, electronika was loud and rap had its moments of greatness.
GPS Satellite at Aerospace Museum
Star of India at Tall Ships Festival
San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) turned out to be a great location for our stay in San Diego. The yacht club hosted in the America's Cup over a decade ago. With the Louis Vuitton Cup on television, we joined yacht club members in watching the challenger series for the next America's Cup. On a smaller scale, the yacht club hosts model yacht races.
The neighborhood near SDYC offered a bevy of great coffee shops and marine supply stores. Point Loma and Shelter Island are the heart of the boating community in San Diego. This was perfect for us as we finished preparing for our trip to Mexico.
Fun at or near the San Diego Yacht Club
Radio Controlled Model Boat Races at SDYC
Our favorite coffee shop, The Point, and its owners
Friends Visit in San Diego
Fortunately, we continue to receive visits from friends passing through the towns where we land. We met Marge and Dave at the cruise ship dock after their cruise to Mexico. Sandi and Roger came out to visit from Dallas. As always, Sandi worked miracles in the kitchen. She made amazing sopapillas and way too many margaritas. While working at Intuit, Duncan spent lots of time in San Diego. John and Terie invited us over to their beautiful home in Carlsbad for a great barbecue.
Marge and Dave visit after their cruise to Mexico
Sandi makes sopapillas on Whisper
Dinner with Intuit friends John and Terie
More Intuit Friends - Kathy and Andrew