And what a port it was!!! We thoroughly enjoyed our time in San Diego – even though it was a bit longer than anticipated.

Having left Avalon mid-day, we sailed through the night in very light winds – every once in a while we would get a teaser of a wind increase, the boat would take off and almost immediately we would sail out of the wind! We were finally approaching San Diego early morning and mistakenly came in fairly close to shore – in the midst of the thickest seaweed we had ever seen (the nice stringy stuff that might as well be ropes!) and a field of crab traps. Navigating through the traps literally required me calling instructions for Owen to go left and right at very quick intervals. Once we made it through that, we made our way to the Harbour Police Dock where were required to have our boat inspected prior to being permitted to anchor in the A9 anchorage.

This is the odd thing about San Diego – there are very few anchorages and the ones that are there are very regulated – some can only be occupied on weekends, most are for only 3 nights. The A9 anchorage is restricted to boats that are from out of town and prior to being granted a permit, you must have the boat inspected, which included verifying that we had life jackets, adequate ground tackle and our bilge was clean. Once the very nice (and oh so young) officers finished their inspection, they granted us a permit good for 30 days (that could have been extended a further 60 days!) and we were off to the anchorage.

The A9 anchorage is located immediately in front of the runway for the international airport and close to downtown. We were a bit worried that the constant noise from planes was going to be an issue but we really did not find it was so – after the first evening, we hardly noticed them.

Our second day in San Diego saw the weather that we had been running from fully materialize – it was windy and grey and a little rainy (not our idea of perfect So Cal weather!). We hunkered down on the boat, got a few projects done and caught up on sleep. We were entertained with a fireworks show later that evening – it appeared to have been put on for a cruise ship leaving port, but we like to think it was a welcome to San Diego gift to us!!

Our second day we dinghied over to Shelter Island where there are a multitude of boat yards, marinas, marine supply stores, etc. We managed to find an amazing hole-in-the-wall Mexican spot for lunch and great maritime book store. Of course, with the days being shorter, we ended up dinghying back at sunset – and what a sunset it was!!!

Our next day saw us begin our tourism spree!!! Our first stop in San Diego was the USS Midway Museum – a decommissioned aircraft carrier and pretty much the coolest way to spend a day. We headed over around noon thinking that if we didn’t stay there too long, we might also check out the Maritime Museum – yeah – no – we were pretty much chased off the ship when they closed at 5 – having still not seen several of the display areas and probably 2/3 of the planes on the deck!!! The ship is literally a small, floating city that would have housed about 4000 people. We wandered into the sleeping quarters, the mess area (where they may also have assembled a bomb if space was needed), the galleys, the hospital, dentist, brig, post office, bank, NCIS office, officers quarters, captain quarters, the engine room – it went on and on!!! We finished up our tour with a trip to the bridge – truly its own aircraft tower! We could have easily spent another hour or two there and it is something that we would (and did) recommend to everyone! We finished the day up with a stop for tacos (and craft beer) and a wander through the Seaport Village – a collection of stores, restaurants and an old carousel near the waterfront.

After such a busy day of being tourists, we followed up the next day with – being tourists! This time we checked out the Maritime Museum – a collection of several ships, including an old steam ferry, a submarine, a gentleman’s steam powered fishing yacht (which was incidentally restored in BC), a tall ship, a spanish galleon and the oldest iron hulled sailing ship still in operation (the Star of India), along with a number of displays. We were lucky enough to attract the attention of one of the docents – an elderly veteran of the Second World War and Korea. He took us all through the engine room of the Steam Ferry – firing this and that up (I truly had no idea what I was seeing but it was cool!) and talking our ear off about a bit of everything for an hour or so!!

The next day, not to be outdone by our two previous days of being tourists, we again put our feet to the streets and headed to Old Town – a collection of buildings remaining from the early 1900’s which have now been turned into stores, restaurants, etc. We did of course manage to hunt down a fantastic Mexican restaurant before beginning our exploration. Once we finished there we took ourselves further afield, stopping in at a few bigger stores (Joann’s fabric, Home Depot, Dicks and Target) before finally calling for a Lyft to get home – it was only as the driver was heading onto the freeway that we realized how far we had gone – turned out we had put about 6 miles on our tired tootsies!!!

Perhaps it was a good thing after three days of non-stop walking and exploring, but the next day unfortunately had a bad weather surprise for us – blowing 18, full on waves in the anchorage and raining. We again had a “stay on the boat” day – accomplishing a whole lot of nothing (which was actually quite needed!) The next day was still a bit rough and we again spent much of the day on board before heading in about 4pm to get our Covid boosters (can’t be too safe) and taking a short stroll through Little Italy – good thing we already had dinner pulled out because there were so many good restaurants there I could never have chosen!!!

One of the reasons that we had stuck around San Diego so long (other than that we were loving it) was that we were waiting for the replacement for our windvane. As the replacement vane was to be delivered to a shop on Shelter Island on Thursday, we dinghied over in the morning to get a few more errands done and to wait to pick up the part. We took a Lyft back up to Target to pick up a printer that I had ordered (and had lunch at a fantastic old style diner) and then took a Lyft back to be back in time to pick up the parcel. Unfortunately, when we got it back to the boat we realized that they had sent the vane back, but had not returned the control cable, rendering the item unusable. Friday morning Owen was back on the phone with B&G and thankfully they agreed to ship the new cable overnight (after first hinting that it could be another 7 to 10 days to get it!).

Because we had not been to a dock since Santa Barbara and had not been plugged in since Alameda (and our water and power situation were becoming a bit dicey), we had decided to take a slip at the Harbour Police guest dock on Shelter Island for a night. We moved the boat over mid-day and after a bit of futzing and visiting with other dock-mates, we headed out to do laundry (a 1.5 mile trip with our little buggy full of laundry bags – I felt like a homeless person!!!). It was (of course!) dark by the time we got back to the boat but I reveled in turning on the heat (because I didn’t need to worry about conserving power!) and curled up to enjoy a quiet night on the boat.

Saturday morning we filled the boat with water and were off the dock shortly after 11. We needed to move back to A9 anchorage and then dinghy back to Shelter Island to pick up our cable that was to be delivered by noon. Originally, the tracking indicated it was on the truck for noon delivery – and then it was updated to “end of day” – uh oh!! We held off as long as we could and then wandered over the mailbox place in hopes we would get there the same time as the part – no such luck. As chance would have it, the mailbox place is directly next door to the first fantastic Mexican spot that we had found, so we stopped in for a taco and were excited to see the Fed Ex truck arrive while we were eating – less excited when told nothing had been dropped off. Finally, after a trip to West Marine and a final hopeful check at store, we headed back to the boat fairly frustrated by the lack of success. We had actually hoped to check out of the country on Sunday and head out for Ensenada Sunday afternoon but we were now stuck waiting – again!!!!

On Monday we were again waiting for our part – the tracking kept indicating that no delivery date was available and Fedex had not gotten back to us in response to our request for a trace. We were again stuck on the boat, waiting… and I was none to happy about it!!! Sometime in the mid-afternoon Owen sent a text to the person who had let us use their mailbox to let him know about the lost part and to ask him to please leave it at the mailbox store if it ever appeared. He shortly thereafter texted back to say that he had it – he had just picked it up and hadn’t realized that it was Owen’s until he opened it – and still the tracking said it was lost!!! I have a sneaking suspicion that the part was actually there on Saturday but had sadly not been scanned when it was delivered. Unfortunately, the part was not now at Shelter Island but was instead at Dana Landing on Mission Beach – we decided that, rather than waiting for him to take it to Shelter Island in the morning, we would head over to Dana Landing and again called a Lyft (thank heavens for that service!). We managed to connect to pick up the part and then decided that, as we were so close, we should go and check out Mission Beach. I had somehow not realized that Belmont Park was at Mission Beach – along with the wooden roller coaster that my sister had insisted I had to ride. I had previously demurred because we had already decided that we had touristed ourselves out and we weren’t going to head to anymore spots in San Diego. But here we were – and the roller coaster really didn’t look too bad when watching it from the front, in the semi-dark… so we decided to go for it. Oy vey!!! Turns out we are way to OLD for roller coasters – I alternately screamed and swore for nearly 2 minutes, getting whiplash at every corner!!! It was fun and terrifying and I will NEVER do it again!!! lol We finally made it back to the boat quite late (thanks again Lyft). It was finally time to get the boat buttoned up – tomorrow we would be leaving.

Tuesday morning we were up and headed for the airport to check out by mid-morning. Thankfully that process was quick and painless and an hour later we were back at the boat to finish up the last minute to-do’s. The jacklines were put back on, the outboard and dinghy brought back up and everything that might fly around the cabin tucked away (we thought!). We made a last stop for water and fuel and at about 4pm, as dark fell (ugh – why is it so dark so early!) we headed back out San Diego Harbour – next stop Mexico!!!!!