10/23/98
Early lessons...Left Redwood City at 5pm Thursday, October 15. This is a marina that we moved our boat to in order to be closer to Palo Alto in the final days before leaving.
No sooner did we pull out of the harbor and decide to put the sails up when we discovered that we stopped moving! First time aground in Moondance at less than 1/2 hour into our voyage...really need to pay attention to those channel markers even if you only draw 4 feet.
Got the boat out with no trouble, and went along our way. One thing we've discovered is that Moondance is noticably slower with all our life's possessions stored in her...we decided to stop at our old marina for the night.
Next day spent some time getting some things done on the boat and talking to other liveaboards at the marina - found a great old salt who knew all about Mexico and was eager to share his info. and opinions...also was able to get weather fax printouts from another- really starting to be a part of the 'crowd'.
Decided to wait a day to avoid some particularly strong winds (even for SF bay!) and headed out the golden gate on Saturday October 17.
With stops in Monterey, Santa Cruz, Channel islands and Catalina, we're in San Diego - spent way too much time motoring since the wind was mostly dead in the mostly dark time-of-day that we sailed. Also learned the importance of good night watches, given the numerous oil rigs off the California coast.
We're now installing gear (windvane steering, radar, stereo, etc.) and doing some repairs. One more lesson... we let a line drag and wrapped our propellor shaft, so now we're learning how to pull apart more engine parts.
Hoping to have the propellor shaft machined on Monday for our departure on Tuesday for Mexico.
