Sailing to Catalina Island

Andre Michel sailed us over to Catalina Island on his 32' sailboat. We secured "mooring"in the Avalon Marina with a great view of downtown and the Avalon Casino.

On the way over Andre showed me the ropes of sailing and how to tie a few knots. We had 20-25 knott winds so when we finished motoring out of the Long Beach marina, where Andre stores the boat, we turned off the motor and at full sail were going much faster than the motor was able to go.

The boat seemed to be a 45 degree angle with the wind blowing so hard It made me feel like if I stood perpendicular to the water I would fall out of the boat and into the ocean. My feet were on the bench across from me and my back was against the chair I had been sitting in after we got the sails up. Even though it took four hours to sail to Catalina is seemed to go by quickly talking to Andre and adjusting the sails to let the wind "slip over the sails".

When we arrived at Catalina we had to pull the "dingy" out of a bag, blow it up, put boards into it's bottom to make a flat sturdy floor then attach a small Honda motor so we could go from the sailboat to town. Riding in the "dingy was my favorite activity on the island, second only to driving a golf cart off road and down a steep hill.

First Week in L.A.

The first week in Los Angeles included visits to the Los Angles Art Museum, the La Bra Tar Pits and mountain bike rides up and down the beach .

We got a great spot at Dockweiler State Beach and I decided to extend an additional week for three weeks in L.A. The location is a base while in the L.A. area, it's half way between Santa Monica and Long Beach. The only down side is the constant background of jets flying out of LAX located about two miles North East of the RV camping area.

The Dockweiler State RV park includes full hookups except for cable. Usually if you want to stay near or on the beach with an RV in California you have to stay at a state park and so far Dockweiler State Beach is the only one I've found with electric, water and sewer hookups.

The solar panels I bought back in Seattle seem to cover all the power needs so the RV doesn't need external power. Except the built in coffee maker, front TV and microwave only work when plugged into "shore power", but the 12 volt T.V. in the bedroom works fine just using the batteries. I use a few inverters that turn the power stored in the four 6 volt deep cycle batteries to 120v power to charge electronics like laptops, cell phones, cameras and running the wireless internet.

Here are a few photos of vases put together, I liked the ones made of certain glass that reflected colored prisim of light. The museum was full of paintings by Picasso and other artist although my favorite areas were the modern art that was a combination of photography, painting and sculptures. I included a photos of Hermosa Beach where we rode to for breakfast this morning.