After wrapping up the rigging job, life here has been easy and idyllic. No massive projects to tackle again (yet…. The propane burner conversion and the galley cabinet remodel lurks to rise some day, but those are less critical tasks that may never get done) and warm summer breezes that I am sure inspired all those rumors of perfect sailing in Southern California. The town put on a huge July 4 show, with a fireworks barge anchored out in the bay where I usually camp out. In fact, the harbor patrol had me move because I was in the way of the barge. Several of my dock neighbors had huge barbeques and I could just stroll along nibbling and drinking from one to the other and back again. (and back again…) Out in the marina main channel there was an all day water fight with everybody cruising back and forth in dinghies and kayaks and paddle boards attacking anything that moved, with everyone moored in yachts along the waters edge also involved. The weapon of choice seemed to be those water cannons that are like a giant plastic syringe that you pull out the plunger to fill it and squirt-fire when ready. I think the traditional 5 gallon bucket won out through sheer shock-and-awe carpet-bombing fire power. Against that weapon there is no defense. It was great fun.

The next day I had a nice visit from Harrison and his friend Carla. You may recall an earlier post where I introduced Harrison, he was my very first sailing buddy I met way back when I was sailing the Portaboat. He and Carla are from Salt Lake and were in San Diego for a few weeks of fun on his boat, and they came up to visit me. It turns out I knew Carla’s parents very well from the Wasatch Mountain Club, Jean Francis and Mike Treshow. I have hiked with them for years, and had actually met Carla once years ago with her Mom. We all went out in the boat and had a great time. Saw many dolphins and a few blue whales. That was a big thrill, as the blues are so rare! It was a nice hot day and Carla kept threatening to jump in and swim around and we told her we would wait for her, but she never seemed to take the plunge. It was a very nice day with such fine fun people and I was so sad to see them go.

During this “down time” I have been experimenting again with bread baking on the boat. Pretty much a failure. I tried using sprouted wheat in the recipe and I think it was just to dense to rise so once again, I baked a few bricks. One success was when I pinched off a few gobs of dough, rolled it flat and just fried it and that was great. I may just focus on flat breads and tortillas, and leave bread that rises to Mom and my sister Julie, who seems to have the knack.

Today while out sailing I practiced my man overboard drills on lost party balloons. During every festive event here, balloons slip their moorings and send their “Happy July 4th” (and my daughters favorite holiday :“Kiss me I’m Irish” ) message in a mylar bottle out to the seven seas. Most of them seem to ditch pretty near shore for me to practice on. It is pretty easy to round up and get within line-tossing distance of these poor unfortunate souls, but since these airheads must have got conked on the head and were unresponsive, I had to get right up close to them and hold the boat under control while I fished them in with the boat hook. DOH! I just remembered: I got a really cool fishing net for my birthday but I forgot I had it and used the old boat hook like I have always done. (I guess using the boat hook is better practice for a real victim anyway, they may not like having that net wrapped around their head….