As usual, a simple “day sail” led me up the coast for an over-night in Newport. It had been a long hard beat against the wind andI was pulling in to anchor at Newport just before dark at 7:00. I had pulled out of Dana fairly early but spent almost 3 hours bobbing about going nowhere with no wind until the winds picked up about 11:00, allowing me at least to start the “beating…

The forecast for the next many days is for solid moderate winds from the west /northwest. I woke up early the next day and motored north towards Long Beach, 15 miles up the coast. The motor was barely above idle, (my “take apart and clean” job showing its worth..) and I steamed at about 2.5 to 3 knots on dead calm seas, and by 11:00 I was off Huntington Beach when the winds picked up. I killed the motor, raised the sails, and cruised at 5 knots for the next couple hours and dropped anchor in Long Beach harbor at 2:00!

I anchored in the lee of Whites island. Whites is one of 4 islands built inside Long beach harbor to support oil drilling operations. They are decorated in various ways to hide the petroleum industrial complex inside. Whites has several tall concrete decorative walls built on it, curved and buttressed and planted and lighted and looked for all the world like the secret hide-a-way fortress of Doctor No! Very surreal, especially at night. In the daylight I noticed that one of the towers had a series of cables ready to hoist a big electrical star, I guess for a Christmas decoration?

The next morning, today, ushered in dense fog. The morning started beautiful clear blue, and about 8:00, within minutes, while I was on the phone with someone, I looked out and could not see the island! And I was only 100 feet from it! I puttered on the boat for the morning, fiddling with electrical questions , like: “why does the wiring for my GPS and Marine radio ground through the light fixture?” Another set of projects was added to the list….

The fog burned off by noon and I started cruising around the harbor, just poking about. No real goal. (and you know what happens when THAT happens..!). I checked out Los Alamitos Bay and the marina there. I liked Dana better. When I came out of the breakwater the winds had picked and I was able to really heal it (meaning the boat) over.

Long Beach Harbor is one of the busiest shipping hubs in the world. Huge tanker and container ships come in and out all the time. I was a bit worried about the “traffic” but I really only saw 2 or 3 ships moving at any one time, and they are pretty easy to see and stay out of their way. These ships are about 1000 feet long and many hundreds of feet high. I bet their anchor weighs more than my whole ship! From their command center/control bridge they cannot see me, and I bet I don’t even show up on their radar, and even though I am under sail and they are motoring and by strict rule I have the right of way, prudence says that I should keep out of their way! (beside there are side-bar rules that reference “limited maneuverability and constrained by draft….” language )

Long Beach harbor is about 10 miles long and I spent all afternoon beating against a very strong wind to get to the west end. It is so big that even inside the breakwater there were big wind waves and whitecaps. Not exactly “protected” from a small boat point of view. At one point I got tired of dodging ships and oil pumping islands and I pulled outside the breakwater for more unobstructed sailing. I had already reefed my main-sail and rolled in half my jib and was still making 5 knots to windward. It was a rollicking day to say the least! I made 2 long tacks and pulled into the west entrance, past a small lighthouse, and pulled into Cabrillo Marina about sundown, 7:00, where I am sitting at anchor as I write this. There were no markers designating a general anchorage area but the chart says it is designated such and it seems pretty quiet tonight so I hope I am not woken up at 3:00 AM by Harbor Patrol telling me I have to move on to some other place.

Tomorrow I think I may rest for a day, really rest. Play my guitar and take a nap. Then I may move on up the coast and check out Abalone Cove and Kings Harbor. The next quick leg onward would be to Marina Del Rey . Standby for news!