I had a wonderful time hosting my dad here on No Bad Days this week. He has been so excited to come visit ever since I embarked on this mad scheme. Quite some time ago he researched the shuttle details from Logan to the Salt Lake airport, and which flight would be best to get here to So Cal to avoid driving in rush hour traffic. He even figured out that the John Wayne OC airport was closest to Dana. Finally after all the trees in his yard were cut down and the crops were in, (ever the farmer, my dad) he pulled the trigger on the tickets and I picked him up at the airport the other day.

He was a model visitor, following every nautical instruction to the letter. Perhaps the most dangerous part of every voyage is stepping off the dock onto the boat, which has a tendency to dip when you step on it and more than 1 quest has lost their balance at that critical moment and took a tumble, but he did a great job every time getting on and off. We spent the first night anchored here in the bay just to make sure all was well, and when it proved to be so, the next morning we shoved off for a voyage to Newport. The winds were too light to sail so after an hour of bobbing, we powered up the motor and steamed 3 hours to drop anchor in Newport. It was pretty uneventful, as I was hoping it would be. I promised mom I would not let him drown and it was good that I had some help from Ma Nature….

Dad seemed to appreciate my cooking, barbarian as it may seem, and we have the same taste in grilled chicken, yogurt and cereal, heavy whole wheat bread, and he learned to love egg burritos. He was a bit chagrined to realize that “no refrigeration” also means “no Ice cream” but he was a real trooper and we made up for that privation when we went to the Jolly Roger restaurant after we returned to Dana.

The voyage back to Dana was with a nice south wind and we sailed the whole way, tacking 5 times and making good time. We encountered the biggest school of dolphins I have ever seen, with at least a hundred swimming around us, and unusually, they swam along with us for a while. Usually they seem to find my 5 knot bow wake to be too boring to bother and just pass on by, but this time they seemed to find a reason to toodle along with us for a while!

We enjoyed a lively discussion of politics (peacefully!) and family history, with dad catching me up on stories about Uncle DeLynn and Aunt Mary Ellen.

It was a great time and I was sad to run him back to the airport. I hope he can come again soon.

Tonight I am at anchor outside dana, and enjoyed another rollicking twilight Pelican Plunge. They were diving right by the boat, and there must have been more fish than usual because the pelicans seemed to barely get airborne and flap wings a few times before they would dive again. This one was also different, in that there didn’t seem to be any seagulls around to harass them when they dove and came up with a fish. Just the pelicans. (Maybe they set up a decoy and a few pelicans lured the gulls to the garbage dump or something so they could plunge in peace!)