July 2022 was a busy month for us and Libertad, our 46-foot Amel Maramu sailboat. It started with a trip to pick up Libertad from Baja Naval boatyard in Ensenada, Mexico. We had delivered it at the end of May for some TLC—primarily varnish and paint. Experience led us to believe that the work would take a few weeks, but the impact of the coronavirus pandemic was everywhere. The project manager told us that he only had one varnisher and one painter—the same person! Thus, the painting couldn’t start until the varnishing was done.
From Baja to Santa Barbara
We headed south on Amtrak on Sunday, July 3—a holiday weekend. We arrived at the Baja Naval boatyard midday. We admired the yard’s work and started prepping Libertad for the return trip by replacing all the equipment we had removed for painting the cockpit. We ate dinner at a restaurant and ordered two roasted chicken dinners to go for meals during the passage north. A quick stop at the market for a few items to supplement the chicken made for easy provisioning.
We were awakened at 6 a.m. on Monday, July 4, by movement in the cockpit. The varnisher/painter was in the cockpit sanding and polishing out paint drips! That’s how tight our timing was.
While we were checking out of Mexico (the boatyard assigns a person to help with the customs and immigration process, but it’s still painfully slow), the boatyard staff splashed us back into the water, and we were headed for San Diego by 10 a.m. As expected, we motored against the wind, but the seas weren’t too wild.
Virginia, who had installed the U.S. Customs and Border Protection app on her phone, was able to clear us into the U.S. while at sea. We had reserved a slip at the Shelter Island Harbor Police Dock just in case, so we decided to enter San Diego Bay for a few hours’ sleep. The sun had set as we entered U.S. waters with the skyscrapers of San Diego in sight. It was dark as we entered San Diego Harbor, but we knew the way, having been to the police dock several times. The San Diego fireworks started as we approached our slip, giving us a fantastic view of the show.
Knowing we had a 12-plus-hour trip to Two Harbors, we were up and headed to Santa Catalina Island by 4 a.m. on July 5. The holiday traffic had cleared, and we hooked up to a mooring ball as the sun slipped below the mountain peak. It was a quiet night on the boat.
Another early start the following morning got us back to Santa Barbara before dark. It was an eventless trip with lots of motoring.
Sailing for charity
The following week we enjoyed a few day sails with friends and family. The first sail was a prize in an online Rotary Club auction. For a donation to the Rotary foundation, the winners were treated to a three-hour sail aboard Libertad and an onboard dinner at the dock. The wind and sea state were perfect for these novice sailors. While they dined in the salon, we provided a PowerPoint presentation of our trip around the world. They exclaimed that the meal and entertainment were worth every penny of their donation.
The following Wednesday, we scheduled a day sail for relatives and their spouses. We borrowed PFDs to have sufficient safety gear for our group of 10. We were worried that seating would be a concern if the weather turned inclement, but we had sunshine, dolphins, calm seas and great wind—such fun, and no one got seasick!
Friends, fun and cruising
We ended the month with a cruise to Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club in Channel Islands Harbor. Lisa and Scott Burns joined us on Libertad. As we cruised the anchorage, we observed that four of the six anchored boats were swinging on one anchor instead of two, so we followed suit. For dinner, we enjoyed barbecued pork chops with baked potatoes and mixed veggies contributed by Lisa. After two hours of Mexican Train Dominoes, we all cried uncle and headed for our bunks.
Heavy, overcast skies greeted us in the morning, but the Burnses upheld their cruising tradition of ocean activity and kayaked around the anchorage to visit the sea caves while we enjoyed the standard anchoring entertainment provided by arriving boats. Indeed, we swung a full 360 that night but suffered no mishaps.
Later the next morning, we motor sailed to Channel Islands Harbor, enjoying visiting dolphins and a yacht race just outside the breakwater. We entered the harbor with the appropriate pennants flying: the Santa Barbara Sail & Power Squadron burgee, the commander burgee and the bridge officer burgee. The dockside appetizer party was well attended, including by the district commander and members from Ventura and Las Vegas squadrons. One of Virginia’s college roommates joined us for the PCYC dinner and spent the night aboard Libertad. We headed back to Santa Barbara Sunday morning on a route around oil platform Grace to allow us to set up for an afternoon sail. Unfortunately, the wind did not fill in until we were only about a mile outside the harbor, which meant more hours on the engine. We arrived at the slip shortly after 3 p.m.
These trips always end with a list of maintenance issues, leaving us with plenty to do on the boat before the next trip.
This article originally appeared in the Santa Barbara Sail & Power Squadron newsletter, Signal Hoist.
