sailing casita

Today is Sunday, we arrived here in Avalon at Sunrise last Tuesday so this is our 6th day on our mooring. We plan to depart very early (around 2am) tomorrow morning for San Diego. There has been little to no wind for the past week but tomorrow looks very promising for a nice sail. The reason for the painfully early departure is to make sure we arrive in San Diego Bay before dark.

We have really enjoyed our time here in Avalon, it is a nice little tourist town. Mellow now in the off season but I’m sure it gets a bit over crowded feeling during the summer weekends. They have an amazing off season deal where paying for 2 nights gets you a full week, so we haven’t blown the budget staying here. I was a little nervous before arriving about the fore/aft mooring system they use here but it wasn’t too bad (though we didn’t have any wind) and the harbor patrol boat stood by in case we needed help. It was definitely easier than the system used at Angel Island! And the water in the harbor is amazingly clean and clear, we made water without worrying about prematurely clogging our filters.

There are lots of ways to spend your money here but we have mostly resisted temptation. We took the shore boat (i.e. water taxi) to breakfast our first morning here and we got ice cream one afternoon, but those were our only real splurges. Other than that we’ve done a little grocery shopping at the local Von’s (prices seemed pretty close to what we are used to paying in the Bay Area).

We motored all night to get here so we bought some diesel at the fuel dock. It isn’t a floating fuel dock like most recreational fuel docks, it is a tall pier where they drop down lines to tie to and drop down the fuel hose. We’ve been to a few that were the same general idea but they are all a little different which keeps things interesting. The little triangle inside the harbor on our No Foreign Map is our trip to the fuel dock. Oh, and we had the pump out boat come by rather than going to the free pump out dock. That was a splurge.

Mostly we have spent our time here just hanging out on board, getting minor chores and projects done, or going for walks on shore. We went for a nice short hike with a decent elevation gain and some nice views of the island and the harbor.

We are a little sad to say goodbye to Avalon but we area also anxious to get started on our final preparations for Mexico!!

I almost forgot the biggest bestest news: Devon fixed the windlass!!!!