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| Luther at the helm, Intermezzo under sail |
Luther and I enjoyed an easy passage from Newport Beach to Redondo Beach yesterday. The weather was clear, sunny and cool, the seas calm and we even got to sail the last hour-plus of the passage, a nice reach as we turned north to round Point Vincente.
The day started off well with Luther coming up with a good idea of extracting the little kelp bulb that got stuck in the port engine's raw water intake the previous day. I had tried fishing it out of the hose with a coat hanger, getting close but no cigar. Luther suggested using the shop vac to suck it out. We had the little bugger out in no time.
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| Kelp bulb bugger successfully extracted! |
We had to pass by the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, which are usually busy with ship traffic, but none of the big ships were moving, all were at anchor or in port. We motored past them and the oil platforms that occasionally flared off gas in a big plume of flame.
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| Tankers at anchor, Port of Los Angeles |
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| Lots of traffic, but none of the big ships moving |
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| Oil platform off LA |
I'm enjoying Luther's company. He's good crew and it's nice having a block of time with just him on the boat, without distractions. We don't get to see each other often nowadays.
In my last post, I mentioned Intermezzo's salon "navigation station". A little elaboration on the set up may be of interest to some. I have an old iPad mounted to the forward window frame that repeats the multifunction display (MFD) at the helm. This is usually set to display radar. I can keep watch visually through the salon windows (almost 360 degrees), augmented by radar. I have my other iPad running Navionics charts for navigation. I also have the PredictWind and Windy weather apps running on this iPad, which, via the Starlink internet connection, give me "live" weather and up-to-date forecasts while underway. I also have a wireless remote for the autopilot. So I can pretty much pilot Intermezzo as I recline on the settee in the salon. I actually make a point of getting up and looking around from the helm station regularly, so as to not get lulled into complacency. Or fall asleep.
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| Intermezzo's salon "navigation station", charts on the iPad to the left, radar on the iPad to the right |
We pulled into Kings Harbor in Redondo Beach just after 4pm as the fog began rolling in. We tied up to a mooring ball with a "slime line". The mooring ball pennant is tied to the bow and then you pull on the slime line to reach another mooring line that you tie to the stern to keep the boat from swinging. They can pack more boats into a mooring field this way, though there were lots of empty spaces. There is a platform in the middle of the mooring field on which dozens of sea lions lounge about, barking at each other and at anything or anyone that disturbs them.
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| Redondo Beach mooring configuration, with "slime line" |
Redondo Beach is much less fancy than Newport Beach. There didn't look like much to see on shore, it was cold and damp out, so we opted for staying on the boat and enjoying a hot dinner, followed by freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
We detached Intermezzo from the mooring early this morning and headed out into the fog. It's been clearing up since, but still overcast. We're heading to Oxnard, where we'll take a slip at the public dock. It should be a calm, uneventful passage.
It looks like there will be a good weather window for rounding Point Concepcion on July 2. I won't be able to linger there if I want to catch the next patch of calm weather for my overnight single-handed passage to Monterey. Looks like I'll be leaving San Louis Obispo on the evening of July 3.
