Dana Point To San Diego: Or What Was Supposed To Be A Week That Turned In To almost 2!: October 16th - 27th, 2023
Dinner with Kendall’s family.
Where to even start? Sailing into Dana Point was great! It was so nice to spend time with my parents, my sister & our niece. The time was fairly low-key. However, up until then, we had been going at a pretty quick pace. So it was great to have almost a whole week of hanging out & getting things done in a slower manner.
One thing that was a little hard was that I found myself starting to get used to the conveniences of land life again. -Which is why we spent half the nights at my parents’ house & half of the nights on MerSea. I’d hate to become a landlubber at this point!
Scenes from the week in Laguna:
We left a day early because we wanted to break up the distance to San Diego. We made reservations for the Oceanside Marina. Only $35 per night! A very good deal for being tied up to the dock.
That morning we had breakfast with the family. A nice but hard parting. It was a little weird to think that we won’t see my parents again until March. Although, I think of not being able to see people in person during the 1st year of Covid. At least it won’t be that long!
And here is when the story gets interesting. We got 2 miles out of Dana Point Harbor when Matt noticed our engine slowing down on it’s own. Then…..kaput! We tried to start it up again but it wouldn’t turn over. I wanted to take the easy way out & call BoatUs to get towed back into the marina but Matt wanted to put the sails up. Since, he can fix pretty much everything, I agreed. I thought it wouldn’t take to long to get it back & running. I was wrong.
Matt looked into all sorts of things. He cleaned the air filter. The the oil was a bit low. Filled it up just to make sure it wasn't that. He finally figured out it was a fuel issue. -The water that was filling up the fuel filters was a huge hint. So, in turn, he went to take a look at the hole where diesel is poured into. The cap was missing! Was this a sick prank someone pulled on us? Because…you know…blame others first. But no, the cap was actually in the little cubby where we put it to keep it from getting lost while we fill up on fuel. When was the last time we filled up on fuel? Well, that was back in Avalon, 8 days before. Funny thing is that on Tuesday, in Dana Point, I washed the boat….with water….lots of water…water that went into the fuel tank through the hole that only diesel is supposed to go into.
Before, calling us complete idiots, please note that the cockpit panels that I made to surround the cockpit for warmth do cover over the fuel & holding tank openings. So we didn’t realize the cap was off because it was covered up by the lining of the panel.
At least we knew what was going on. Matt was hoping we could sail the rest of the way to the entrance of Oceanside Harbor. Unfortunately, the wind was all but dead. It was going to get dark soon & we needed to get towed into the slip anyway. I couldn’t call BoatUs fast enough.
The dispatcher said that we definitely needed a place already available to us & that we needed to already have a plan on getting our engine issue fixed because no marina wants to have a boat stuck on their dock. I told her that we already had a reservation in Oceanside. But she said Oceanside had no services. So I told her to change the boat tow back to Dana Point. Ugh! At least a two hour tow!
However, I then talked to my Dad & he said that there were definitely services in Oceanside! And immediately after I hung up with him, the actual tow guy, Kevin, called us & also told us that it WOULD be better to get our boat towed to Oceanside. -Not only because it was closer, but because we already had a slip booked & that there were great services available in the area to fix our problem. So I listened to my Dad’s & Kevin’s advice.
He arrived within the hour, rescued us & towed us 7.5 miles to Oceanside, as it got dark. It was a pretty quick & smooth ride. Kind of fun, actually!
When we pulled into the marina Kevin led us into a different slip than we were assigned, as the slip where we were supposed to dock at had a boat next to it that was too wide & we wouldn’t have been able to fit in to our assigned slip.
We were so grateful for Kevin’s help. He also gave us good advice & told us who to call in the morning to get our fuel tank cleaned & polished.
First thing on Monday morning, Matt called the resources we were given to get our issue solved. He finally found a guy, Ryan, who sounded really nice, to fix our fuel tank. The only problem is that he wasn’t able to come until Thursday morning. Oh well, Que Sera, Sera.
This meant hoping, that when I went into the marina office that morning, that they would not only let us stay in the slip we were already in but that they had the ability to let us do that for another 4 nights! Thank God they did! They did say we could move to the other slip we were originally assigned to if we wanted. LOL. And of course I said that I really loved where we were & that we were completely fine keeping that spot.
You know what is crazy?! There was a marine parts store right across the street from where we were docked! Usually, you need to drive at least a mile away to get boat parts! So we took advantage of this. Matt found a ton of stuff we needed! Joe, the guy behind the counter, couldn’t have been more helpful! We felt very lucky to get “stuck” in Oceanside just for finding this place! Going to be in the Oceanside area? Go to Oceanside Marine Centre. The address is 1550 N Harbor Dr, Oceanside, CA 92054. Phone # 760-722-1833.
More scenes from our stay in Oceanside:
Wednesday we got a bunch of stuff done. -Nothing that interesting but I feel we were able to catch up on a lot of stuff that has gone by the wayside since starting.
Took advantage of still being in the states & got our groceries through Instacart one last time.
Matt found a great fishing store. They were so helpful that he was able to get another fishing pole. -Used but only $40!
Thursday was an exciting day! Ryan came to fix the boat & fixed it fairly quickly! He had a ton of equipment that he dragged down to the dock! We were very lucky that we didn’t have to get hauled out. -Which is what a friend of ours had to do when encountering the same problem.
Ryan was awesome! He siphoned out the tank, polished it & then put the filtered fuel back into the tank. What was really cool is that he stayed around until we actually got the engine started again.
So, if you ever have this type of problem & are in the Oceanside area call Ryan. Here is his info: The Fuel & Oil Polishing Company of San Diego, LLC. (619)260-1068.
Not too much later, my parents came & we had lunch at a restaurant close by. It was very comforting to see them one more time before leaving for Mexico. Thanks, Mom & Dad, for coming down to see us! Love you both!
Friday morning we left around 8 am for San Diego. San Diego, where we paid for a week long stay but that got cut short to just 8 hours. -Too bad our bill didn’t.
The day felt long. Although it got a little exciting as we were approaching San Diego. A huge US Naval Warship, (I hope I have that terminology correct), needed to enter the harbor basically at the same time as we were at the entrance. It felt like they were way far enough behind us that we could have just moved to the side once we got past the entrance. But their representatives in the huge dinghy said that we needed to turn around. Didn’t they hear all that we’ve been through? Oh well, we did turn around. It was pretty impressive to see them pass us. Matt got some great shots of it!
San Diego Harbor is HUGE! And the channel is LONG! I found myself wishing we had paid the extra cash to get a slip closer to the entrance. On the other hand, we didn’t really get to stay in San Diego so I’m glad we didn’t.
We did get to our slip F38. Funny though, it had a rope tied across it so that we couldn’t pull into it. Luckily, these nice people, who had their own boat on that dock, helped us out & said it would be fine if we just pulled into this other slip. -That the boat was never there. So that’s just what we did.
It was after 5 PM & the marina office was closed so I left them a message letting them know what happened. And added that we were leaving super early in the morning so it didn’t really matter.
Then I took Zephyr for a walk. I walked past where I thought the office should be. And there was an office. It just had the name of another marina name on it. Yep, it turns out that there probably is more than one F38 slip in all of the San Diego Harbor. We were at the wrong marina! It was further down the channel.
After laughing at me for a bit, Matt asked if I thought if we should just stay put or go look for our correct slip. It was almost dark & we were leaving in about 7 hours so I just said that we should stay in the slip we were at. Why bother moving at this point? So that’s just what we did.
There you have it! The long saga of our last few weeks! We came out the other end more humbled & more knowledgable. Thanks to my Dad, Brian Pearson & Warren Cannon for their advice. It’s so good to know we have awesome people for resources!
Daddy, pay attention to me! I’m definitely cuter than whatever is on your phone!
Thanks for reading! We appreciate all the love & support from everyone! Come back next week & find the answers to these questions & more: Do we make it to Mexico? Do we catch up with the Baja Ha-Ha? Does Zephyr catch a seagull?…..Stay tuned….
