July ‘94

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

July 1st, 1994

I have not been good about starting this journal so I’m trying to go back and remember.
John, Alice, Mandy, Little John, Maxine and her boyfriend Steve all drove over from Phoenix, Az. Little John had BMX bike races, which we went to one, he took 3rd place. They stayed with us on the boat and we took them sailing. They went home on July 4th.

July 7th, 1994

We had 3 days to get more work done. John and Maryann flew in today.

July 9, 1994

We all sailed up to Oceanside which was a 6 or 7 hour sail. We rented a slip for the night.

July 10, 1994

We left Oceanside and headed for Catalina Island. We motor-sailed all the way because there was not much wind, taking about 6 hours. On the way we saw a couple pods of dolphins, they swam around the boat and under the pulpit, this was really exciting. We also saw a whale in the distance and a couple of sharks.
We got a mooring in Avalon that night.

July 11

Got an early start, we bailed around to the other side of the island and anchored at the “Little Harbor.” This being our first anchor, we didn’t sleep much, wanting to make sure the anchors were all set good. Samie got to play on her first beach- after we finally got the dinghy rowed over to it. Rowing back against the waves was even more fun!

*First, Avalon (I found myself back here for probably my favorite birthday ever about 2 decades later). I have vague recollections of this first beach visit, seems it was quite small (Google Maps confirms this). I remember some story about dad losing an anchor from the dinghy this night, but I will have to ask Mom n Dad. Here we have me jumping off the boat for the first time - pretty sure I was in the throws of uncertain panic at the moment this was taken, lol.

July 12

Sailed back to Mission Bay, saw more dolphins and a whale. Rented a slip and stayed here tonight. The trip from the far side of Catalina was 10 hours. There was not much wind today, either.

July 13

Sailed back to San Diego, John and Maryann took us to Price club and we got $1,193.00 worth of supplies for our boat trip. There are still a few things to get, but this really filled most of the storage space- it was a lot.
John and Maryann flew back to Tucson at 6:00 tonight.

July 14

We “stowed” the supplies and re-stowed the supplies trying to get the boat to level out, it was very lop-sided.

July 14

Steve, Brenda and Lori flew in tonight at 10:15 so we all stayed up until about midnight.

July 15

We took Steve, Brenda and Lori for a sail a few miles out and back.

July 16

Sailed up to Mission Bay and rented the same slip as before.

July 17

Sailed back to San Diego, Marina Cortez, took a night time cruise through the harbor to see the lights.
Janell drove with her son over from Show Low, Az. He will be stationed in the Navy here. She came by for about 1.5 hours- it was a real nice surprise.

July 18

Steve and Brenda wanted to go see the Marine Base MCRD- Steve was also in the Marines. So we spent some time watching some boot camp Marines march. Took them to the airport at noon.

July 19

John got a lot of parts as spares to have with us. He signed up and started scuba classes tonight.

July 20, 1994

Got more supplies, Samie and John’s wetsuits, fins, and snorkel gear.

*Ah, the trips to West Marine! What a weird wonderland of new smells and strange equipment! Snorkels, buoys, kayaks, wetsuits and anchors. Chains, fishing lures, life jackets, boat engines and more. The aisles went on and on of all these curious items I’d never seen before.

July 21

I made covers for our bed. John did little fix-its and he showed Samie how to snorkel in the pool.

*I recently went to San Diego and stopped by our old marina and found the pool I learned to swim in. I hadn’t realized how much I missed the ocean till I saw her.

July 22

John and Steve fixed the roller-furler and put up the lighter-air front sail.

July 23

Called Michael to wish him Happy 20th, but of course he wasn’t home. Talked to Peg for a while- can’t wait till she gets here. Talked to Danielle, too. John took Samie up to the pool so she could snorkel.

 July 24

Took the boat out in the bay to motor around and let it run a while.
Bought a used Avon dinghy for $750.

July 25

John painted and put a non-skid on the floor of the dinghy. I patched one of the sail covers. The sun has been out for the last 2 days now, great.

What the heck is a dinghy, you ask?

A dinghy is a small boat typically used by cruisers to get from the boat to land, an vice versa. Where the boat is home, the dinghy is basically our car. This Avon dinghy we bought was a real trooper and hung with us through our entire time at Baja. We did get a canvas cover made to fit over it, which helped keep our limbs safe from the hot rubber sides. We started out with this itty-bitty 2HP Suzuki for our motor, and of course had oars for back-up. I always enjoyed rowing; it’s such a great workout. Later on this year, we upgraded to our 10HP Mariner, which was a really great motor which served me a lot of really fun joy rides!

July 26, Tuesday

We pumped out and flushed out the head holding tank and we have learned – DO NOT EVER put toilet paper in the head. Also cleaned and washed out the bilge. Boat sure smells nice now.
John had scuba class tonight. Steve and Laura came over and Steve made up the “gates”.

*I missed an opportunity to explain some boat-y terms here, such as the head and the bilge. So the head is what sailors call the the toilet, which apparently used to be standard at the bow/front/head of the ship. Ha! I’m just learning this, take a look! Apparently you went up front on the foredeck, just wide out in the open and shat down a shaft that let loose your sewage to the water as the ship parts through it and the wake helps wash out the grime. Pretty smart, actually, but wow! This very much explains a scene in some sailing movie where I absolutely spotted a man sitting at the head of the ship with his pants down wondering what the hell that was supposed to be about. The more you know! Now, for our predicament here, the toilet paper clogged up the holding tank and I don’t even want to know what they had to do to clean it. Thusly, we learned to always throw away the toilet paper, instead.
Next, the bilge. Essentially this is the very bottom of the boat, which can collect water over time. We are able to pump that water out with the bilge system and keep everything “hunky-dory” as Dad would say.
Lastly, neither Mom or myself have any recollection of what the “gates” were or are referring to, which is probably going to bug me, lol.

July 27, Wed

We put netting around the pulpit.
Had Tony from Shelter Island Yacht Sales over for dinner.

*The netting was to help keep my 7-year-old tiny self from accidentally falling through the lifelines which run along the side of the boat and keep us all aboard.

July 28, Thursday

John started putting the water-maker in.

*This water-maker was a true luxury on the boat, as we were able to pull in ocean water and purify it for drinking, showering and washing dishes. The alternative looks more like hauling jerry jugs of fresh water from town out to the boat in order to fill the water tanks, which would require many trips. It would have also meant most showers would be taken in the ocean, only using fresh water for rinsing. Dad really did his research to make sure that we would be mostly self-sufficient and well taken care of while cruising.

July 29, Friday

Cleaned the boat really well, worked on the water-maker installation.
Picked Daddy, Mom, Andy and Peggy up at the airport at 1:00 pm. So good to see them, especially Peg. We checked the oil before starting the boat to take it out and there was water in the oil, so we didn’t dare start it up. After doing some checking we figured it must have gotten in there when we sprayed out the bilge real good. So we ordered pizza and hung around.

July 30, Sat

John went to scuba class and then changed the oil and sure enough nothing major wrong. Went out for a sail but only got a little ways out of the harbor, the swells were about 1 or 2 feet and Mom started feeling sick, so we came back in.
Tonight we did take the “twilight” tour and everyone enjoyed it.

July 31, Sunday

Mom doesn’t want to try and go out again, so John worked on the water-maker and the rest of us went to Point Loma. Came back, got John and went to eat at Point Loma Seafood Fish Market. John stayed on the boat while the rest of us went to the zoo.
I’m so glad Peg is here.