Anchored over at La Playa, San Diego - 2011

July 2011 - At Marina Cortez Harbor Island, San Diego, CA

This weekend we anchored over at La Playa (Spanish for "the beach") anchorage in San Diego for two nights and two days. It was quite nice. 

The wind blew in the afternoon at about 15-20 knots both days. 


Where’s summer? 

We had about 150 foot of 3/8 chain out after I was through messing around getting the ground tackle right. The 45 lb CQR anchor seemed to dig right in as we were letting out scope. The chain stopper I had problems with as it has been a while since we have anchored. I gave up on it after jamming it up a couple times. Put the chain hook on the chain and was done with it. The bridal went on fine. 

 After sitting in the cockpit thinking about the setup I realized I was trying to put the chain stopper on the wrong way and fixed it (operator error).  It needs to go on from the top and then put the pin in it and let it flop down. Gee so simple yet so .. well difficult at the time!

 After a while (the next day Saturday) after messing with the it the bridal fell off. I must have not had enough slack in the chain I am thinking? I re-attached it and let out some more chain.  This was the first time we used the foot switches we out in for the windless and I was inadvertently stepping on them. At one point I had the hand controller working while raising the hook and washing the chain. I was also stepping on the foot switches making me wonder what the hell was going on 😕 Ok I need to cover the switches when not in use.

 We never dragged anchor and we could hear the wind waves the fetch slapping the boat as it would turn in the wind. All the boats at the anchorage were turning also. A kedge would help on this. We were turning less than others, like the Hunters.

 It was a nice relaxing time.

Things we need to fix or modify.

The anchor locker drain needs to be enlarged. 

It gets clogged real easy with the mud from the bottom. It then floods the anchor locker as we try to wash off the chain.

Tom on s/v Eagle enlarged his to ¾ inch I think. That is a project worth doing.
Note:
 We have enlarged the anchor locker drain to 3\4 inch and it now works great!

 While raising the anchor onto the bow roller I went too fast, the anchor hit the bow pulped as it swung around wildly. I need to go slower at this point. Before while going slow it settles in much nicer.

The wash down pump we are using now is the house water pump and is not made for a anchor wash down. It varies till it finds the speed for which to spray. We need the direct wash down pump made for this. It is on the project list. Also I used a lot for fresh water, good thing we were heading back to the marina! The new pump will be hooked to salt water for wash down and then we can use the fresh water for a deck and anchor locker rinse off.
Note:
 We have added a new pump and "Y" valve for switching between salt and freshwater.

 We will need to fix the way the chain comes in over the bow roller before we get new galvanized chain because this way the galvanizing would get scrapped off.

Brig and Dona came by to visit (rafted up) on Sunday and we checked each other’s boats out. 

Dona and I chatting 

Cal 34 inside.

 They are re-building a 34 foot Cal and have done a lot of work to it. They most recently put new port lights in it and put in a new wood head liner with LED lights, very nice looking. They also put in a new cloth head liner below the cabin roof along the sides with the port lights. They have complexly rebuilt the galley and re-upholstered while creating storage behind the salon. On and on it goes. Brig is an excellent woodworker and it shows. Debbie was the smart one and got a few pictures as I was too busy chatting.

While anchoring we took off the deck hatch Sunbrella covers to let the sky in. It is nice to have the extra light and see the sky.

We did set up our chairs on the coach roof top for a bit and think 

we saw Greg on Valkyr III their 36' Islander Freeport motor by.

 Salon.

Satee

State room.

 We also enjoyed the new cockpit grate. We have heard people complain about their grate (with the square holes) showing the dirt. This does not. Just a nice clean looking teak.  Also you can see we are referless so the cooler is in action!

The shade screen on the stern helps with the glare as well 

We had the wood spacers between the lazeretts and I had a flat fender on mine, worked great for the feet

If we would have been here longer we would have removed the wheel but just this short time we left it in place and did not go for the kayak or other toys. Just read, played the gaiter and rested and of course ate good. Next time I am going to do the meal planning and food shopping (with Debbie's help) and I will do all the cooking!