New surf shop in Ocean Beach, California

Gregg's Art and Surf Co. is selling locally shaped boards and representing local visual artists. 
Stop by and chat with Gregg. 4827 Voltaire St., Suite A, San Diego, CA.

Captain Curran's hanging lamps are on display at Gregg's shop.

DIY: How to build companionway doors for your sailboat

Here is my finished product. A new, collapsible (4 piece) companion way door for a 1976, 30 foot Newport sailboat. Alright, this is a piece of cake - nothing to it. I am not much of a carpenter - but I was able to piece this together for about 50$ and a few hours of mucking about with saws and varnish.

So, here are the pieces of the old door. They are withered, on their last legs. I went to Home Depot, and bought a 8 foot by 4 foot sheet of 1/4 inch weather resistant Birch plywood. This is about 40$. You can try other weather resistant woods (teak ext..)

You just pencil out the dimensions and get cracking with a circular line saw.

You just replicate the dimensions and angle of cut from the old set of doors. It is pretty intuitive. But you have to put in this staggered cut in each - so as to keep rain from entering through the cracks between each piece. So, I cut in half the depth of the Birch at about 1/2 inch in distance into each board. So each piece slide together like puzzle pieces. Check the arrows, the complimentary cuts.














Trim the height to get it just right. So the hatch slides over properly. You can power sand the bottom piece to get it right. Or re-cut if the correction is large.

Then give it a light sand and she's ready for varnish.

I know there are a lot of varnish afficionados out there- I am not one of them. But I know this works for me. I lay 4 heavy coats of this stuff down and I am good for a few years.

 And here she is - new doors, with a cool, two-tone effect of Birch with Teak trim on the door.

Sailing distance (nautical miles) and time for a sailboat trip from San Diego to Catalina Island (Mission Bay, Oceanside, Dana Point, Avalon, Two Harbors)

This is a great sailing trip. You can bang it out in a week. And in doing so, will have covered a lot of the waters around Southern California. Plus, once you get to Catalina - there's lots of bays and bights between Avalon and Two Harbors to hide out in and drop the anchor.

I thought it might be helpful for other sailors to have all this travel info. in one place.

Distance in nautical miles:               (1 nm = 1.15 land miles)

Mission Bay to Oceanside:      27
Oceanside to Dana Point:        22
Dana Point to Avalon:             33
Dana Point to Two Harbors:    38
Mission Bay to Avalon:           63
Oceanside to Avalon:               45

I plotted out these distances based on my route (direct), and took an approximate start point for each distance at the outside of each harbor. Each mariner may experience a slightly different distance, depending on their mooring location and line of sail, but consider these good approximations.

It is worth noting that the marina locations I have included in the map, are the only marinas located within this area.

We made the round trip in a 30 foot sailboat (1976 Newport), staying a night or two at each harbor.

There were certainly glorious moments when we were holding 7-8 knots under sail. However, considering the range of conditions we experienced (current, swells, headwind), let's say - our average speed for this trip was 4.7 knots. Yeah, a bit humbling, this is about the speed of a brisk walk.

At that average speed, the approximate time it would take us to get from A to B was:

Time needed for each leg (if averaging 4.7 knots)


                                               Hours (in decimal)

Mission Bay to Oceanside:       5.7
Oceanside to Dana Point:         4.7
Dana Point to Avalon:              7
Dana Point to Two Harbors:     8
Mission Bay to Avalon:          13.4
Oceanside to Avalon:               9.6

If you're in a 30 foot sailboat, or something resembling that - these times should be a decent estimate, whether under sail or engine. Of course, sailors rarely use a completely direct path from one point to another - and so, it would be wise to plan for 1-2 hours on top of these estimates.

Alright  -

Sail on Sailor.

Sail journey from San Diego to Catalina Island

In the blink of an eye, 2 years have passed since the last entry in the Captain's log.

After returning from the Alaskan adventure, the boat and myself have since relocated to Southern California. We've traded in the Puget Sound of Seattle for the Mission Bay of San Diego, California. The Puget Sound was very British, while the Mission Bay is very Spanish. 

There aren't too many decent anchorages down here, but we do have Catalina Island. 

The Alize' steering herself up the Eastern coastline of Catalina Island. Most of the island is run by the Catalina Island Conservancy, which has done an admirable job of keeping the place wild and largely undeveloped.

The auto tiller tacks past the iconic Catalina Casino.

Mariana and her dog, Lou, perched above Avalon Harbor on the Southern tip of Catalina Island. The Alize' is moored just to the right of Mariana's head.

What should have been a relatively easy 15 hour crossing from San Diego to Avalon (63 nautical miles), turned into a challenging 3 day approach. While waiting for a 6-8 foot groundswell to subside, we crept slowly North via overnight stays at Oceanside Harbor and then Dana Point. When the winds subsided and the Sea finally laid down flat, we punched over from Dana to Avalon (33 nautical miles) in the dark of night.

Lou proved himself very Sea-worthy. When the conditions get too rough for him, he quietly vomits in a corner. He doesn't make a big deal about it either. He just takes care of his business and moves on.
Very stoic.

The dog is real, but the cat is a fake.

I hand speared this California halibut at 15 feet of depth inside Toyon Bay. Toyon is about 4 or 5 bays North of Avalon on the leeward side of Catalina. There's not much protection from ocean swell, but in settled weather, you can drop the anchor here and get a decent night's sleep.

 

Photo credit: Matt Healy

Looking East back to the mainland. Los Angeles sits just out of sight on the horizon line, 40 miles away. 

120 days at Sea and 2,840 nautical miles.

Very late on a Monday evening, the Alize' is shuffled through the Ballard Locks and into the stagnant water of Seattle's shipping canal.

Back into the grubby hands of Babylon -

The Alaskan voyage is over.

Ryan Miller checks in for the final leg

Springer is out and Miller is in -

Rolling into the homeland - customs clearance at Friday Harbor - the end is in sight.

Sailing into Vancouver Harbour

Vancouver - city of blue tinted glass and high density progressive internationals.



Making way into False Creek under the Burrard Bridge.




The 'China Steel Excellence' waits patiently in English Bay for its next assignment.



Springer returns triumphant to his city.

Desolation Sound

A strong westerly came down Johnstone Strait and into the Northern Desolation Sound Island group.



This made for a fast downwind sail - and then it picked up a bit more and blew out the main sheet tackle.

The blown out traveler and the jury rig main sheet tackle.

Tying up on abandoned pier pilings makes for a bad night sleep.

Broughton Archipelago

After returning from the hardscrabble northern regions of the Inside Passage - tucking into the Broughton Island Group felt a little soft. The 'Soft'en Archipelago. We knew we had returned to the leisurely class when we woke up at an anchorage and found the blue hulled 'Princess' bobbing next to us.




After a slow day moving south through the Broughton's - Steve needed some alone time.

Steve finally realizes why Steinbeck's 'The log from the Sea of Cortez' is so quotable for biologist's power point presentations.

Sullivan Bay is sort of the Disneyland of BC port towns. On par with Skagway in regards to faux- 'old-timey'.

another Steve Springer creation -

The Alize' at rest among the Namu ruins.


Bow riding porpoise

Clearing Cape Caution

Bottleneck Inlet - the most symmetrical anchorage of the entire trip.



Klemtu is a stunning native town just below Finlayson channel. Salmon were jumping, the sun was out and the locals were in rare form.

The Klemtu long house.


The Kitlope Wilderness in Douglas Channel - I heard great things about this stretch of water - but this is as close as we got - the entrance. The Kitlope stone remains unturned.





Miles Inlet remains the nicest way to recover from the exposed crossing of Cape Caution.