Long Beach & General Area

Launched at Davies ramp around 11:45 with son-in-law Robert aboard as crew. Launch was uneventful except that this was the first time I've launched and retrieved the boat by myself. It was actually very easy for a boat that weights 1400 lbs. or so. At launch time winds were very light and approximately out of the NW. By the time we cleared the jetties and made sail the wind was occasionally up to 4 MPH or so and strengthening slowly.

We sailed out amongst the ships anchored outside the breakwater. Although we did see a couple of seals mucking about, we still did not see the white whale - oops, different story. We were looking for whales, but there were none to be seen where we were. The chances should get better as it gets later in the year, although there is a premium to be paid with the weather. This day was very nice with temperatures near 70ºF. Perhaps if it is cold and miserable next time, the whales will show up.

The wind continued to strengthen up to about 12 MPH, or so. We were sailing with the lapper (120% jib) and the boat was handling and sailing very nicely. We tacked upwind to the cut the center of the Long Beach breakwater and then came back in to sail by the Queen Mary and the dome where the Spruce Goose was once stored.

 There was quite a lot of stuff floating in the water both inside and outside of the breakwater due to the recent rains. The flotsam and jetsam of Los Angeles somehow makes its way into the concrete "rivers" and when it does finally rain gets flushed out into the sea. We saw an amazingly large number of the plastic bags that the supermarkets like to use to put groceries in. These would be floating about 2 or 3 feet below the surface, appearing like giant jellyfish.

Finally, we headed down from the Long Beach harbor to Alamitos Bay. Wind was on the starboard quarter for this leg and it went by very quickly. The 19 foot Potters have relatively flat bottoms - neither much vee, crosswise, nor curve, fore and aft. This makes the hull "semi-planing" rather than a true displacement hull. Because of this, the boat can be driven faster than the calculated hull speed. I wasn't measuring our speed on the way back, but it looked like we were getting bursts of speed a little better than one would expect.

There was little opportunity or need to use the outboard on this trip, just in and out of the harbor. Total run time now about 4 hours and all is well. Replaced the two cam cleats on the cockpit sides. These come in two flavors, aluminum and carbon fiber. The ones that came with the boat were carbon fiber and the little teeth wore off of them making it difficult to get the jib sheet to catch in the cleat. Replacement was simple and this time we replaced them with aluminum cams. The new ones worked perfectly. We also replaced the little air scoop on the bow as the old one was starting to look pretty ragged. 

The heavy rains of the last week also mark the end of the fair weather sailing season for this area. There will be plenty of nice, if somewhat cooler, days, but it is not likely that Slowdance will be on any of longer trips until spring. Perhaps, in the spring, a harbor-hopping trip from Ventura to San Diego? Who knows. Till then we'll be on little daysails and whale hunts, most likely. Now, if you see that white whale...

Return to Log of the Slowdance index