It's been over a month since Slowdance sailed - way too long. Finally, the weather got better, the schedule less intense and the SoCal Potters had a day sail scheduled all at the same time. The weather forecast was excellent, calling for 10 Kt winds and temperatures just below 70º F.

I took the opportunity to install a new set of running lights on Slowdance. The new ones are Perko and are lower profile and made of chrome plated bronze rather than the plastic that the original lights were made of. Other than a quick cleanup, this was the only maintenance she got before the sail. It's getting about time for a wax job, but the boat has proven very easy to maintain, so far.

We rolled into the parking lot at the Marina Del Rey ramp around 9:00, planning on being rigged and in the water by 10:00. In the picture above are two P-15's and a Montgomery. Capt. Howie in the foreground gives the outboard a test start. Rod and Rodney Vig are setting up Rodney's (the younger) boat in the middle and Fu Shing Pan, who often accompanies the Potter group, readies the Montgomery.

Although we allowed an hour to rig Slowdance, with Donna and I both working on it we got the job done in about 45 minutes at a leisurely pace.

Here's a shot of the same three boats from the other side. Rod is just getting the mast stepped on Rodney's boat and Skipper Bill chats with Capt Howie in Sweet Thing.

A P-15 tacks out of the channel, along with some other boats.

A P-19 (don't know who this is) also sails out of the channel

Slowdance takes the easy route and motors out past the breakwater. The boat to the left with a black hull is Raven, a P-19 in the group.

Raven under sail. Not a lot of wind, yet, but enough to get along - Great sail colors!

P-15 "Sweet Fifteen" sails out ahead of us. It looks like her skipper is on the lookout for whales.

We sailed out from the breakwater for about three or four miles. The rest of the group had launched and sailed out sometime after us, so we headed back towards the breakwater. In the light air, we were only making about 3 kts. We got closer to the breakwater, but most of the fleet was apparently elsewhere. We decided to head up the coast towards the Santa Monica pier. This direction appeared more interesting than heading south. The idea was that if some of the other folks had headed in that direction as they came out of the harbor, we should meet up with them on their return trip.

Slowdance approaches the Santa Monica pier. If you click on the image above for the full resolution image, you can see the famous amusement park.

We didn't see any more potters around Santa Monica and it was now about 3:00, so we decided to head back to Marina Del Rey. Other than a few dolphins in the channel coming out of the marina, we didn't see any other sea life. We probably were not far enough out to see whales from this area of the coast.

It was a very enjoyable sail with some opportunities to talk with other Potter sailors and learn a few things in the process. Even when the breeze freshened a bit the boat was still completely dry. The swell was small at about 2 feet and there was very little chop. We got the boat hauled out, de-rigged and were on the road again by 5:00.

Planned excursions this year include at least one Catalina Island trip, another run to Anacapa Island and possibly a harbor hopping trip down to San Diego.

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