7-23-05 Mission Bay

I got up very early on July 23rd and climbed into the truck with Slowdance waiting patiently on the trailer in the driveway to begin the hour and a half drive down to San Diego. The plan was to arrive at one of the Mission Bay launch ramps by 0900, meeting up with some of the other West Wight Potter sailors in Southern California.

The objective was to have a picnic and socialize during the day on Saturday and anchor overnight in Mariner's Cove. This was my first sail out of San Diego and I was interested in getting more familiar with the area, as well as enjoying the company of the others in the group.


		We arrived at the South Shores ramp, as my old racing skipper used to say, "midway in the fleet". Actually, I think that's what went into the log of that Cal 25 regardless of where we finished. The rule seemed to be that there had to be at least one boat behind us at the end of the race. In the photo above, Jim Keller finishes readying Lynn Marie as other's in the group chat and enjoy the early morning.


	The boats in the group came in various stages to the meeting area on the beach in Mariner's Cove. Above are one of the P15s and another P19.


	Because of the fully retracting centerboards - or, more correctly, drop keel since they also act as ballast - the Potters can be brought right up to the beach. On the left above, Capt. Howie walks an anchor in to the beach to keep his P15 close in. The boat on the right is Russ Grillo's well maintained P14. This is an earlier version of the current P15 design.

We arrived at our beach spot just as the tide was turning. This was only a couple of days past the full moon, so we were looking a a fairly fast moving ebb tide and the bottom here slopes gradually. This combination meant that the edge of the water at the beach would retreat fairly quickly and the boats would have to be moved frequently or end up high and dry until the next high tide.

In the picture on the left Slowdance (far left) rides to anchor in knee deep water with the Keller's boat and Capt. Howie's P15. The P15s are, as one would suspect, much lighter than the P19s. This meant that they could be pulled in a little closer and if the tide left them stranded it was much easier to push them off. Slowdance and Lynn Marie were both anchored bow and stern so that they would stay in a little deeper water. We still need to move them out with the tide so that they were in shallow enough water to wade out to, but far enough off the bottom to not get stuck.

On the right some of the folks check out the upgrades on Lynn Marie. This is also one of the great benefits of gatherings such as this one where there is plenty of time to visit. There is no such thing as a perfect boat and it is unlikely that that the skipper will ever feel that there is nothing that can be done to make the boat a better performer, or more suitable for their style.

There are usually a few people from International Marine, builders of the Potters, at these events and they are always attentive to how the sailors are using their boats, what they want and how they may be improved. Of course, they are also sailing with the group. Occasionally, minor modifications are made in the outfitting of the new boats so that they continually evolve.


	The time on the beach was divided between cooking, eating and relaxing and tending the boats. with this many folks around, even if we were a little late moving one of the boats out with the tide, we could still get it pushed out.




	Once the food settled and the cleanup was done, folks started drifting off (actually, sailing or motoring). Some of us opted for a quick sail before sunset. To the right is Denny Hyatt's That-N-More. The winds were light and variable, but that went well with the general laid-back feeling through the weekend. The sail was relatively uneventful, except for occasionally having to deal with seaweed collecting on the centerboard. The larger clumps can be seen and avoided, but somehow an occasional piece is missed.


		There was also a pair of Montgomery 15s at the event. These boats have a shallow fixed keel and need to be in a little deeper water. They seem to perform very well from what I have seen and are also well constructed. One thing worthy of note from this day's experience: If a boat does get stranded by the tide it is somewhat easier to push off the one with a fully retractable keel.

Just before sunset, we sailed back into Mariner's Cove and anchored. Besides That-N-More and Slowdance, three other boats showed up again and we "rafted up" for the evening. Since Slowdance was the first to anchor (not wanting to miss dinner) the other boats tied up on either side, rather than anchoring themselves. Besides being a much more sociable environment in the small boats where none can independently support that many people, it also conserves space in the anchorage since the five boats swing in one circle around a single anchor rather than five circles consuming 5 times the area.

There are a couple of pictures of the raft up on Capt. Howie's site: http://www.howies.net/socalpotter/ Click on "Past Events" then scroll down to "Mission Bay - 2005". Click on this to see a very nice slide show.

There was one surprise that evening: The fireworks! Mission Bay is right next to Sea World and every evening there are fireworks. The view of the fireworks was excellent from our anchorage and was enhanced by the reflections off of the water. Soon afterwards, I turned in for the night. I slept well and was only awakened once, around 4 a.m, as a newcomer to the anchorage rattled out 50 or 60 feet of anchor chain nearby. Other than that, it was a peaceful, gentle evening.

Breakfast was sausage, eggs and coffee. The galley in the P19 is small, but works. The only challenge is cleanup as most harbors do not allow any type of discharge from the boats. Since this was a one night event, some of the cleaning could be postponed. For multiple nights, food that can be reconstituted with boiling water, like the Army's MREs, or various types of trail food, will leave behind no dirty pots and pans. It would be nice if marinas and harbors with no discharge policies would provide a common "galley sink" area as well as the usual showers and rest rooms.

This was a great weekend and a good introduction to Mission Bay. The launch ramps at Mission Bay are relatively uncrowded. Both the ramps and the anchorage in Mariner's cove are Free. The beaches a clean and first rate. The gently sloping bottom makes it an ideal kid's beach, as well. There are rest room facilities. These are especially appreciated by the P15 folks. These boats have none of their own, although some of the sailors have found clever ways to deal with the issue. My personal opinion is that the port-a-potty and small galley in the P19 are a very big plus for overnight stays and even long daysails. Being able to sit up in the cabin is nice, too.

I plan on heading back to this anchorage again before too long. It is a nice one and well worth the drive.


	Return to Log Index


	[Husak's Place] [Astronomy ] [Photography] [Jeeps] [Home Recording] [Sailing] [Who are we?]