Our plans to visit Catalina Island and anchor in Cat Harbor this year didn’t materialize due to our main propulsion — sails — not being ready. We set about enjoying our planned vacation time with a staycation aboard Sea Story.
We had planned to do some mountain biking on Catalina Island, so we brought the bikes to the yacht club in order to explore Point Loma. We took one long ride up to the entrance of Cabrillo National Monument. We brought our lunch and enjoyed it under a large oak in one of the military cemeteries lining the road along Point Loma. We spent some time admiring the grave markers while noting all the different religious symbols, ages at the time of death, and presence of spouses which frequently included former nurses from time of war. One thing to catch Jay’s eye on the way back was a bunch of metal model ships and the model ship building workshop. We took another break in Liberty Station before heading back to the boat.
Both Fridays we went back to the townhouse for Jay to stop by work for dance practice and Tanya to take care of laundry. Jay’s organization at work puts on a yearly Halloween skit and this year it was Avengers themed, and they choreographed two dances each for the heroes and villains followed by a neutral parties dance and a whole group dance. As one of the choreographers, this required Jay to attend a lot of practice and record a few videos.
The shakedown cruise had involved a lot of eating out, and Jay was rather concerned they wouldn’t eat well on the Ha-Ha. One thing he’d planned to do during our vacation on Sea Story was learn to cook a few more meals. Paella was on the list after the experience in Avalon, Thai Curry was on the list because it is his favorite catered food at work, and Eggplant Marsala was on the list to have a vegetarian dish. The Paella recipe we found included tomato paste which changed it a bit from what we were expecting. After having tried several variations, we determined that the Spanish chorizo from Ralphs is too salty. The Eggplant Marsala was a bit time consuming the way Jay cooked it, and he didn’t quite get the flavor right.
The Thai Curry was a home run from the first go. Jay cooks it regularly now, and we have successfully swapped out the chicken for tofu, shrimp, and fish. Bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and bean shoots can be substituted for one another or all included. Bok choy, green pepper, celery, and French cut green beans work similarly. The quantities of brown sugar and fish sauce are easily recalled from memory. Using coconut cream instead of coconut milk speeds up the preparation. The only thing is we currently buy the red and green curry paste in tiny jars. Some day we need to either find it in larger quantity or make our own.
We went to the San Diego Zoo at least once, and we continued to go to yoga on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.
We did get to go sailing once with our new sails and try out using Steve’s staysail from his Newport 41 cutter, Summerwind. Unfortunately the clew was too high to make this sail work for Sea Story.
In addition to the multiple trips to Oceanside to get Consigliare back to San Diego, we spent a day onboard working on projects to get things ready for the Baja Ha-Ha. After our vacation, Tanya continued to assist Steve with preparing Consigliare. Steve had ordered a dodger and a new autopilot. He had to remove the propane locker to get the autopilot installed. Jay was back to fully focusing on work and staying healthy enough for the trip. Tanya got to spend enough time with Randy that she was thankful she wouldn’t be going along on a trip with three guys, their potty humor, and Dad jokes. Instead, she spent another two weeks of staycation on Sea Story, getting to know more liveaboards at the club.
SV Sea Story 