Oceanside Yacht Club – 22.05
We have had a busy week! During the 9 last days we have sailed in 6. Snipe, Hobie 33, Melges 32, Lightning and this weekend two days in the snipe again. To try to get in contact with local sailors here on the West Coast was something we wanted to do before we sailed from Norway = part of the plan, and we are very happy for arriving at this coast a little early to do so. The lightning sailing with Larry was exciting with very close (impact..) situations but it ended with a first place. On the Melges 32 we joined Willem on a beer can race, and that boat is a rocket!
It is however the snipes we have sailed the most here in San Diego and it was fun to join the fleet in Mission Bay for a 2 day weekend race. On Saturday we sailed 5 races (4-3-2-3-3) in pretty heavy wind. Karl Otto Has not sailed Snipe races since 2009, and that was also the last time with hiking and Maren has only sailed the snipe for 10-12 times before. Two of the boats were a little bit faster than us but we looked like a pretty solid number 3. We were both totally ruined after the first day and if we would have had the same conditions on Sunday we are not sure that we would have made it to the start! Luckily it was a lot lighter and we had 4 nice races (4-3-2-8), in the total we were 3. Jerelyn Biehl met us for a chat about the old days and new days on the Sunday morning and again there are so many nice, involving and happy people around us which makes us very thankful. Thanks to Don Bedford for lending out his own snipe to us, which again led to him borrowing another boat.
In addition to all the sailing we have also started to get Cubaneren ready for Transpac. We have rented a self storage and emptied the boat for diving equipment and other things that we do not think we shall use during the next 4-5 months. We see that the diving in the Pacific is a bit more challenging than home and in the Caribbean. It is more current, swell and temperature differences which makes diving without pickup boat a little hazardous. We are probably going to do a couple of dives at Hawaii but that will be organized. We still have our free diving stuff with us also.
We got visitors from Mexico also, and were taken around on a guided tour to the old city, Seaport Village and Balboa Park by Karina and Rebecca. A perfect day! For us it is fascinating that there were only 650 people living in San Diego in 1850 and then how quick the development has been going, with today 1,4 mill people living there with a lively, clean and nice city!
