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Friday January 16, 2009

On the road again! Willie Nelson's classic hit rang from Bella Donna as we left Ventura Harbor. Several other vessels in the harbor sounded their horns to bid us farewell. We are off to Mexico, Cabo Saint Lucas and La Pas. However, we plan to make some stops along the way. Our first day takes us less than 50 miles down the California Pacific Coast to Marina Del Ray which is just short of the end of LAX runway.

The nights are cold, but the middle of the short winter days are very warm, about 72 degrees. The skies are bright blue and cloudless. This morning a brown haze is blowing by a brisk Santa Ana wind out to sea. Ventura is surrounded by farmland that is constantly rotated from crop to crop. Every Monday many of the fields are plowed. I can't quite put my finger on the smell. I guess it is a strange mixture of top soil, fertilizer and chemicals. One crop we sampled last night, fresh mushrooms.

We left Ventura around 9 AM in a brisk, 20 to 30 knot wind, on our port beam. We start conservatively with just a stay sail raised on our bow; Bella Donna accelerated to 9 knots. By lunchtime the wind has disappeared and we motor in perfectly flat glassy seas just a mile off the coast of southern California; just far enough out to avoid most of the fishing pots but close enough to tour the coast. Dolphins are arching in and out of the mirror flat sea surrounding Bella Donna. Seals lay on their backs in the flat water in the warm winter sun. This is one of those special impossible moments to plan for that just happen in one's life. I think about how much I would like to share this with our grand kids.

After lunch we pass Zuma Beach and Point Dune; both of these played a part in my life in the late 60's and early 70's when I was in my 20's. I remember a scuba class on Zuma Beach where we learned to handle big surf and a sea bed covered with sea urchins at the same time. At Point Dune there is a buoy round which we sailed Sea Sea Rider, the Cal 224 I raced with Jack Tatum. It was a 2 day race; I remember rounding the buoy at sunset the first day of the race. In the foggy night that followed we could not get a fix on our position, no GPS back then, and ended up in surf near some beach. We turned quickly and sail out to sea and dropped our sails and waited for morning first light. Much to our surprise first light revealed many other vessels in the race near us. Everyone put their sails up and waited for the wind. Inch by inch and foot by foot we sailed in the southern California light winds home.

The shoreline as we progress south transitions from beach houses to more urban looking structures. We pass Malibu, the home of many movie stars. Many movie scenes are shot either on the white fenced bluff above us or the Santa Monica Peer with its ferris wheel. Venice Beach passes by. Finally we enter the long T-shaped breakwater channel leading to the 6,000 boat marina. I have not been here in almost 40 years and the neighborhood has matured. I feel like I am home to something very familiar while very different.

God Bless Bella Donna