Pushing off the dock

The past week has been a whirlwind of activity in preparation for leaving the dock. We’ll anchor two nights near the San Diego Yacht Club before we and the 177 other Baja Ha-Ha participants head for Cabo Monday morning. We still have a few important to do before then – and a party.

The fires near San Diego have only been an inconvenience for us. The smoke made the air difficult to breathe, and ash and soot made the decks of the boat filthy. I missed the worst of the dirt since I flew to Portland early Monday morning for my one-year follow-up with the orthopedic surgeon and a short visit with Mom and the Stocks. The smoke from the fires hadn’t merged to black out everything then, and I could still spot individual fire sites from the air. When I returned Wednesday afternoon, it was a different story. The smoke was a blanket between LA and SD, and the smell of it even crept into the airplane’s air system.

Thursday we had lunch with our friend and former real estate agent, Josh Bottfeld. Josh says he’s retired now, but he still had to go into the office Thursday morning. It was fun to meet his partner, Brent Butler. It turns out that Brent went to South Eugene High School, was in the Junior Symphony, and had Dick Long as his band teacher. Small world.

Yesterday my friend Martha arrived from Austin, TX. Her skipper was still on his way back from a quick run to Phoenix, so I met her at the train station. We figured out that it’s been 10 years, more or less, since we last saw each other. We’ll have fun catching up, but we haven’t had too much time to visit yet. There’s still too much work to do!

This morning is final cleaning while we have running water and electricity. Then we’ll top off the water tanks and move to the anchorage. The wireless connection here at the dock hasn’t been very good for the past couple of days. Maybe it will be better there.

At anchor: We’re between Hiatus (Portland) and Ketching Up (Astoria), behind Beyond Reason (Alameda). (Click on the photo to open a bigger version. The satellite shot was obviously taken before we arrived.)

Yes, the wi-fi is much better here. I can even post this blog entry now.