Sailing out of Newport Beach

Today I went sailing out of Newport Beach with my cousin. We had first sailed in his new boat he bought just after college in 1968 when we both lived in Los Angeles County back then. We sailed also at least once to Catalina Island at that time.

Today was a stroll down memory lane for us both as we went out past the breakwater and into the open sea once again. Catalina Island was relatively visually clear at about 30 miles out to sea from our location. We looked up the coast to Long Beach Harbor and the Queen Mary and further away to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Inland the air was clear enough to see the coastal range and the peaks of Mt. Baldy and San Gorgonio. We couldn't see snow on Mt. Baldy but there is still quite a bit left on San Gorgonio at around 11,000 plus feet in altitude(which is the tallest mountain in southern California).

It was an amazing day and my IPhone told me that Newport Beach temperature was 79 degrees Fahrenheit as we sailed out into the open sea today. By thursday the high is supposed to be only 61 but today it was an amazing day for any time of year here in Southern California.

Amazingly two Jet skies with 1 one the first and 2 on the second were speeding by us at about 40 miles per hour towards Avalon Harbor on Catalina. My cousin and I wondered about the wisdom of doing something like that on something as flimsy as a jet ski (but to each his own). It's sort of the same idea as traveling the ocean by water motorcycle I guess.(and there were two of the jet skis in case one of them broke down.

Just as my cousin predicted the wind came up almost exactly at 2 pm as he had predicted. He said it tends to be a prevailing weather pattern no matter which was the wind is blowing. If it is going to blow it always blows between 2 pm and 3 pm without fail. So, first we were sailing at 3 knots then 4 and then 5 and then almost all the way to 6 knots. Since the maximum hull speed for a sailboat is between 7 and 8 knots, that was pretty good. So, after an hour of (summer sailing in the winter) we headed back to port satisfied with our sail. My cousin also has a automatic pilot for his boat so he can set it on a heading and the boat will continue on that heading until he relieves it. This enables him to sail the boat by himself and put all the sails and rigging in place while the boat sails itself once he is in the open ocean and not in heavy water traffic within the marina before the breakwater. As we tied the boat up we knew we had had the best sail together in several years. It was very satisfying to sail with my cousin once more on a good sailing day just like we have been doing since 1968. However, now I live 400 miles or more away so it only happens now once or twice a year.