Sailing

I was talking to my cousin yesterday and realized we have been sailing periodically now since 1968 when he first got out of College and bought himself a Columbia 22 Sailboat. At that time I remember SCUBA diving off of Malibu in his boat and sailing to Catalina which takes about 8 hours by sailboat from the Long Beach area or Marina Del Rey where he had his boat at that time.

So, yesterday when we went sailing once again with my wife and I, I realized we have been sailing now bout 45 years whenever I could come to Southern California and have time to do that with him.

He had just moved his boat from Newport  closer to Long Beach because he liked sailing out of there near the Queen Mary because of the larger breakwater so when it is rough out beyond the breakwater he can sail in the large expanse of the manmade harbor enclosure. Or when it is calmer sailing out to sea on strong winds for a good sail.

It was mild yesterday inside the breakwater but we still made about 5 knots at our best hull speed. So, it was an easy day of sightseeing. I hadn't remembered the oil platforms being there before. Mostly I remember the oil platforms near Santa Barbara. There were several oil tankers tied up likely waiting to be unloaded of their oil also. In the distance we could also see the Queen Mary. I had stayed there with my wife and daughter in 2006 when I had to attend one of my best friend's funerals here in southern California.

So, it was a lovely day sailing and reminiscing with my cousin and sharing a nice 75 degree Fahrenheit Southern California day out on the water.

If you look at the  photo with water, houses and palm trees you can see above the palm trees across the water the snow capped peaks of San Gorgonio Mountain which at over 11,000 feet in Elevation is the highest peak in southern California. I climbed this peak to the top about this time of year around 1970 when I was 22 with two buddies of mine. We used snow shoes to accomplish this feat then. When I reached reached the top there was a 100 mph ice storm so I covered my face with plastic so it wouldn't tear off my face but it was pretty loud against the plastic. So, finally I took the plastic off my face and slid down to around 9000 or 10,000 feet to get out of the windstorm blowing pieces of ice. It' amazing the crazy

 things we survive when we are young.