Sailing Encore

Happy February 2018! Wow— it has been well over a year since Vernon and I quit our jobs and started sailing on Encore.

We had a wonderful time with family and friends over the holidays. My children and granddaughters visited for a week of smiles and fun. And my Schneider family, including my parents, siblings, spouses, nieces and nephews and their SOs (~30 in all) gathered to celebrate at my gracious sister’s house.

Once everything settled down and family went back to their working lives, Vernon and I picked up our cruising life. We explored LA and more museums and the battleship USS Iowa in San Pedro.

Spent some days sailing down the coast and anchoring at Newport Harbor while a storm blew through. Then sailed back up the coast with some beautiful weather. Amazing winter in Southern Cal!

And we are enjoying our marina life, with walks and picnics and creating videos for my granddaughters of the seals that hang out by our boat.

It has been one year since I was so sick with Dengue Fever. And my annual check up showed perfect results in labs and tests! So cheers to that!

We decided to take a trip to San Diego for Valentines so we headed south stopping in a Dana Point to enjoy the anchorage.

As we traveleded south the next day we encountered some thick fog off the coast and slowed down, keeping an eye on the radar and blowing the fog horn so other vessels would know we were there.

But we got into Oceanside fine and watched the sun set and fired up the grill for steaks!

Leaving Oceanside, we continued south seeing lots of sea life along the way. Seals out getting food and sunning on the buoys; dolphins jumping on our bow as they play in the forward pressure; and whales spouting afar and surfacing right next to the boat!

We arrived in San Diego and docked at the marina on Shelter Island.

We hailed an Uber to Old Town (since neither one of us had ever been) and read about San Diego’s early beginnings. Then we took the Metro to the Waterfront area. Went to get a shrimp boat at Anthony’s but to Vernon’s dismay, it was being torn down. He has been getting shrimp boats there for 50 years!

So we continued down the waterfront till we found some shrimp at Seaport Village and Vernon stopped whining 🙂

The next day Kaylyn and Drew came to meet us and we all went to Sea World. I know you are thinking that I see sea animals all the time, why would I want to go to Sea World?  Penguins of course!

We saw the new Orca Encounter show. Quite a change from the Shamu performances of the past and I am glad. Still bothers me to see those huge animals swimming around in the tanks instead of the big ocean.

We saw the silly seal show and we rode the Polar Express to see Beluga whales and walruses. But the polar bear was out-of-town.

The turtle tank made you feel like you were in an Andrew Wyland painting and I wished I could get in.

And the shark tank made you glad you couldn’t.

As we sailed north the next day we saw countless dolphins and seals and had a close encounter with two whales surfacing next to the boat, and I realize how lucky I am to see these amazing animals in their home.

Okay now that you listened to my adventures, I will tell you what is next: In May we will be heading north to San Francisco bay. Stephen and Sarah and the granddaughters will be stationed at the Alameda Coast Guard base there and we are going to take the opportunity to live on the boat near them (and the Napa-Sonoma wine country) for a while. So my adventures on Encore will continue and my blog,       well

to be continued……