OK, so it was a milkrun of sorts. Lady Sailor, stalwart crewman John and I
got a ride to Ensenada from John's son Jesse, arriving about 4:00 pm Monday.
Barely enough time to clear out, but Roger at Baha Naval got it done while
yours truly wrestled with rebuilding the aft head, changing out the
bilgepump and the y-valve for the forward head- some shi**y work indeed!
Lady Sailor and John had the more pleasant task of walking to the local
supermercado and buying some provisions. They missed all the colorful
language...

Left Ensenada about 2200 after a good dinner in town and arrived San Diego
about 1600 Tues. Was visited by Customs official named Jo Jo who informed
me I owed import duty on my 30 year old boat since I had no paperwork
showing it had ever been paid. $2,000 and it had to be cash, plus we had to
stay there until it was paid. I said to hell with it and we left about 1830
after fueling up, making it to Avalon at about 1300 the next day. Beautiful
run with moontrails on the water and shooting stars all night. Lady Sailor
had the 0100- 0400 watch and had so much fun she took another hour! The
Reverend came out to the boat about 1830 and did a beautiful short wedding
ceremony.

Lady Sailor takes over the narrative

Just as I was coming on watch the moon was drifting into the horizon so my
watch was stars only and they gave a fabulous show shooting all over the
sky. About 0300 we were approaching the start of the shipping lanes and off
my port the ships were stacking up to head north. I was okay with most of
them but one stayed on a collision course with us so I fell off and picked
up some wind to avoid the big ships. It was perfect, I was having a ball
moving our Arabell across the water at 6 plus knots while the boys slept
below. The thought occurred to me that it was my wedding day and that made
it all the more enjoyable. I was feeling great!

I let John take over at 0500 so I could get in a few hours of "beauty sleep"
and when I awoke we were in sight of Catalina. It was warm and sunny and an
absolutely perfect day. The only problem we had was the customs officials
had our boat documents and should anybody ask for them in Avalon we didn't
have a clue what might happen. But we forged on, we had an appointment with
the minister and it was our wedding day!

The pleasure crafts were stacked up looking for a mooring when we arrived
and that was to our advantage. When it was our turn the harbor patrol came
over and didn't bother with the document, he just wanted the number.
Fortunately we had that and were directed to a mooring in Hamilton Cove. It
was a perfect spot for a wedding. The rock wall we were moored next to was
leaden with flowers and we were far enough away from the town to avoid the
noise but enjoy the lights. Only bummer was it was rocky. Every boat that
passed by created a wake that sent our boat and all the boats around us to
pitching and fussing with the forces of the wake the passing boats created.

Pastor Sessions arrived on time and we were ready. I was in my shorts and
peach colored cotton blouse. Mike in his shorts and Hawaiian shirt and
John, our crew, best man, maid of honor, ring bearer and photographer was
appropriately attired in shorts and Hawaiian shirt. All of us were barefoot
by the way. It was perfect. As Pastor Sessions stepped aboard Arabella he
inquired if anybody else was aboard. No, it was just us. Mike and I both
agree that the sacrament of marriage is personal and doesn't need a big
hoo-haa. Our vows were spoken from the heart as the sun set over the
beautiful Pacific Ocean we both love. It was perfect.

That evening we found our way to the country club for an elegant dinner and
live Jazz. It was an excellent ending to an extraordinary day. Great food,
beautiful surroundings, excellent service and the music was wonderful.

We woke up early the next morning, pulled up the dink, battened down the
hatches and headed for home at 0700. Mike kept expecting the seas to buck
us on that leg but I said my prayers to the sea gods and it was an unusually
calm crossing for theses waters. Only thing of interest were the "birds on
kelp" and dolphins. The "birds on kelp" were really just sea birds, terns I
think, who were resting on a big nest of kelp floating in the water. The
dolphins were great though. We could see a boil in the water from a
distance and always the dolphins were there stirring it up. Friendly little
critters they are, always ready to come over and say hello on the bow wave.

As we made our approach to Channel Islands Harbor the sun was setting and we
were treated to the most extraordinary show I've seen in years. It started
with a few colors and exploded from one set of colors to another and then
another and another and this went on for nearly 40 minutes. As much as I
wanted to get home I didn't want to miss any of this show.

But home we did go and gratefully so. Now it's time for me to complete this
post. It's late, I'm tired and Damn those computers anyway!

Mike & Lady B.