Logbook: Spring & Summer 2002
About this time, our "to-do" list was starting to grow, and we were quite busy with lots of projects (see Boat Refitting). We worked a lot, but we managed to get some play time in, too.
In April, we attended the Pacific Sail Expo in Oakland and snuck in a couple of days in the Napa Valley before the boat show. Rich had never been to California's Wine Country, so we thought he should go before we left the West Coast. At the boat show, we attended some great seminars and power shopped for three days, coming home with lots of new boat stuff and a new mattress, cockpit cushions and barbeque grill on order.
During the summer, we had a few visitors and took a couple of test runs to Catalina. In July, Jan's sister Judy and her husband Fred came out for four days, and we enjoyed two days at Avalon and two days at Cat Harbor. Judy and Fred snorkeled for the first time, and Fred caught Slip Away's first fish.
We had one unfortunate discovery during this first trip to Catalina. Although our cats seemed to really enjoy living on the boat in the slip, they both became seasick on the sail to Catalina. Beavis seemed to adjust somewhat, but Ali was sick most of the four days. We needed to think about how we were going to deal with this.
A few weeks later, our friends Patti and Hank came down from the Bay Area for another excursion to Catalina. It was a nice weekend of relaxation, with some good meals coming out of the galley and off the new barbeque.
We had one final trip over to Catalina in August with Rich's son Erik. We spent two days at Emerald Cove and two days again at Cat Harbor. We snorkeled at Emerald Cove and, from Cat Harbor, we did our favorite hike up to a peak that overlooks the backside of the Island. The views are beautiful! (It was kind of nice, too, having the young guy carry our water!)
Rich & Erik
The trips to Catalina forced us to re-think the situation with our cats. We had fully intended to take them cruising with us, and most everything we read told us that cats are very adaptable and great boat pets. However, Ali and Beavis never really took to sailing. They were OK in a calm anchorage, but under way, both were seasick. We tried medicating them and keeping them in cat carriers when we were sailing, but that wasn't a good long-term solution. After much soul searching, we decided it would be best if the kitties stayed ashore. Fortunately, we had family members who were happy to take them for us.
Beavis in his spot on the couch in Santa Monica.
Ali looking like she's not sure if she likes Emerald Cove.
