Chula Vista (San Diego), CA

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

032-37.343 N
117-6.070 W

Ahoy from balmy San Diego, CA!

I'm amazed that BlueJacket is actually on the west coast, as it took a lot of work and planning to get her there. But, she made it just fine. As you may recall, we hauled BlueJacket out of Lake Michigan in Racine, WI where we spent 26 (wo)man days getting her ready to ship. That was a lot of work, but it paid off as she came through the shipping without any major damage.

The original schedule was to have BlueJacket picked up in Racine on Friday, October 22nd and to have her delivered on Thursday, October 28th. We were going to fly out the Wednesday before so that we'd be ready to meet the boat when she arrived. Those were great plans until the boat being shipped prior to BlueJacket missed the pickup date by 2 days (due to the boat owner trying to save a few bucks), which caused them not to pick up BlueJacket until Tuesday. Then there was that huge "weather bomb" low pressure system which created massive winds across the mid-west which pretty much shut down trucking for 2 days. Next we found out that Arizona doesn't allow wide loads to drive on their highways on weekends, so the truck couldn't cross 30 miles of I-80 until Monday, which pushed the delivery back to Tuesday. Oh well, so much for planning!

We had built in plenty of time to put the boat back together, but I had expected to get the work done up front and then have time to play tourist. As a result we had to flip our schedule and try to get everything done at the end of our stay. No pressure here!

We spent our first day researching marinas and we quickly found out that pricing between the east coast and west coast is very different. On the east coast you get a price which includes everything. On the west coast you get a price for dockage and then you carefully have to figure out what the extras will be. Extras are things like parking, dock boxes, electric meter reading, electric rate, WiFi, application fees, etc, etc. At one place the extras added up to almost $100/mo! We looked at the marinas on Harbor and Shelter Island, which are very nice due to their proximity to the ocean, but there were huge issues with parking, air and noise pollution from the airport, and cost. We ended up at the California Yacht Marina in Chula Vista, which is at the far end of the bay. Since BlueJacket is just going to sit waiting for us for 4 months, the distance to the ocean isn't an issue and it's quite a bit cheaper. We're at that little red marker in the lower right hand corner of the image on the left.

After getting the marina squared away we went off and played tourist. We wandered along the coastal highway stopping in hovels like Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, which were beautiful. I certainly couldn't complain about La Jolla, which was where we were staying, as it also had lot of wonderful places to visit. We took a full day to visit the San Diego Zoo, which was a lot of fun, but tiring as you spend the entire day walking. We even took a day to travel to Julian, which is in the mountains where we ate pie and toured an old gold mine. Later that day we went to the Palomar observatory, which is home to the 200" Hale telescope. Personally that was one of the highlights of the trip for me, as at one point in my life I wanted to be an astronomer. There are links to photo albums for all of these areas below.

Eventually Tuesday rolled around and the trucker was there bright and early with BlueJacket. I was thrilled to see that she was in fine shape, despite having traveled 2200 miles over the highway. There was only one gouge which appeared on the mast as a result of a tie-down strap ratchet coming in contact with it. Other than that, she was in great shape, but dirty and grimy from the diesel exhaust. Unfortunately the boat yard was very busy and didn't get around to splashing us and stepping the mast until later in the day. I had expected to be in the water and out of the yard by noon time, but they didn't finish up until about 4:30 and then we had hours of work to do before we could head to the marina. As a result we didn't leave the marina until the following noon. I must admit that it was a pretty amazing site to see BlueJacket in the slings of a 300 ton travel lift. Most of the time we're in much smaller (25-35 ton) lifts and we looked tiny in this one!

Once we got to the marina, the real work began. Sue spent days scrubbing and scrubbing the boat to get all of the diesel and road grime off of everything. When she was done, the boat sparkled. I spent my time reassembling all of the parts that had come down to provide the correct height clearance for the truck and reconnecting all of the electrical systems that had been severed. I'm happy to report that everything went back together without any issues (or left over parts) and all of the electronic systems are working fine. The biggest issue that we had was the heat as the Santa Ana winds were blowing and it hit 101 degrees one day, which set a record for the warmest day on record for San Diego county in November. At least it was a dry heat...yeah...

On Monday we flew back to Boston and now we're fully engaged in home projects and charity work. Sue's off to CT for 4 days to help her mom with church bazaar while I hold the fort down. Then the holidays are coming up, followed by ski season and before you know it, we'll be headed back down to the boat where we'll head down the Baja and we'll spend the winter/spring in the Sea of Cortez as shown by the map to the right.

So, this should be the last BlueJacket news letter that you get for this year. If we don't see you, have a great fall, holiday season and winter, and be well and stay safe.

-- Geoff & Sue

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For the Cruiser:

I used UShip.com to book the trucker. This system allows you to specify information on the boat that you want to ship, pickup and drop-off locations, and dates. Shippers then bid on your shipment and you pick the shipper based upon their price and customer feedback ratings. I had a very positive experience. The trucking company that we used, WeMoveBoats (dba W T Inc), provided great communication and did a good job of moving the boat. We'll see what happens regarding the damage.

I picked Knight and Carver to splash BlueJacket. This is the largest boat/ship-yard that we've ever been in. Unfortunately I felt that we got pushed down their priority list due to larger customers and as a result it took a lot longer to get the work done than I expected. They also came in $200+ over their estimate, which was higher than I expected due to lots of experience launching the boat and stepping the mast. The problem was that the work got done in 3 segments, and I'm sure that everyone reported their time in 1/2 hour increments, which just inflated the time spent.

We picked California Yacht Marina as BlueJacket's home for the next 3 months. We were happy with their security and pricing. We're also having Tony, who's a retired mechanic who lives on a sailboat in the marina, watch over the boat while we're away.

We're having Blue Moon Yacht Services wash the boat once a month while we're gone and detail the boat just before we arrive. We were very impressed with the owner's product knowledge and the quality of the work that he has done on other boats.

Log ID: 1395