California Dreamin’

Sitting in the cockpit of our family’s Grand Soleil 39, Yahtzee, I looked forward at our big white Code Zero flying and trimmed it in a couple of inches. Along with my wife and two young sons, we were sailing fast down the Southern California coast and it was a race against time. I don’t love entering unfamiliar harbors at night and we were trying to get into San Diego before it got too dark. Fortunately, we were successful, entering the main channel with a Navy helicopter escort just as the sun was setting on the horizon.

 

This was our last stop before heading to Mexico and our family was looking forward to exploring another new port. It had been exactly two months since we arrived in San Francisco from Alaska and our time in California had been nothing short of amazing. The Bay Area, Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz and Monterey were all fun and fulfilling in their own ways, but other sailors kept telling us, “Everything changes when you sail past Point Conception.” They weren’t wrong.

 

When we arrived in Santa Barbara, warm weather was pervasive, and the beach town vibes were easy to meld into. Our boys, Porter and Magnus (then 4 and 6), had grown up on Yahtzee in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, so this portion of sunny California was a welcome change. We almost instantly connected with another cruising family in Santa Barbara Harbor and made plans to hop down the coast to Ventura, San Pedro, Newport Beach, and finally San Diego, before heading into Mexico.

 

For Porter and Magnus, we loved seeing their enthusiastic response to our change of latitude and watching them make new friends. Whether it was playing on the beach together, surfing or enjoying games in the cockpit at night, it was an incredibly rich family experience. The routines we formed while harbor hopping down the coast were highlighted when we reached San Diego. As sailors prepared to sail south, there was a heightened energy and sense of camaraderie throughout the marinas and anchorages we visited; people chatted on the docks and in local watering holes.

 

A family favorite was the Glorietta Bay anchorage and Coronado, where the fine folks at Coronado Yacht Club welcomed us with open arms and allowed us to park our dinghy at their marina. From there we explored Coronado to the fullest. Football games on the beach were a daily activity and we just so happened to be there for the city’s annual Halloween events, which was immensely fun, especially for the kids. “We could get used to this,” we thought, but eventually it was time to go.

 

After two weeks hanging around San Diego Bay, we finally had to peel ourselves away and sail south for Mexico with newfound friends. Even though new adventures were on the horizon, we thought back on the amazing time we’d had cruising in California with fondness and gratitude. The two months we spent sailing from San Francisco to San Diego had left an immensely positive impression on our family, which was accentuated by the people, places, weather and scenery. California had certainly been a dream.