Peanut Butter & Jelly Fish

An unseasonably heavy mist accompanied me on my way to shore this morning.  It reminded me of the June weather I encountered along the California coast just north of San Francisco a couple of years ago.  Certainly not San Diego in mid-July! When I reached the shore with my rowboat, I noticed five or six cardboard signs placed at regular intervals along the beach.  These signs are very familiar to me.  "Aviso!  Warning!" The signs proclaim that bacterial levels in the bay are high enough that they could be harmful to a swimmer's health.  I am glad that I am wearing my rubber boots as I step out of my dinghy and into the shallows near the beach.

A misty morning in the mooring area

The Power of Possibility

Dreams are possibilities imagined... 
Goals are possibilities sought... 
the Adventure is in striving to make those possibilities real... 
Joy comes from sharing the adventure.

Four years ago, on a beautiful lush summer day in Seattle, surrounded by family and friends and evergreen trees, Glenn and I were married.  That was a possibility I think neither of us had imagined on the summer day eight years earlier when we met in the scuba shop in Friday Harbor, Washington.  I had just gotten a seasonal retail job in the store and Glenn was one of the most avid divers on the island.  He taught scuba courses, acted as divemaster for tourists, volunteered for the sheriff's department search & rescue team, and spearheaded the local scuba diving club.  In other words, he was "Mr. Scuba," and very intimidating.  I was in my 3rd year out of 6 years in college, with maybe 20 dives "under my weightbelt" since I started diving when I was 16.  But, I had just taken an intensive quarter-long field course in zoology and botany at the local marine station, and that seemed to boost my credit as a potential dive buddy.  I knew about stuff.  I was also very comfortable in the water, having been a lifeguard and swimming instructor also since I was 16.

Nemo... Captain Nemo.

Nemo is a Jules Verne hero, a cute animated clownfish with an Australian accent, and... our cat.  Okay, I won't go into another drawn out naming story.  But, I must describe life aboard Columbine from Nemo's point of view because he plays a large role in defining our cruising life.  He is, according to the vet, "big boned."  Having a ship's cat has historically been seen as good luck, probably because of their role in keeping other peskier animal numbers low.  From what we've seen so far, Nemo doesn't seem to take this part of the job very seriously.  His role is primarily comic relief.

Happy 4th... "Tsunami" Alert!

No, there's no danger of a real tsunami, just the giant wake of the party-going power boats cruising into Glorietta Bay for the fireworks on the 4th.  Glorietta Bay is a nice little 72-hour anchorage just on the other side of the Coronado Bridge from our mooring area.  Normally, you'd need a permit to anchor there, and they limit the number of boats to 20 per day.  This weekend is different.

The view of Glorietta Bay from Columbine 7-4-2010. The boats are anchoring almost right next to the bridge because there's no more room!

Technical difficulties... Please, re-subscribe

Hello Audience!  I know there's at least a few people who thought they subscribed to get email updates when I post something new, but I guess I'm still learning about this blogging thing-y.  I fixed it now so you can sign up to get email updates, or have the updates sent to your blog reader.  If you are following many blogs simultaneously, the blog reader can provide a handy customized compilation for you.  Please, click on the link to the right that says "Subscribe via email or feed reader."  Then, follow the instructions on the next page. 

Thanks for following along with us on our adventures!

Columbine is a flower... and our lovely sailboat.

We have gotten some very mixed reactions to the name of our sailboat over the years.  While living at the docks in Friday Harbor, we overheard quite a few idle conversations about our boat as the weekend dock-goers stood within a foot of our bow and discussed the merits of the boat, and its name.  Frequently, they mis-read the name... "Concubine?  Who would name their boat Concubine?  Sheesh."  Or, they read the name correctly... "Columbine?  Who would name their boat after the high school?  That's terrible!"  I always preferred the more positive response of... "Columbine?  There's got to be a story behind that name.  I wonder what it is..."

Yes, there's a good story.

... But San Diego is a great place to live, right?

Wrong. It's a fine place to visit. We have lived in our lovely saiboat "Columbine" (more on the name later) in San Diego Bay since 2002. On the whole, I am entirely unimpressed with "America's Finest City." Honestly, how full of yourself can you get? Desert-clime San Diego leaches its water from... well, anywhere that will give it water for cheap. The plants are almost entirely non-native and require enormous amounts of the also non-native water resource. I really have thought "I'll die on the freeway today" from all the truly insane San Diego drivers on the freeways. I hate to admit that I may have become one of them. San Diego and its culture of self-absorbed materialism has a way of permeating your very soul.