Our maiden voyage on Perspective took place June 11th, 2016. We were accompanied by our close friends, Sean & Jesper. Besides great company, they also made wonderful crew! Our route was taking us from Marina Del Rey (MDR) to Catalina Island (Two Harbors) and finally to San Diego Harbor.
First things first- we met the previous owners down at the marina and collected some additional equipment that he had put away in storage. He came aboard and answered some of our last minute questions about the boat systems and gave us some great advice about getting along on the boat. Something about the Captain always being right??? We’ll see about that! He even left us with this clever plaque so we will never forget the rules.
After saying our goodbyes and promising to take care of his girl, we were finally ready to take off. Our plan was to leave the dock around 2pm, but didn’t leave until around 5pm. You know what they say about planning and boating, they don’t generally go well together. The sail from MDR to Catalina is 36 nautical miles, which would take around 6 hours with great conditions. I tucked away all of our provisions while the boys untied the lines and backed us out of the dock. We motored out of the harbor and pulled the sails out as soon as we hit the open ocean. Our boat is a hefty 33k pounds but she is impressive even in light winds and we managed to make some great speed. Once the wind died down we furled the sails and began to motor.
It was around 11PM when we noticed a squealing noise coming from the engine room. After some quick investigating, it turns out our alternator belt was the culprit. We turned the engine off and I kept watch while Brad and Jesper attempted to fix the belt. The engine was a bit too hot to be working on/around so we decided to leave it as is, and slowly limp in to harbor at a speed of 2-3 knots.
Finally we reached the entrance to Two Harbors and radioed the Harbor Master for assistance. Luckily he was happy to help despite our 1AM arrival! In our minds we figured we would grab any ol’ mooring ball, preferably away from all the other boats, gracefully pick it up and get settled in. The Harbor Master had other plans and stuck us closer to shore, and near other boats. Not one to back away from a challenge, Brad accepted the mooring and we were on our way. Brad was at the helm, Jesper & Sean were at the bow with flashlights, and I was near the cockpit relaying the messages between the boys and Brad. There was plenty of shouting, a few close calls and some more shouting but we finally got hooked on to the mooring and we all took a sigh of relief. While it wasn’t preferable to arrive at 1am in a boat we weren’t familiar with, we did what we had to do and got it done. Hooray for overcoming challenges!
Photos from MDR to Catalina
