Monday, July 29, 2019

San Diego: seven sea lions; a round the world boat


        I cleared the port pipe berth and slithered aft this morning.  I found to remove only the outboard mount for the Avon dinghy, a backup manual bilge pump which had no hoses, and a corroded folding cart.  
        I have now gone through GANNET bow to stern and she is much less cluttered and better organized.
        I have bought new towels and new stowage containers and waterproof bags.  The little boat is as clean and as mold free as she was 30,000 miles ago.
        I do not like to live in squalor, yet sometimes during a voyage I must.  I am very glad to have imposed order on chaos and slowed entropy.
        Later in the morning I Ubered to West Marine and spent a totally boring $240 on a replacement PortaPotti, a flotation cushion, dry bags, life jackets, and a replacement backup bilge pump.
       
        In the afternoon I rowed around Quivira Basin.
        Seven sea lions were clustered together at one end of the bait barge tanks almost sinking it.  
        One was a big male.  Six sleek smaller females sprawled around him.  Two more sea lions were on the big yellow float at the end of the line of bait tanks and two more swimming nearby.  This is the most sea lions I have seen.
        Quivira Basin is a sea lion paradise.
        Ample food.  No predators.  A protected species that we the greatest predator cannot harm and I am sure they sense this.  The bait barge and floats and the swimming platforms of boats to sun and sleep upon.  Without dying they have gone to sea lion heaven.
        Sea lions are amusing, but I am not impressed with them.  They lack grandeur and ambition.  

        While the Avon was in the water I scrubbed GANNET’s waterline.
        There was only slime and some weed.
        The antifouling is Pettit’s Vivid white.  It seems to me that they have made it harder and stronger.

        Tomorrow I will do laundry.
        On Tuesday I will have lunch with a friend.
        On Wednesday I will go for a sail and probably anchor for the night at Mariner’s Cove off South Mission Beach.

        Late this afternoon I was in the Great Cabin when kayakers came by.
        One, looking past GANNET, said, “That ODYSSEUS is a world rounding boat.  Look at that mast and cutter rig.”
        It never occurred to him that he was looking at the wrong boat.