Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Getting to Work By Bus, Bike and Train in The Rain

It poured buckets of rain last night in the first rain of the season. Thunder and lightning woke me sometime in the early hours.

By 4 am the rain had stopped in the harbor. I switched on ABC's local coverage and took a look at their Doppler 7000 radar coverage which usually shows nothing in Sunny Southern California.
I've used their images and other on-line satellite photos to sail around weather during big breaks in the on-shore flow.

I could see another front with a mean red colored center just off shore of Seal Beach. Figuring the wind was light, I thought I might have at least a half hour of clear skies to ride the electric bike to the train. On Sundays, there are no early buses running even if I wanted to leave the bike at home.

I wrapped the battery in plastic and put strips of gaffer's tape over the cooling vents of the motor cowling. I made it to the train with no problem. As I settled in the the train, the rain started again.

I'm due at the Regeant Beverly Wilshire at 8:30, you've seen the hotel. Where Pretty Woman was kept by Richard Gere. Where Axel Foley stuck a banana in the tailpiipe of the Beverly Hills cops waiting outside for him in a car.

Don't know what the film is today.
I spent the last two days with a sick Hugh Grant on a press junket for the sequel to Bridget Jones' Diary. Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason is based on the second book.

Hugh spent much of the day blowing off personal questions by drooling female reporters, who were besides themselves meeting the man, some to the point of laying professionalism aside and offering themselves to him in no uncertain terms.

Now, this might become a bit much even in a randier mood. But, when you're sick and drugged on Nyquil, it had to be intolerable. No wonder Grant keeps promising that he's giving up acting. He wants his life back, some normalcy. He's bored with acting and doesn't need the money! He says.

He's played roles that are pretty much variations of his own witty, charming self. A few reporters suggested some roles as a villian, a mass murderer.
He said, "I quite fancy that idea. I'd like to stab some people." His good looks and middle-class politeness would add to the power of a sinister role.

The are quite a few people on this train that are settled into their seats, with arms inside jackets and hoods over their heads, as if they may have ridden all night to stay out of the rain.

Across from me is a young, pudgy Latina woman with a two year old boy asleep in a stroller. A number of older guys that may have drank their way into this morning are rousing themselves to start all over again...one more day of life.

Raced down Wilshire Blvd. to do a day of interviews for yet another Chucky (that evil doll) sequel, SEED of CHUCKY.

The best thing about the film is a very pretty, expressive, young British actress, Hannah Spearritt, who plays a loyal but abused Production Assistant to Jennifer Tilly who plays a diva-version of herself in the film. I was thankful to roll tape in her room rather than Chucky, the doll's. Yes, he had his own interview room, believe it or not.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Alamitos Bay to The Inner City

To my friend, Tom I answer:

Thanks once again for the encouraging words about my writing and making a submission to The LA Weekly for possible publication.

I did have a copy of The LA Weekly in hand to find the submission info but some actress snatched it to put under her little English Bulldog's fancy food dishes in our shooting suite during a recent press junket shoot

Besides that, he attacked me and latched on to my pants leg three times that day..Me! The Friend of All Dogs. So, you see, it's kind of like the old " the dog ate my homework" excuse.

It's also hard to get any work done when you are commuting five hours a day. The first six miles are done on bike from Los Alamitos, next To Seal Beach to First and Pine in Long Beach. My first rides in to he city started out at 4:30 am. Now I'm leaving at 5 and 5:30 cause I know what I'm doing transit-wise.

Speeding past the closed shops of Belmont Shores and along Ocean Avenue, I'd arrive for the first Blue Line train at 5 am. I can usually write my piece before I hit the Red Line transfer. I try to do a spell check before I hit the streets on the bike at Hollywood and Highland. Another half hour of downhill rolling on La Brea or Fairfax, some pedaling along Melrose or Santa Monica to 3rd and Doheny in Beverly Hills takes another half hour. I can usually make the whole trip in under two and a half hours.

So, you see I have plenty of time to write. And believe me, I'd rather write than stare back at all those hardworking faces that can't figure out what a white man with a wierd looking bike is doing on their train in their neighborhood at that hour.

Perhaps the Metro Rail has more white-collar riders towards 9 am. I don't know. But, so far, the evening ridership doesn't look anything like San Francisco's BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) riders, which is mostly office worker types.

Picked up mail tonight in Marina Del Rey and took the Green Line out of LAX. I got off at the Rosa Parks Station, you know of "I won't sit in the back of the bus no more" fame?

Well, the later night riders are a little bit different in that kneck of the woods. Some cool-looking kids weariing lots of bling were getting on the train. A few glassey-eyed ones with I- kill-people-for-fun vibes got on too. They made a lot of the riders nervous. Lucky for me, I was just some old, white wierdo to them. They instead gave a hard stare-down to a Black sister in a TSA uniform who checks baggage at LAX for the Feds.

The trains seem to be sort of a social center in the inner city. There's a lot of youth hanging at the stations and more greetings that usual on the train. Three bucks gives you an all day pass. Although, I've never been asked to show my ticket but once in six days and 24 boardings. It's certainly a safer place to hang out than on the streets.

Transit Security have been riding with dogs trained in smelling ammo and fired guns. And though there's warnings to potential criminals about undercover cops on board, I've been seeing some big, bad-looking cops in full uniform lately walking the cars lately.

Most of the people are pretty nice and I do have a lot people ask me about my bike. But, that's about it.

I wouldn't advise many of you to sell your cars just yet and embrace LA's rapid transit system just yet.But, I will say this. It's fairly clean, dirt cheap and on time.

It's raining now. Some little low curving in from the Southeast, rattling the rigging. How I'm going to get to work in the rain on an electric bike on a Sunday when there's few early buses is something I'm too tired to figure out right now. A little plastic. A little gaffers tape. A little good timing? Luck. What do they say?
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?

I'm looking forward to leaving off this daily marathon of traversing the city. Next week: South to Dana Point or just across the Channel to Avalon.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Alamitos Bay - My First Boat
First Boat

I bought my first sailboat back around 1977 for fifty dollars.

It was a 12 foot sailboard of aged plywood covered with fiberglass. About seven inches thick with a square bow and a shallow footwell and a big lateen triangular sail rig, it was barely seaworthy.

I slid it in to the back of a 64 Pontiac wagon and brought in down here to launch it at Belmont Shores Youth Sailing Center.

With a pregnant wife and a sixty pound Golden Retriever on board, water was forced up to the space betweern the top of the daggerboard slot and the top deck.

Unbeknownst to us the boat was taking on water at a rapid pace. After draining the boat on shore, I set out by myself and got the boat moving across the water.

The rotten nylon sail soon started parting along seams and tears. Pretty soon I could make no way and had to beach the boat and drain it once again.

I managed to roll the car over a mast on the ground and flatten it. The boat trailed water behind it all the way back home.

I ultimately donated the boat to a pre-school's sand box. Even there it hurt small children with it's sharp edges and delaminating deck.

I've had many boats since then, Sabots, Lidos, Hobies, Del Reys they all had their flaws and their needs to be made into something bristol.

I live each day tolerating the flaws in the Catalina 34 my home of 16 years. I wish I had the money to perfect every part of her. I'm not sure if I would have elbow grease enough to match her needs even if I had plenty of funds.

But, I am fixing where I can. Feeling guilty for the $200. purchases at chandleries, not really able to afford it, but knowing I will curse my cheapness when systems fail at sea.

Little by little I will make her beautiful agaim. A little stainless polish, rust remover, methel-ethyl-keytone and the varnish ritual will make me proud of her again. Already, I realize what a nice boat I bought. I'm thankful I still have her. I will do her right, little by little in time.

Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Alamitos Bay - On the train again. Going to work.

Sorry about the multiple emails. I got them too. Even this morning T-Mobile is trying to send to one AOL recipient's mailbox that is not working.

Ultimately, I will set up a list serve, so this type of thing may not happen.

Of course feel free to opt out at any time from receiving my drivel.
I know some of you enjoy it. But, we all are busy....and hitting delete or never reading is OK. No response from you is ever expected.

Look at how many newspapers with hours of research and writing blow about the streets, abandoned in the wind, walked over, used as fish wrap. As The Stones sang, "Who wants yesterday's paper?"

It's merely a writing exercise for me. I'm taking advantage of all this new technology to self-publish, to practice free speech.

The same goes for the radio station. Six years ago I couldn't broadcast my playlist of dream-fodder, songs of ocean/island life to the world. Now, I'm heard in more than 30 countries. Although the numbers in each of the countries are about as high as Bush's Coalition of The Willing, nevertheless there are people tuning in. And that's pretty exciting.

Now, to make it all pay. I have to get off my kiester and find advertisers for the station and a publisher for these writings. Then, I'll have the funds to go further and give reports a little more exciting than Fairfax and Wilshire.

If I stay in LA long enough and on the hook, that is moving from place to place, I want to do a small book on Living On The Hook in LA. It would include practical info as well as the aesthetic properties of each port or anchorage.

Well, I'm off to work with a cold to help promote yet another multi-million dollar film. Safe travel to you all in your efforts to make a buck.
Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Four Scenes - Sea & Land


ONE: On my way to Los Alamitos last week in the early morning Fog. I was a little disoriented by the fog. I made a great effort to trust my navigational plotting and the compass since there was no shoreline visible.

I saw a small fin sticking out of the water and turned the boat to starboard to look. It was a large Sun Fish wallowing sideways to the surface, soaking up the bit of sun peeking through the fog.

They're a strange looking fish about three to four feet long by a couple of feet wide. They look like a giant fish head. They have a snub tail, not a long tapered tail like most fish. They have small pectoral fins relative to their body size. Look up a picture of one. Pretty Strange.

TWO: An hour later I was joined by a huge group of dolphin. Several raced along with the boat. Some jumped out of the water. The jumps were kind of awkward. Must have been some young ones who haven't honed their dancing skills yet.

THREE: Got off the Red Line train on Hollywood Blvd at 6:00 am. I rolled past the new Kodak Theatre and the famous Chinese Theatre. On my bike I rolled over the stars embedded in the sidewalk of famous people, actors, entertainers, both dead and living.

I came upon Christopher Reeves' star in front of the Hollywood Actors Museum. He had passed the day before. On hearing of his death, I had taken to heart that he was born in the same month and year as myself.

A number of Catholic candles, the kind with the Virgin Mary on them lit the sidewalk in the early dawn. Flowers, handwritten notes and signs were arranged around a large portrait of him propped up over his star. A photo someone had taken with Christopher years ago had been left. No doubt a message was on the reverse side.

In silence, a Latino day laborer and a black woman stopped in the early morning gloom to read the notes and observe the peaceful scene with me.

FOUR:
A few minutes later I rolled downhill on a narrow sidewalk on La Brea Blvd. which was still quite dark. There was a young black man in the way ahead, standing still, looking across the street.

I heard a gunshot and looked across the street. An LAPD cruiser was stopped at an angle at the stop sign, it's headlights pointing at the corner of the curb.

Two men were sprawled face down on the sidewalk, arms and legs spread out at their sides. A cop stood behind them. I didn't see a gun drawn.

I stopped and asked the young black man quietly, if one of them had been shot.
He said, "Yeah, I've never seen anything like it in my life". I told him,"That's what they do...guy, must've made a move and got popped". The guy bummed a smoke from me and lit it nervously. I rolled on to work feeling the taste of violence and death, acutely aware of the danger in the dark streets of LA. I'm still not really sure someone had been killed or possibly accidently murdered or what happened. I didn't want to find out. It was way beyond my threshold for violence. I never heard an ambulance siren on my way down the hill.

Makes the ocean and it's dangers preferable. Shows how fragile life is. Show how blessed we are to lead relatively sane lives and enjoy day to day freedom from harm.


Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Alamitos Harbor.

Alamitos Harbor is a natural Harbor with the additional entrance jettys and sea walls protecting it from ocean swells. It has the additional protection of being located at the Southern end of Los Angeles Harbor, one of the largest commercial ports in the world.

In spite of that location, Alamitos has it's own scenic beauty from a sand beach, a nice waterfront with good resturants and a gem of a little residential island in it's midst, Naples.

Alamitos if one of the most boater friendly marinas I've come across so far. Reservations are possible by fax with pre-payment. This is a real plus when I'm coming in to work. Not knowing if there's a slip available the day before work is a bit scarey. At .60 a foot per night it's not a bad deal.

The Marina is run by the City of Long Beach. The Dock staff are friendly and helpful. Ten years ago, during my wanderings there never seemed to be guest slips available here. Downtown Long Beach was always available. But, they are remodeling their docks, so Alamitos is handling the guest boaters.

The guest slips are all on end ties. I'm squeezed in with a beautiful sixty foot plus world cruising sailboat, Sea Bear. The end tie gives me a nice view of the open water and yet I get very little swell from passing boats.

This is a great reprovisioning/repair stop. West Marine, Boater's World, Captain's Warf and Stoll Marine are all within the marina. There are canvas and rigging shops across the river in Seal Beach.

I was able to row the dinghy 200 feet to the fuel dock and fill up my propane tanks and get some beer. There's a marine service there at the fuel dock that will do oil changes on your boat at the dock for $75.00.

There's several nice waterfront resturants in and around the marina. Seal Beach's Main Street also has great shops and resturants. There's also two other malls with super markets, theatres and more resturants on Pacific Coast Highwway across from the marina. Belmont Shore's Second street with it's eateries and entertainment venues are just across the bridge. Buses run regularly and everywhere in Long Beach.


I miss the open space of an anchorage. However, It is nice not to worry about the boat while I'm working.

I've been leaving the boat for work at 4:30 am, riding the bike six miles to downtown Long Beach to hop Metro Rail's Blue Line to LA and transferring to the Red Line to Hollywood and then riding the bike down hill to Beverly Hills to do Press Junkets for the past three days. The earliest I can arrive at the hotel is 7:00 am.

It's a long haul. I did have a rental car reserved but I decided to save the $350. and ride the train.

Overall, it's let me relax for a week and a half from worrying about the boat's safety.

I also found MarinaInternet.net scanned on my Wi-fi card so I have a fairly good internet connection on the boat for $20. Perhaps that's why I like this place so much. I have been internet deprived for a couple of months. Hearing my ocean/island music station streaming on the internet are just one of the ingredients in my life that make me feel like I am HOME.

Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On The Hook by Noel Diotte.
Now Playing: Train Rides
Living On The Hook by Noel Diotte.
Monday, October 11, 2004. 5:30 am. Train Rides.

When I last wrote and prematurely submitted my email it was in the dark, on a train early on a Sunday morning. Here I am again using the boredom of a train ride to get some work done on a small wireless device, the Blackberry.

I didn't intend to create a cliff-hanger, making you wonder if my boat was still safely anchored in the cove where I left her to go into the city to work. I merely hit the wrong button and my work was sent.

I spent the night on the 15th floor of a corner suite of the Four Seasons Beverly Hills Hotel. A few times at night I would go out on the balcony and take in the view of Century City to the west and West Hollywood to the north. The balcony wrapped around two sides of the hotel. So, was able to feel what night breezes might be kicking up that give my vulnerable little boat some trouble in the night. I looked off far into the west Paradise Cove and sent good thoughts and a sort of prayer, if you can do that for a hunk of fiberglass. Even glass sail boats develop some sort of soul over time, I suppose.

The next day, after a few bus rides, I was on the 434 bus headed home along the Malibu coast. About a mile before the Paradise Cove Road bus stop there is a hill along Pacific Coast Highway that looks North over the water and most of Paradise Cove. I could see for a minute that there was indeed a speck in the water that looked like a sailboat. I could identify it as Shearwater for sure.

Getting off the bus, I walked down the road to the beach and headed straight for the beach. It was a sunny afternoon. The wind was blowing crossways across the shore and water. There, framed beween two small planted palms in the sand and above the two women in bikinis laying in the sand was Shearwater, hanging on the wind.
It was the perfect postcard Paradise.

I celebrated my relief with a tribute beer and some coconut shrimp. I changed into shorts and a T-shirt and hiked around the cliff to my dinghy, hoping it was still where I left it, hoping it hadn't been taken for a joy ride by some of the local kids.

Everything was fine when I rowed back out through the small surf as the sun was setting on the cliff. No other Coming Home after a day of work could be so sweet.
Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Paradise Cove Retrospective: Getting To Work.

While in Paradise Cove last week I got a call to work a one day Press Junket with Ray Ramano (From the sitcom:"Everybody Loves Raymond"). I had already exceeded the seven day limit on the guest docks in Marina Del Rey.

I took the 7 a.m. call for the shoot figuring I'd leave the boat on the hook where it was and spend the night before in a Motel 6 within biking range of Beverly Hills.

I mentioned this to the producer, Jody and she was kind enough to offer me the shooting suite to sleep in on the fifteenth floor of the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel.

With the boat securely anchored in the same place for five days I figured it was hooked about as well as a boat can be hooked. I still don't like to leave the boat for a whole night and day hanging on even two hooks. Anything could happen. Any weather or amount of swell could leave my boat and all my belongings in jeopardy.

It's like leaving a newborn baby in a basket outside of a grocery store. You wouldn't do it. I use to tie up my Golden Retriever, Holli outside stores only when I could keep and eye on her from the store.

Around 2 pm the next day I hung the kerosene anchor light out on the back stay and rowed ashore.
I. Had put my overnight bag and dry clothes into a large garbage bag. I made it into shore with only getting my feet wet. I positioning myself to land at the end of a row of thirty kayaks, four Hobie Catamarans and a couple of row boats stored on the beach by the local residents.

To get the heavy dinghy up above the steep incliine of sand, above the high tide line, I had to turn the boat end over end and "walk" it up the bank. I tied the painter up in the brambles at the base of the cliff, locked the oars to the thwart (seat) and hikes around the cliff.

At. High tide you have to make a dash around the rock cliff as each wave recedes or you can get pretty wet. I made it around to the main beach near the pier, washed off my legs and changed into street clothes and went in to Bob Morris'. Beach Cafe to have one for the road.

Now, I drink very little beer and not usually during the day. But, Paradise Cove is supposed to charge walkins to their little beach paradise, $5.00, So far, they haven't charged me or even questioned me when I walk past their toll booth. I'd rather patronize the resturant and guzzle a $5.35 glass of beer (plus tip) than pay $5.00 just for the right of passage to my boat. Even though I appreciate private property rights, this community has got public access to the ocean sewn up for a few miles of oceanfront. I keep my receipts just in case there's a dispute. I've added coconut shrimp to my tribute payments and the resturant and bar staff are really quite friendly. I'll tell you owner, Bob Morris story later when I get more info. There's some coast history there.

With beer and shrimp in my system, I then have to climb the access road, a short steep hill.

The 434 MTA bus runs from Trancas in Northern Malibu to the Fairfax bus terminal in LA. The riders are the housekeepers of the big homes of Malibu, busboys and dishwashers from the fine resturants and well-to-do kids from the city who take the bus back and forth to some private school in Malibu.

Looking around the bus I noticed seven men and women with heads nodded and dozing. You don't take a 5 am bus to get to 6 and 7 am jobs without getting tired.

A couple of big, mean looking hombres got on the bus. Of course, one had to sit next to me. Within minutes he was nodding off, head falling on my shoulder. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet. -Proverbs.

I got into the Fairfax station and was surprised at how frequent the buses run for the inner city runs. I usually ride the beach city and nice community routes. Demand is low there, because most of that communitiy wouldn't be caught dead on a bus.

I Took another couple of buses to get to the hotel by 6 pm. I checked in and got the key to a (wo room suite on the 15th floor. The living room was cleared of furniture for our Video Shoot the next day. But, the bedroom was in tack with a king sized bed, cable TV and a mini bar.

Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On the Hook
Now Playing: Paradise Cove - Anchoring Tip

After spending a week in Paradise Cove I was pretty sure I was hooked well. I prefer a Bahamian Moor, that is: Two anchors deployed off the bow, one towards the south west, one to the northeast. Supposedly, this gives you eighty percent holding power on each by itself but adds up to 160 percent when the wind swings the boat between the two.

There is a problem with this technique in that as the wind shifts, the anchor line from the slack anchor can hang up on the hull, the keel, prop or rudder. It can at least sand away bottom paint on the underside of the bow.

The boat just has to swing the wrong way when the wind shifts for this to happen. Then you are robbed of the holding power you can get of hanging between two anchors on a strong prevailing wind.

A certain amount of twisting of the lines is also inevitable as the boat circles in the changing winds.
Untwisting the lines each day by passing the line on deck around the tensioned anchor line takes a few minutes.

I have a one inch line with a big swivel, shackle and rubber snubber for attaching chain bitter ends to two or three anchor rodes. In shallow, tight anchorages, I could lay a pretty strong storm mooring with three anchors and chain.

The idea is too lower the three rodes on one or two lines below your keel so the boat can swing unobstructed and the lines don't twist.

I was wracking my brain for a solution to using long nylon rodes and a swivel. I did buy thimbles (tear drop shaped steel inserts to wrap the line around) for the bitter ends of my two main rodes. I may install them for a future worse case storm where I'd lay out all 350' of each rode.

Most anchorages don't allow you to lay those lengths without dropping a line over someone else's line. If they leave before you there will be problems and words. If someone new comes into the anchorage, they will most likely lay over your line. Some tangling is inevitable. More problems and words.

After three days on two anchors off the bow, the slack line deployed to the northeast did hang up on my rudder. In spite of tensioning up both rodes earlier, the strong afternoon west wind probably straightened out the chain or dug in and dragged enough to slacken the other line. The line from the deck to the rudder was very tight, stuck. The side of the hull was struck broadside to a strengthening night east wind. Diving on it at ten at night to untangle it wasn't desireable.

I didn't want my prop or strut bent if that's where I was snagged, so I loosened up the other anchor and pulled the boat back thirty feet to take up some slack line and walk it around the back stay and up to the bow on the opposite side to the bow. This took the tension off whatever had snagged below. The boat swung around to the wind and hung perfectly on the two anchors.

The next morning I suited up and took a long time making the plunge into the cool fall water. A small school of Dolphins passed by the boat. Then I jumped. They kept going. The anchor line had simply passed between the prop and the rudder. I pulled it out in a second.

I finally came up with a sort of swivel-like solution to keep the lines from fouling on the hull or underneath the boat. I took out a 20 lb. dinghy anchor with 15 feet of chain and 30 feet of 1/2" line. I attached a stainless steel carabiner that has a reinforced
eye, using the bolt for the shackle to the chain to attach it.

I opened the carabiner, put both anchor rodes inside it and lowered the dinghy anchor 15 feet below the keel. All extended lines were now out of the way of the boat. My holding power was now increased because of the lower angle of the scope. Remember what a SENTINEL does?

The boat pivoted nicely for the next four days. It would untwist as much as it would twist. There's a balance in nature, even with it's winds. I pulled it up each day to check for chaffing and then shifted it several inches in depth to avoid chaffing any one spot of line.

I trusted this set-up for a day of work in town. I don't like leaving the boat at anchor unless I can keep an eye on it every few hours. Boats are like small children and dogs. If they can get into trouble they will. I'll cover that adventure next time.

Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.

Living On The Hook
Now Playing: Underway Marina Del Rey to Alamitos Bay

Palos Verdes Penninsula.

I was headed to the Island, but I hung a left for Los Alamitos where I've reserved a slip for ten days to work and do some rigging repairs.

It's been foggy since sun-up and the wind just won't blow. I'm down to a quarter of a tank of diesel anyway.

I've just rounded Long Point and am headed into the cove friend Mike Killian and I have been discussing, Smuggler's Cove.

The little east facing hook just south of that has a chart name of Inspiration Point. Being just around the bend from the nudist beach, I see what they mean.

It's the first place I ever anchored. Used to sail out of Ports O' Call in San Pedro with my friend, Rick every Sunday. The skipper of the boat used to entertain exotic dancers and many of them would sail with us.

Our first time anchoring at "Inspiration" Point, the girl's disrobed and dove off the boat into the water. I thought, "Heck, When with the Romans...." And dove in myself au natural.

I often think, "is that the reason I'm sailing today?" One perfect afternoon can change your whole life.

Too cold and foggy for a skinny-dip today. Going in for a look and pick up a GPS coordinate.

Report: Smuggler's Cove
The little bay north of that is the famous nudist beach. The little point on the north side is Portugese Point. The bay shows 3 fathoms on the chart, 18'.

I'd anchor off here on a sunny day and go in the dinghy and survey it before I'd spend the night there. You gotta know where and what you're swinging over. Protection from the NW wind. There's a 2-4 foot swell running from the SW and it doesn't seem to be hitting the shore there very hard. Good calm weather anchorage...not a place for a blow.

Now, I'll get back on course for LA Harbor.
Noel Diotte
coverunner@tmo.blackberry.net
310 376-7057

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
Listen: http://www.live365.com/stations/coverunner

Site: www.coverunner.com

Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.