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.

Living On The Hook
Underway Paradise Cove to Marina Del Rey.

Sea state: Calm. Visibility: 1/2 mile.
Overcast/Fog. Motoring 4 knots. Course 88 magnetic.

I just upped anchor after a week in Paradise Cove in Malibu. The place has really become my favorite anchorage. I've never had a hailing port on my transom. I think Paradise Cove would be a good one. Heck, I see people putting hailing ports for Nevada, ( Lake Mead, I guess) and Tempe, Arizona on their boats. I have even seen Golden, Colorado on a serious cruising boat floating in the Pacific. I wonder, had it once been
floating in a beer vat at the Coors Beer Brewery in Golden?

I don't worry about advertising Paradise Cove's beauty too much because most people who have visited it by boat usually experience it's wide variety of winds an get scared off by the night time East winds that blow your boat toward shore and kick up quite a swell.

The fetch of wind waves build up from the southern end of the Santa Monica Bay, from Palos Verdes Cove. When I was anchored there last week, the night wind blew me away from the cliff. During the day I was on a lee shore. It's just the opposite in Paradise Cove. The west/southwest to north/northwest winds blow you away from the cliff. But, at night the land breezes can gust down the canyons and build up quite a rough chop over the thirty miles across the bay, blowing from northeast to southeast.

The sun comes up over the water in Paradise Cove. Just like in Santa Barabara. Something the travel brochures for that town like to advertise. Point Dume juts out and curves enough for the cliffs to face east here on the west coast.
The sun sets on the cliffs in the evening.

I got a good easterly blow the third night I was here. I was on a single 11 kg Bruce anchor, 80 feet of chain and another 100 feet of nylon rode in about 27 feet of water. The boat bounced around a bit and the mast shook and wipped a bit in the gusts. It became enough of a disturbance that I turned off the Nova TV special on the formation of the earth, got dressed warmly and went out in the cockpit. In the glow of the anchor lantern and the full moon's light, I watched anxiously to see if this spectacle of howling wind would take me to shore.

During such blows I try to line up a part of the boat with lights on the shore to see if I might be dragging. Two hundred yards inshore of me was a dinghy on a mooring. I flashed my flashlight a number of times on it's white hull occupied by several Comorants and Pelicans. As long as the gap between us didn't close, I had nothing to worry about. It was nice to see the birds there with me in the darkness and wind.

I usually have the engine intake valves open, the battery set to ALL and the key in the ignition during blows. I also gather up anchor line on deck so that it can be quickly dropped overboard in a clump should I need to start the engine and slip my anchor. All three of my anchor rodes have a lobster bouy attached to the bitter end so that I can come back and pick them up later.

After about an hour of watching wind, waves, moon and stars and swinging from Northeast to East, the wind finally filled in, the gusts died and I knew I was hooked well. I went below and fell asleep to the sound of the swells lapping against the hull underneath me.

It's blowing 10 knots behind me now. I'm motoring with the headsail out, doing closer to 5 knots. Time for for a jacket, a tuna sandwich and a cup of coffee. Ciao.

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: Living On The Hook - Marina Del Rey
Living On The Hook
Santa Monica Loews Hotel
Digital Hollywood Conference Sept 28

Caroline (Friend in Arizona) asks:

"Is living on the hook arduous?"

And:

"Is it cheaper that way?"

Anchoring out is mentally and physically taxing. But, it's also the most serene if you chose anchorages away from any easy landing to a town. Remote anchorages are free from constant boat wakes, noise and worrying about poorly anchored boats next to you.

You are also on your own should you get in a situation with weather. Help is not readily available. By sundown all passing traffic and daytime fishermen have gone back to their marinas. You are left with darkness, the stars, the moon and the lights of multi-million dollar homes high on the cliff that may or may not even know you are there.

On the plus side you see Pelicans dive on fish and gulp their meals down right next to your boat. You can see Dolphins feeding in the moonlight and hear them blow as they surface. There's no light pollution. So, the stars stand out magnificently.

As winter weather intensifies I'm going to have to secure myself to moorings and pay to take a berth in marinas. Most of my money has been going to renew a boat that hasn't been worked for a number of years. In the LA area, there are just no slips available even if I could afford it. There is six month to three-year waiting lists for permanent slips for boats my size. Even then, liveaboard status isn't granted right away. So, you have to lie and sneak aboard, give a phony address where you supposedly live, or an old address and lay low, so no one figures you are living aboard. It's a lot harder to do than years ago when there was less interest in living aboard and boat slips were more available. Marina managers looked the other way. County laws regulate how many of the slips can have liveaboards on them. Usually, about ten per cent of the berths are allowed.

I recently had a liveaboard slip for ten years with my ex-wife that I could have kept for $625. a month. However, my ex- wife bought a boat two slips down from where we had lived and I really didn't want to stay around.

In wintertime through spring the moorings on Catalina Island lower their rates from roughly $21 to $24 a day ($600-700 per month) to around $200 a month. After October15th, Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island allows you to pay for two days and you get the other five days free.

Tourist traffic is down and they can keep their stores and restaurants afloat by locking in wintertime temporary boater residents with the lower rates who may patronize their businesses.

Further south in Long Beach, Alamitos and Dana Point slips with electricity and water, laundry rooms are available for around $15 a night. You can stay usually for 15 days out of each month.

In December and January when passages to and from the island become treacherous due to heavy weather, I may leave the boat somewhere secure, rent a car to come into LA to work or take the bus or train into LA and stay in a motel while I work.

I could sell Shearwater, a 34 footer and get a smaller boat, a 29 to 31' boat. Then I'd not have a boat payment and could afford any slip that became available. There are more slips in that length as well. I may even have enough cash left over to leave the country for a while. Once I left, who knows if
I'd come back if I could find a cheap, secure berth south of the border.

My Catch 22 is that I work several days a month in Hollywood, which brings me a couple grand a month. I really need an extra thousand a month, but then who doesn't? Any Monday through Friday job that I would get would perhaps give me more to live on, but I would have to have a permanent place for the boat and a car and insurance and so the extra income I might get would be a wash.

I'll float around until I find a community and opportunities that work for me and I'll settle down again. I'd rather do it physically rather than through applying on-line for a corporate job again.

With the dearth of available slips I may be like the old folk song, "Ballad of The MTA"...He's the man who never returned" and I'll never be able to get back to a shore side berth.

Knowing Jehovah Jirah, The Lord Provides, I accept this temporary experience, even relish it. The boat had stayed so long in it's slip the past several years.

So far, so good. Living on the edge has its perils. I'm having fun experiencing each locale in Southern California. One place can become boring so quickly.

I need to invest in some oil lamps to keep the boat warm while offshore and get a down comforter to sleep under. I'm still a tuff ol' guy and will be just fine under the worst conditions, as long as I keep my wits about me and focus daily on enjoying the experience.

Stay Warm.

Noel

Living On The Hook in LA
Now Playing: Palos Verdes Cove - Birthday
Lat N 33 52.86 Long W 118 25.73

I turned 52 this morning at 8:43 amthis morning. Foggy morning, light wind. Motorsailing from anchorage at Palos Verdes Cove at the south end of Los Angeles' Santa Monica Bay.

Spent the last three days anchored fore and aft in-line with the three foot swell just outside the surf zone.

At night the wind veers from the Southeast and by morning straight up my stern, down through the cliff canyon and straight up my stern. Every once in a while, usually in the evening when the day's wind generated swells finally reach me, I get a cross swell that sets me rolling violently. Then, I'm playing Catch the coffee cup before it hits the floor. By 9 pm things settle down and I can think about sleeping.

Going to sleep while hanging from an anchor or two out in a dark anchorage, especially on the first night that you drop the hook is a little unerving. To think you'll be out, fast asleep and a wind could come up, wrench an anchor loose and cast you and the boat ashore makes for fitful sleep.

The only saving grace is that anything, wind or waves that can cause danger while you are asleep makes noise or causes movement will eventually wake you up or roll you out of bed.

I had shifted the mainsail boom out over the water and attached. An anti-rolling device, a flopper-stopper. The wire topping lift that holds the boom up when the mainsail is down had parted at the looped attachment point. Luckily it didn't break onto the canvas dodger or my head. The boom was already pretty low to the lifeline so nothing was bent. I brought aboard the flopper stopper, tied off the boom to the backstay, secured the loose topping lift and went back to bed. I repaired it in ten minutes this morning with some odd parts I had. Good as new.

Foggy now as I'm headed to Marina Del Rey. Going to go dinner with my old, new friend Bruce. He's 83. I'm supposed to say he's 73. He sails every day of the year and plays racketball. He sailed out to the cove yesterday to visit me. I'd laid an anchor for him.

He tacked right towards me from about a quarter mile away. I got into the dinghy to show him where I'd buoyed his anchor. But, then he tacked away and head up around the point. He just didn't see me. I tried to hail passing boats to go turn him around to no avail.

A few hours later he came back down the point. This time a half mile out. I stopped a couple in a motor boat and told them the situation. Then, I changed my mind about getting them to steer him over to me. He usually ends his sails around two. If he visited with me, he would sailing back in the dark (and fog as it turned out). I let him go.

Later...at the dock:
Now, hopefully he can navigate his way by car and find me so I can go to my birthday dinner. If not, it's nice to be secured to a dock at the park, in spite of all the activity.
I never know if there's going to be a slip open for me. There was.

I'm all secured, back on AC, hot running wate and no anchoring worries. I can sleep soundly the next few nights. What more can you ask for on your birthday?


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

Living on the Hook in LA
Now Playing: Paradise Cove - Getting Around LA Without a Car
It's strange to wake up one morning at anchor on the island, with it's low noise level, very few cars and slow pace and find yourself the next morning on the 30th floor of the St. Regis Hotel in Century City working on a TV press junket with Billy Bob Thornton.

To get there, I unlock and straighten the handlebars of my electric bike that I keep on board the boat strapped to the mast for going to sea. I screw back on the left pedal, removed so I don't bang my shins on it going forward. I haul it up on deck and onto the dock, install the 9 lb. battery and scoot off under electric power that assists my pedalling up to 15 miles per hour for about 18 miles.

Work usually is up in Beverly Hills or Century within a ten mile radius of Marina Del Rey. If I'm tired or have back or knee problems, or I'm just plain lazy, there are buses I can take.

I throw the bike onto the bus' front rack. Often they are late or MIA. So, I just end up cranking like a mad man up through Culver City and through the nice neighboorhoods of Beverlywood and Beverly Hills.

I run every red light I can in Culver City. I received a $360. automated photo red light ticket there in my former car for being in the intersection for 1.2 seconds. It's such a racket. The city makes $400,00. a year off this system. By law, city employees are supposed to run this system. Instead! It is run by Austrailian company, Redflex who installs and oerates the system for free and revenue-shares with the city.

A class action lawsuit is in order for many California cities that operate these systems illegally. A radio host in San Diego was responsible for a win for about 400 ticketed red light offenders. The court ruled that the city was not following the law in their operation of the systems. City personnel did not operate the systems.

Even the ticket and court summons are issued by a RedFlex affiliate. The traffic officer's signature on the Certificate of Mailing required for being served a court summons is a photo copy. There's a case for perjury on the statement associated with the signature that says that the Traffic officer deposited them in the mail. The tickets are generated at a data center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Most likely the statement on the ticket by the Redflex person affirming his submission and deposit of the ticket in a specific mailbox in Culver City is perjurous as well.

That ticket was one of the reasons for me giving up on driving a few months ago. With payments, insurance and the high cost of gas, it just didn't seem worth the $600 a month to have a car. Plus, I didn't know where I could park it in LA without paying a hundred a month.

Now, I run the red lights at most of the stops when it's safe. The Redflex cams won't go off unless you are driving over 19 miles per hour.

I use the sidewalks early in the morning, moving to the street only for pedestrians. My only hazards are people making fast right hand turns into the crosswalk, drivers with cell phones to their ears, dogs on long leashes, cars backing out of driveways, darting out of alleyways. It's a real sport, a bit of BMX and with the poor state of the roads in LA, a bit of mountain biking. In the nicer neighborhoods, squirrel-dodging adds to the obstacle course.

I smell an international array of breakfasts cooking, meet many dogs being walked and run a guantlet of morning lawn sprinklers in my hour of biking up Beverwill, Bagley, and Dohny n eighborhoods.

I pull into some of the nicer hotels' parking structures and lock up. At the ritzy hotels like the St. Regis that don't allow acess to the parking area, I check the bike at valet parking along with the Lambouginis and Mercedes and they'll lock it up for me.

I charge the battery up in one of our shooting rooms while I'm working and then get to ride home free courtesy of the Four Seasons Beverly Hills or The Regeant Bevery Wilshire.

If I'm tired after work, I'll ride to a bus stop on Robertson Blvd. that's in front of a French Cafe and get a cup of coffee while waiting for the bus.

I ride home with the busboys and maids, most likely from the same hotels. I practice my Spanish listening for future days in South America.

The bus is moving very slowly through traffic. A blonde woman sitting on a seat reserved for the eldery and handicapped, her feet up on seat in front of her, looked out of place and very unhappy about having to ride the bus. It was obviously beneath her, but some emergency left her with this last mode of transport.

By her nice apparel, she Looked like she might have been involuntarily separated from her BMW or Camry. "Can't this thing go any faster", she complained haughtily and out loud to no one in particulalr.
I wanted to tell her to get out and walk or to get a cab. No one answered her. We all ignored her. Regular bus riders are well-practiced at ignoring wierdos on the bus.

Most people in LA would go through an identity crisis with the loss of their car. For me, it gives me an opportunity to answer my email on my Blackberry. Before I'm finished, I'm back at the boat.

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

Coverunner Radio - Ocean/Island Music
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Sent wirelessly from the sailboat, "Shearwater" off the Southern California coast.