Having just gone on and on about an exceptional day on Mahdee, in the interest of journalistic balance, it only seems right to say something about a normal day. I have to admit that part of the inspiration is an excellent story about how to know if living on a boat is right for you. LINK Although we laughed and could really relate to much of the story, we felt that the author was overly optimistic about the ease of doing things while living aboard. The land lubbers reading that story probably mistakenly thought the opposite–that there was some exaggeration by the author. I am fairly confident that much of the disparity is due to the fact we are in San Diego where there is a diabolical attempt to make being on a boat as tough as possible. Unlike most places, in San Diego there is a requirement to move the boat to another location every 72 hours with the one exception being the “cruiser anchorage” where we are currently staying. Moving every 72 hours makes one feel like a ping pong ball. During one such period a few months ago, we were at a marine store (where else) and a fellow boater asked where we were staying. Brenda and I had a complete brain dump–where WAS Mahdee now? There is nothing worse than driving 30 minutes to where you thought you left the boat, only to remember that you had since moved the boat to another location 30 minutes away in another direction. The various 72 hour locations are spread across the region and require most boaters to have at least two cars and two people so that vehicles can be ferried around and positioned near the current boat location. That constant ferrying is also complimentary since nearly all parking near the water is either restricted and requires a permit, or has at most a 72 hour parking restriction. We are getting really good at seeing the signs of tire chalking.
Although there are two of us with two cars all that moving was taking a toll on us so we decided to take a permit in the cruisers anchorage where we could stay put for up to 30 days (actually about 10 so that we could optimize permit usage, but that’s another story). Even being able to stay put 10 days is luxurious because every time we reposition Mahdee, we lose most of day (getting the boat prepped for departure, going to the new location, prepping for arrival, arriving and then getting settled again). Those steps may seem trivial, but believe me, on a boat, they are not trivial and they take much more time that you might expect–see the afore mentioned prep article on living aboard. So, we had been often losing 1 day in 3 to boat position logistics, then there were external commitments, and the result was much less work was being accomplished on Mahdee that we needed to if we were going to get out of San Diego–ever. The down side of the “cruisers anchorage” included: nearest public parking was limited to only 2 hours during the day, no nearby dingy landing area (within about a mile), and the closest authorized dingy landing area is notorious for theft–especially if your dingy has a motor.
Paradoxically, less than 500 feet from us in the anchorage is a very large mostly empty parking lot for a closed restaurant–any car parked there gets threats of towing. There is a steep rocky embankment between the anchorage and the lot though–which makes it very difficult to portage a canoe or all the stuff we need to move from the car to the dingy. There is also a big marina right there, but they won’t let you access their facility in a dingy even if you are willing to pay. One of our anchorage neighbors lost his dingy overnight. We searched high and low along the shoreline for it in our canoe. Later, while riding his bike, he saw it locked up in that marina’s facility. Before they let him have it back, he had to swear to the manager that he hadn’t tried to come ashore there that the dingy had just came untied at night and drifted into their marina. A little farther away across a small channel are enormous rental car company parking lots right on the waterfront that the Harbor authority has decided is the best use for that prime waterfront land. They shuttle to the airport and I suppose this non-boater use provides the highest rent to the port on the property as the airport surcharge can just be added onto the car renter’s bill. There are large chain link fences separating that forbidden parking area from the water’s edge. In that same area is a nice dock that would make a very convenient dingy dock for boats in the cruisers anchorage, but that too is a forbidden place for everyone and lies completely unused with large chain link fences making it a useless piece of infrastructure. Instead, cruisers must make a long row/paddle to a far away, inconvenient dock, notorious for theft and with only a handful of parking spaces that are alway full and in any case limited to a two hour stay. Further, there is very limited public transportation there–a bus running once an hour or so, and no marine chandeliers at all, and for that matter no other retail closer than a long, long walk. No wonder southbound cruisers in-the-know always provision well before arriving in San Diego. Lots of lost opportunity for business due to really, really poor foresight and planning on the part of San Diego’s Port Authority.
As a result of the issues of getting from boat to shore with ease, we try to focus on tasks that keep up aboard Mahdee. Unfortunately, anyone who has worked on a boat–or even a house project–knows that midway in any project, you will discover that some vital piece of hardware–bolt, fitting, whatever–is missing, in a land storage unit, or never anticipated and therefore requires a trip ashore. Here is what that entails. First and foremost, one must sit down with pen and paper the night before and really think through all the necessary errands and all the necessary information that will be needed to complete those errands. Some as simple as collecting all the full trash bags to take ashore, to the more obtuse, such as taking the battery-run circular saw with fully charged batteries so that firewood in the storage garage can be cut down to dingy size. The 7 foot long wooden boarding platform (brow) must be deployed on Mahdee’s starboard side for dingy access if it is not already dark.
Its best to get an early morning start–near daybreak if possible. Don’t forget to check the weather–we don’t want to leave Mahdee when bad weather is forecast. On the day of departure, the canoe must be launched over the port side so we don’t knock the smoke stack off of the stove which is on the starboard side adjacent the brow. The dingy is led aft and by climbing out onto the 4″ wide boomkin on Mahdee’s stern, the canoe can be persuaded to switch sides and then be pulled forward next to the starboard-side brow and tied off. All the supplies needed for the trip must be hauled up onto the deck near the brow. In addition to trash bags, this includes the folding bike in its protective bag which just barely fits up through the companionway. It also includes large canvas bags for the smaller firewood that we will bring back and bags with towels and shampoo and clean clothes should we decide to visit a shore-side facility for a luxurious shower not involving a plastic bag in Mahdee’s scuttle room filled with water heated in a pot on the stove. The prospect of a shower that only involves the turn of a valve and which runs for more than our shower bag’s 2gal per person limit is always eagerly anticipated on every trip ashore.
Once all the bags of tools and life-jackets and paddles have been gathered and are prepositioned on deck, I usually go over the side and down to the brow which sits about gunnel height on the canoe. Brenda hands me stuff to pack into the boat usually starting with the bike and other big containers such as empty gas cans and we stuff the smaller bags in the crevices. Our prospector canoe is fairly large and has a nice 1000 pound load capacity, but we usually start wondering if there will be room in the canoe for all the things we will bring back later in the day.
I board the canoe and Brenda makes sure everything is secure on deck, including a small lock on the companionway doors because we are, after all, downtown in a large US city. Brenda descends to the brow and boards the canoe and we take off. The other reason for an early start is that the wind and waves are usually smaller which makes the long paddle easier and the ride more comfortable. We paddle around the long shoreline perimeter of the Coast Guard station making sure we don’t get too close–no telling what they will do in the post-911 era. After about a mile of paddling, we approach the nearest public dock which looks like its encased in dingies. The person in the bow pushes other boats aside as necessary so that it is possible to get from the canoe onto the dock. We unload the canoe and let the canoe become a temporary part of the pack of dingy’s. Technically our canoe is too long to leave there since only really short dingies with no load capacity are allowed. This is not really a problem for us because we wouldn’t leave either of our dingy’s there unattended. Our anchor-neighbor’s dingy had its cable lock cut and the boat stolen from that very dock only a couple of days earlier.
On the dock, I unpack my bike from its bag, unfold it and set out on the 30+minute ride to where the car is parked. Technically, we can’t even park there for more than 72 hours, but we know a homeless man there and he keeps watch on the car during our absence. Its nice to have such friends. When I get to the car, I chat with the homeless guy, fold up the bike and put it into the trunk. Hopefully I have the keys. If I were to leave those on the table in Mahdee, it would be over 2 hours to go and get them–don’t forget the keys! I drive back to the place where I left Brenda on the dock.
During my hour-long absence, Brenda shuttles the contents of the canoe up the 300 foot dock ramp to the nearest curb. This takes longer than you might think because if you get greedy and try to move more than 10 or 20 feet at a time, a fellow boater will try to steal stuff. Brenda made the mistake of turning her back on the lower pile for about 30 seconds the other day and a gas can disappeared. She confronted the only person there and found the can hidden behind a post. He claimed that he thought the can was abandoned. Such brazen thievery! You would think that in a city crawling with police of every description that they could make the waterfront less dodgy. After all, if all your anchoring permits aren’t perfect you will get a ticket from the harbor police within hours.
When I arrive in the car, there is no place to stop without blocking traffic, let alone park. I jump out and pop the trunk and head down the ramp to get the canoe. Brenda loads the curbside pile into the car. I return with the canoe on my shoulders and strap it to the roof. With any luck, the backed up traffic isn’t too upset by then. We are back in the real world for a while. Its off to the marine stores, any other stores and then to one or all of our storage units. The storage unit visits can take a long time because we usually need to find specific items that may or may not exist–since they are still crammed with stuff packed into storage by the previous owner of Mahdee. Our storage garage has a huge quantity of wood that is not up to the standards of Mahdee and will be used as fire wood. We cut those boards into 4-5 foot lengths that will fit into the trunk of the car and into the canoe as well. Some of the good wood is also selected for foreseeable projects and then we might take that wood to the wood hobby shop where we have access to large woodworking tools and the good wood can be shaped into some vital thing for Mahdee.
At this point it is off to check for chalk marks on the “other car’s” tires and to move it as necessary and then to our “yacht club” for luxurious showers. Lastly, we visit the grocery store (we don’t have a refrigerator or freezer, so we have to limit our purchases of perishable items on each grocery store visit to those we can consume before they will go bad). At this point, we look at the piles of hardware purchases, storage unit finds, stacks of firewood, newly shaped wood parts for Mahdee and the groceries that completely fill the car and wonder how we will ever get it all onto the anchored Mahdee.
After driving back to the public dock, and dumping all that stuff off, along with Brenda, I head back to the safe parking lot. With any luck, the fast unpacking of the car at the public dock didn’t inadvertently include something I need for my return bike ride like my bike headlight. It’s always dark by now no matter how early in the day we started out from Mahdee. I unfold my bike in the pitch dark and put on the lights and pedal towards the public dock as fast as possible.
Meanwhile, Brenda is alone on the public dock at night with a pile of “boat stuff.” The exact nature of the “boat stuff” if often tough to identify even for other boaters. This is especially true because Mahdee is an old Schooner and back in the day, things were just done differently on boats. But everyone “knows” that boat stuff is expensive. She has time to move carefully and stay aware of her surroundings because I won’t be back for about an hour. The many homeless people are friendly and benign. The ones to watch are other boaters and more well-to-do people looking to grab anything of value. She shuffles everything down the dock and loads it all into the canoe. The cold is generally just setting in when I arrive because I usually find Brenda putting on another coat to shield her from the damp cold. I fold up the bike, put it into its bag and then set it onto the already packed and brimming canoe. We rig up a white light so that other boaters can see us and shove off. We usually try to stay near the rocky shore because other boaters avoid that area, but we are careful not to get too close to the dark rocks. We are usually greeted by some boater in the anchorage who is sitting out on deck in the dark and take the opportunity to chat and share information. Its important to know your neighbors if a storm or other disaster hits. This being a transient anchorage, the neighbors are always changing.
Mahdee usually stands out because of her very bright anchor light atop the towering main mast. She usually has the highest and brightest light in the anchorage. We pull up to the brow on her starboard side and Brenda climbs up onto deck. Depending on the natural lighting, she may go below and turn on the brilliant halogen lights on the main mast that shine down onto the deck. This makes unloading easier, but it is still a long and tedious process. Item-by-item, I hand stuff up to Brenda including each and every piece of firewood. She stands about five feet above me on the rocking deck taking the full gas cans, the bike, new hardware–there can be no fumble or else the item will surely sink to the bottom of the anchorage and be lost forever. We stack it all up on the deck near the brow. Then its time to drag the canoe around Mahdee by its painter. After dark, the deck is usually covered in dew and/or salt from waves and spray. The narrow boomkin off Mahdee’s stern is slippery and the water is no more than 60 degrees F. Way too cold for a dunking. Once brought up on the port side, we haul the prospector canoe out of the water and onto deck where we lash it down–no telling if winds will blow and we don’t want to lose our shore-transport vessel. Then Brenda positions herself in the chart house and I hand down bags from the deck. After that’s done, Brenda goes into the main saloon and I hand down items from the chart house. The boat’s interior virtually impassable at this point, so I leave Brenda so that she can stash items away while, on deck, I cut up the firewood, this time into chunks 14 inches long that will fit into the Shipmate stove. After that, we clean the sawdust off of the deck because the dust could clog the scuppers which drain the deck and the resulting pooling of water will cause problems. By then, there is a path down to the place where my folding bike is lashed to the port clamp for storage. I haul it below and stow it. The cut firewood is stowed so that some is near the stove, ready to burn, the rest which would be in the way down below is stored elsewhere where it will stay dry until needed. “Elsewhere” varies depending on other projects and materials aboard the boat. It could be the foredeck, the cockpit, or under the canoe.
We then check the deck to make sure everything is secure. Its usually really late by now and we are exhausted. So, after some moments staring out at the beautiful skyline of the city, it’s off to bed. Tomorrow we will start installing the newly acquired and found hardware, as well as those new bits of wood we shaped into boat parts. No doubt that before noon, we will realize we forgot something, or didn’t anticipate something. But, it will have to go on the list for the next trip, because we aren’t budging from Mahdee for several more days at the soonest–there is plenty of other hardware and things we can do with all that is already on board.
Such is life in the spot where San Diego has chosen for visiting boaters to experience their city. I can’t wait to leave.
