Live Free 2 Sail Fast

San Diego to Catalina Island by Sailboat (And Back)

Heading from San Diego to Catalina Island by sailboat is fairly easy…unless you want to try to sail the distance via a straight course.  Most of the time the wind blows from the north straight south, meaning most boats will be heading directly into the wind to get to Catalina on the shortest course from San Diego.  If you have time; you can tack toward Catalina Island, but that will add infinite hours to your sail.  There are also folks who break up the trip by heading for guest slips in Oceanside or Dana Point, making it a 2-3 day trip just to get to the island from San Diego.  We neither tack or break up the trip getting there; but we do have to motor TO Catalina, always trying to sail back.  Seriously, without the motor heading to Catalina it’s just no contest, as we usually don’t have the time it would take to do the long sweeping tacks (on a rhumb line it’s approx 72 miles to Catalina just from the 4th buoy outside of San Diego).  We’ve done this trip many times from Oceanside when we had a boat there, but it’s a different animal from San Diego.  Read on for more- (more…)

Getting Our “Outside” On

For the last month or so, we’ve done pretty well in getting off the slip to get our “outside” on.  We’re back from another adventure and I’m loving getting back to the website for updates.  It’s been busy.  We conducted test # 1 of our Solar Panels with the Grandparents in Glorietta Bay just before Mother’s Day, then pressed on to a weekend trip to Paso Robles, Ca to restock our grog and see old friends.  After that, we leaned into test # 2 of our Solar Panels with a night crossing from San Diego to Catalina Island (Ca) for 3 days and a long fast day trip back….and via a one day turn-around, we headed out again for some giggle testing at Universal Studios, Hollywood.  We’re back and I’m refocused on what I need to fix from the Catalina Trip- leaking transmission fluid, cabinet doors that fall out with any swell and I’ll wager a myriad of other things I’ve forgotten.  Of course…being us…the kids went with us everywhere and we were happy to be around them for these different experiences.  Our new auto-pilot also showed up and I get to install it…as soon as our wheel is back fixed from the metal shop.  

When the Blog runs silent…we’re probably getting our outside on or I’m doing heavy work on the boat and don’t take the time to write.  We’re down to five (5) months till we cut the docklines and we’re feeling it.  I love it…it’s an end date to back plan from…now till then.  We’re LF2SF and we want to make sure you know if you have questions, comments or just want reach out to us, blog comments are ALWAYS answered…as soon as we’re back from our adventures.    

Learning to Appreciate My Boat

Our anniversary was Monday but because we knew that babysitting would be in short supply the first couple weeks of December, we celebrated our anniversary a bit early.  (more…)

Elusive StarFish

Our Roving Reporter tried hard to find starfish during her snorkeling expeditions off the shoreline,,,,only to randomly find one once the tide went out,,,,and she was back on dry land.

LF2SF Stickers appear in GUAM!!!

Look out, the stickers are appearing everywhere-  (more…)

LF2SF Roving Reporter Photos

Great pics of the sunset and shorelines of an island in the distant Pacific,,,,,where one of our roving reporters is randomly visiting:

Island of Broken Boats and Lost Dreams

I want to start by saying that I have written this with the utmost respect and sadness for those who lost their boats to Hurricane Irma whether in BVI, Puerto Rico or Florida.  Every boat in my pictures belonged to someone,,,meaning they were someone’s hopes and dreams. (more…)

Sad End of the Willie-T

Yep, we had to pay our respects to an old haunt… (more…)

Tough Crowd!

You guys are a tough crowd.  I went sailing and was away for a bit,,,,and my stats plummeted.  Lucky for me,,,,they didn’t have very far to plummet!

I’m back and life is about to get awesome crazy!

Keep reading and following.

Back from the BVI!

We went to the BVI for about 5 different reasons but came back with so much more…. (more…)