OK, OK, I've done a couple of previous posts on Avalon and us visiting. So, here is another... Scott and I left Newport Beach at around noon today. After 4 days at the anchorage we woke to another boat anchored near us. We don't know when they came in, but it was nice to have neighbors even for a short time. The crew of Reisender was up and gone before they. We wanted to make Catalina Island before nightfall..... after all it's only 20 miles..... see the foreshadowing? After stopping off at the pump out dock to clean give the boat a good wash down we were on our way after 14 months. She shouldn't have received such a good wash down. It's turns out we were on the very, very tail end of a small craft advisory. While that really isn't a big deal it did slow us down quite a bit. Normally we make the run in about 4 1/2 to 5 hours......... today's run was just over 7! I was not happy! We were only making about 4 knots, mostly due to the wind and waves against us, but a little to the garden growing under us. It's been decided to splurge on someone scrubbing the bottom of the boat in Ensenada. Scott and I are really glad we do these things in steps. The fridge ran for much of our voyage, and so did the nav-computer, and the radar, and the AIS, and the....... well... it turns out that our alternator was at the end of it's life. I came down to get the paper version of the lay-out of Avalon and smelled something burning. I told Scott to get below while I took the helm. We were minutes away from a possible fire. Scott knows our boat, that's one of the advantages of him doing almost all of the work himself. We were only down about 20 minutes and on our way again. Both of us remained calm and were able to do our respective tasks to get us underway again. While the alternator isn't quite toast, she is definitely retired. Thanks to our good friend Eric for the wonderful swap meet he put on a couple of years ago, we happen to carry a spare on board. The question is now, when do we buy another spare? We will figure it out before leaving Avalon. In the mean time, we will enjoy being in a wonderful setting and enjoying an almost empty mooring field.
Cheers for now and fair sailing!
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