Dana Point with the "Potters".

A great sail out of Dana Point Saturday Jan 19th. Weather was beautiful, 70 degrees and sunny. Wind approx 5 – 10 mph. Out for about 4 hours. Top speed 5.2 knots. Average speed 4.4 knots.

This was my first time out of Dana Point and I was not sure what to expect. I know the area and was looking forward to sailing. Cast off around 11am after coffee and donuts with the Potters. Denny crewed with me and it was fun having him to sail with. Light winds to begin with. Exit from the harbor to ocean was smooth with no excitement. Cut the motor as soon as we were out of the channel with no ferry or whale watching boat traffic around. We headed straight out towards Catalina that looked to be so close. But is at least a 7 hour crossing for me in my boat, Maybe one day… Denny and I were discussing that neither one of us had ever seen a whale while out sailing. When not 5 mins latter, a grey whale surfaced, blew a cool looking water spout and then gracefully went back down. This all happened about 100 yards away from the boat. I was good with that as the whale looked huge! We changed our heading to intersect where we thought the whale may surface again. But, all the motor boats charged up on the scene and we gracefully departed. No more whale sightings for the day. We did see a big pod of dolphins feeding a little way off. There must have been around 30 or so. They were moving too fast for the boat to keep up with. Clicked a few pics, not sure if you will be able to see them between the motor boats.

Cool sail day with lots of boats out on the water. We heard one estimate that there were 50 sails out?

Had dinner at the Brig in the harbor before driving home. Fun day. An Artsy photo from today.