4th of July

The holiday has come and gone but the summer continues. Last Thursday after surfing and riding my bike along the beach the great rabbit chaser and I headed back inland where the temperatures would be warmer. The beach had been mostly fog and the sun was playing hide and seek for most of the day. As we passed the entrance to the south bound 5 interstate the traffic was backed up as the highway towards San Diego was halted and remained that way as we drove north until we exited. Oh the pleasures of the freeway. Do these people not know you could leave at another time? Before I become so critical of other I must admit when I arrived at the marina the next day I had never seen so many cars. Of course the city provides a fireworks display in Cabrillo and several streets were blocked off to prevent parking there.

At our last house I would display my grandfather's American flag in front of the house and would always receive compliments although no one every realized the flag had only 46 stars. If I explained it had only 46 the reply was typically "Oh, that was before Hawaii and Alaska." Actually history and geography is not taught in schools I say joking (our local high school just eliminated the geography teacher due to budget cuts) and the 46 state to be admitted was the Indian Territory of Oklahoma about a hundred years ago.

With our new to us 3.5 horsepower outboard the dog actually went out in our inflatable several times to see other dogs floating by. When the sun went down and the fireworks started she did not care for it at all and to be returned to the boat cabin away from the loud aerial burst.

Beside the various city sponsored firework displays there were several backyard or local street citizens that continued late in to the night causing my hairy first mate to grouse even in her cabin bunk. The next day their were fewer folks to see and the wind conditions were great as we went seaward. If you wait to late the wind in the gulch can kick up making a single handed departure tedious as the hairy first mate does nothing to help and must be lashed to the mast to prevent her jumping ship at the last moment. Upon our return in the afternoon we set out to visit others in our rubber dingy but the internal air supply for some reason wouldn't stay in place so our motoring to distance islands were held off until the leak could be found. A bucket of soap water and much searching found the pin hole causing the trouble so maybe next time we can go in search of grass skirts and ukuleles.