The Taco Traveler

It's been a ridiculous amount of time since I've posted. I've been meaning to write about a few things for a while, but you know... when I'm not sailing it seems I have so much to do, and so little I feel anyone would be interested in reading about. But despite that, here's a little story about what happened after I finally got to San Diego.
 
As you know from my last blog, on Sunday (11/18) I came into San Diego Harbor and anchored, but you can't anchor anywhere in San Diego Harbor without an "Anchoring Permit" which you have to get in advance, or from the San Diego Harbor Police office, and the Harbor Police office is of course, 8-6 (or something like that, anyway they were closed at 11:30 on Sunday night). A little background; at many marinas I've been to, both in the Seattle area and in San Francisco, they have someone monitoring the VHF or answering the phone all night long. There's always a marina employee or a security guard to tell you where you can tie up temporarily until you can get a more permanent slip when the office opens. But in San Diego, there don't seem to be any such provisions. Even at the San Diego Marriott Marina, which is really nice and you'd think there would always be someone ready to take in a boat willing to pay $90 for a single night's stay at their dock, they close at 5pm.

So, with no marinas answering and seemingly nowhere to go, I anchored just off Harbor Island and went below, logged on and discovered a web site that said you could get a slip at the Harbor Police dock for a limited amount of time. With so many cruisers already bound for Mexico after the hurricane season ended (November 1, according to the insurance companies), I figured there might be slips available. So I pulled up anchor and headed over there about midnight. I docked temporarily at an end-tie which happened to be a pump-out location, and walked around looking for a slip to pop into or someone in charge to talk to, and nothing. So I figured, what the heck, I'll wake up early and get out of here before anyone knows. Since I'd been going for about 15 hours at this point, and with no responses to VHF hails or phone calls to about 8 marinas, I felt like I needed to get Chemistry tied up and get some sleep before I became, in boating terms "a danger to myself and others." And besides, looking at the larger dock not 30 feet away there were at least 4 other pump-out stations.

Well, the next morning I was up at 8am (when the Harbor Police Dock office opens) and because I'm too honest I decided I'd go pay for my stay anyway, and check to see if they happened to have a real slip for me to move to. It was there that I ran into the most cruel, angry, unhappy person I've ever encountered. Ever.

The exchange went something like this:

I walk up to the door, which is one of those half-doors where the top is plexiglass with a hole in it. The office is about 15' by 15', with windows south and west looking over the marina through one window and the Harbor through the other. There's a man, 55-ish, sitting behind a desk looking over his bifocals, shuffling papers.

    "Good morning," I say.
    He looks up and glares. Then looks back down at his papers. "We don't have any slips available," he growls.
    "Um, yeah, I see that on the sign here on the window. I'm the guy parked in your pump-out, the end-tie."
    "You're not supposed to be!" At this point, so quickly in the converstation, he may have turned beet red, and seemed genuinely angry. Very angry.
    "Well, I understand that, but I got in late and there was nowhere else to go. You can't anchor anywhere without..."
    "Are you leaving?!" At this point he stands up and starts gathering the papers he was handling.
    "Would you like me to pay for last night?"
    "No. Just be happy your boat wasn't impounded or that you weren't cited by the on-duty officer. GOOD DAY!" He looked me right in the eyes and said this, slowly, and it's been used before and sounds goofy, but the best way I can describe it is dripping with venom. And he tilted his head down and sneered the "Good day" part, like he had practiced very hard in front of the mirror at being hateful, condescending and dismissive. It was sort of evil.
    I was absolutely blown away, and I felt a sort of bemused grin coming onto my face, so decided I'd better turn and get out of there before my grin became noticable and he found a reason to lock me up.

I mean... if you hate your job or your life that much, do something about it. I'm bothered that he treated me so badly, but really, what I feel most is pity. Did his wife run out on him? Did his dog just die? I don't know, there could be lots of reasons for him to be that way on that particular Monday morning. In any case, in my untrained opinion, the guy needs to change something in his life or he's going to hurt someone.

So... What else? I returned a few days ago from Seattle where I had a great Thanksgiving. I've got a month-long sublease of a decent slip where I have a great nighttime running route, and a good daytime bike-ride to most anything I need. Yes, I actually like not having a car; I'm getting into good shape. I will be here in San Diego until 12/22, with a trip to Florida set for 12/6 to 12/20 while R goes to DC. I'm really enjoying having all day long to polish stainless steel and fix stuff I've been meaning to fix. For the past two days I've had all my anchor chain laid out on the finger pier while I painted sections every 40' so I'd know how much scope I had out from now on. While the chain was out, I completely tore apart and re-greased/maintained my anchor windlass. I'm also getting organized and planning things like a SCUBA compressor and a watermaker. And of course, when the sun's not shining and I've polished all I can polish for the day, I generally sit down at my laptop and start working. Speaking of work....

TT