El Niño oddities

   The last few weeks have been interesting here in the OC. 

   

   The pelagic crabs, normally native to Mexico, have come to visit our beaches and waters, confused by the El Niño weather condition. The last time they were here was in the 1983 El Niño year, as well. They look like tiny lobsters, or craw dads, bright red in color. Millions have washed up on the beaches this last weekend with the tide going back out before they could get off the beaches. The gulls are happy! 

   The things we get to see here, never cease to amaze my daughter and I. We both feel so blessed to be here. She asked me just today, to promise her we'd never leave... I had to explain to her that life was the most unpredictable of things, and I couldn't promise that. Life is fleeting and changing at all times. 

   

    My daughters school offers some pretty interesting after school enrichment classes. Hula, skateboarding, surfing, just to name a few. She's chosen the surfing classes, and had her first one a few weeks ago. It's 8 lessons, on Wednesdays, they provide the board & wetsuit, and 5 instructors for the 17 kids. She got up on her first wave, and several, thereafter. Until she took another board to the head and got spooked, she started just doing the knee thing. It was a 2 hour lesson, and by the end she was completely wiped out, but she had a blast and made a lot of forward progress. Tomorrow is lesson 2, so we'll see how it goes. 

   

    Another interesting thing is the week off of school in February- not spring break, but they call it "ski week." Apparently, everyone in the OC leaves to go skiing the third week of February so they just give the kids the week off. I'd never heard of that before....although one of my other girls, upon hearing that, wondered out loud why we hadn't moved here when she was of school age. Unfortunately, my youngest and I spent the week off, sick with terrible colds.

  

    As far as the boat goes, we are still shuffling things around, trying to find the best way to store things, getting rid of unused items, learning how to flow, and things are getting easier for the 2 of us to handle. We've solved some fairly important power/battery charging issues, which is huge. One of my girls asked me where my prized recipes were at, and I was unable to accurately verify that information. I seem to have misplaced more things than I was really aware of, in the move. Hot water for longer than 2 minutes and wifi are still my biggest issues, and while I am handling those things, I certainly hope for a resolution, some day.  We closed escrow on our home, finally, after 6 months - pretty big relief there. 

Things are looking up 😃

We get by with a little help from our friends

   It's been an eventful few weeks since the New Year. 

   My husband and I handled the boat ourselves, for the first time, about 3 weeks ago. He's done that before, with other guys helping and doing first mate things. This was my first time with just the two of us - hubby driving, and me running the lines. It's no small feat, for sure, and was fairly stressful. However, we did ok - no one was hurt and no crashes, so we were proud of ourselves. It was in pouring rain, which added to things, but all in all, it was good. Hubby would like to be doing Catalina trips by summer, but I think that may be a bit ambitious....we'll see how things progress as the season goes on. I'll really have to rearrange things, and strap things down before we take her out into open ocean. 

    Around 2 weeks ago, some dolphins came into the harbor and were hanging out a few feet off our stern. They came by, every morning for 5-6 days, which was pretty exciting. I was able to finally get them on video on one of the last days they cruised past. 

    We are getting to know our boat neighbors better, have had a few of them over for dinner, and we got to take an evening cruise on a sailboat. No one is an island out here, we all need each other's help on the water, and I appreciate all the help that has been given to us. Rides, tows, parts, engines, mechanical knowledge shared, help carrying things to and from, etc. It's a completely different way of life here, and we are thoroughly enjoying it. 

    The young family I mentioned in another post, has moved to our mooring field. My daughter is getting to know the younger kids, and walked to school with them, today. As summer gets closer, I hope they can start doing things together. 

   We've had a few days of rain, but besides that, the weather here is absolutely gorgeous. I visited our old town this last weekend, where it was 35F, at 10am, and came home to 80 degrees on the water, in January. 

    There's a local band we've come to love, because they just get it - the California living, the beach vibe, and I wanted to share one of their song's lyrics with you. There's so many of their lyrics that apply to our every day lives, and whenever my daughter asks me what the weather is going to be like that day, I always say "And tomorrow's gonna be the same!"

    Beautiful, every day....

Sand in my sheets

Open my eyes to an early sunrise,

Clear blue skies, so it's time to check the tide 

Grab my board, then I'm headed out the door,

If you need to find me, I'll be chilling at the shore.

Sand in my sheets, but I still fell asleep,

Dreaming about tonight, and a sunset on the beach,

I close my eyes, she's everything I see, 

On the shoreline, just my girl and me.

Cruising along, listening to the stereo,

This has got to be the greatest feeling that I know, 

Falling in love, falling for that special girl,

This has got to be the best feeling in the world

Sand in my sheets, but I still fell asleep

Dreaming about tonight, and a sunset on the beach,

I close my eyes, she's everything I see 

On the shoreline, just my girl and me. 

Well it makes no sense at all, how the living is so easy,

But parking is so hard in my own backyard,

And all bets are off if you're coming up from out of town, 

Get your greeting with a beat down, beat down,

Lucky for me, when I wake in the dawn

Grab my ukulele and I step on the lawn,

Hurry it up till I'm down on the beach

Skip to my step with a reggae stylie and a

Pacific Ocean air, Catalina's coming in so clear, 

And tomorrow's gonna be the same, yeah, 

Tomorrow's gonna be the same.

Oh, tomorrow, tomorrow is another day

Well, today if you're waiting for something to change,

Tomorrow's gonna be the same, yeah

Tomorrow's gonna be the same

Sand in my sheets, but I still fell asleep,

Dreaming about tonight and the sunset on the beach

I close my eyes, she's everything I see, 

On the shoreline, just my girl and me 

The Wheeland Brothers