I spent Sunday at Arlington West Santa Monica and caught up with several old friends and made several new ones. Tim Goodrich and I talked of our runs for city council seats, the IVAW and keel boats. Maricela Guzman and I talked about latin american democracy and Colombia and a new friend Don and I talked about the VAMC WLA and Waxman as did Larry Alpert and I. I also posed a new focus on transforming the military to better use consistent with the new Maritime Services Cooperative Strategy (wiki) It was a good day with peace friends.
Paradise Cove is formed by Point Dume on the west and northwest and the Malibu Hills on the north and northeast. Much of the cove that is less than forty feet is kelp forest. There are a lot of seabirds, waders and shorebirds in the cove as well as sea lions, seals and dolphins. A pod of small dolphins frequently hangs out around my boat at night and I whistle to them which they seem to hear and like. I cannot see them well enough to identify them but there are about a dozen. The kelp forests are full of fish, calico, sea bass and others. There is a fish I have seen kayaking to shore and back that looks like a kelp frond! I need a fish book.
Last night and this morning the sea was a calm as a pond and the small dolphins stayed near my boat until I went to sleep…I could hear their breathing as I drifted off.
The sea in Santa Monica Bay is warmer than it was at Santa Cruz Island. At night when the temperature drops below 50 you can feel the warmth from the sea. Its never quite dark here so close to the city and I miss the stars but I was chilled to the bone when I made Channel Islands Harbor after the month at Santa Cruz Island. Thanks to Al and Laura Holtz I had two weeks of warm therapy and still feel well warmed.
The bus stop above Paradise Cove is in a deep canyon that reaches up into the Malubu Hills among the great mansions. The recent rains washed a lot of humble camping equipment and clothes out of the hills, likely from immigrant camps of the people who serve the wealthy here. Bus 534 that I take to the Malibu Library or Santa Monica is usually ridden mostly by hispanic workers riding into town from camp or to their employing mansions. Years ago I read a book entitled (The Tortilla Curtain) about this phenomenon.
You might think that my life as a wandering sailor without a destination or agenda is unstructured but I soon have a structure when I am in port. I have attended AA meetings and done my work at the library every day except my day at Arlington West and today (I will prepare to sail to MdR tomorrow).
Holiday AA meetings, like most places during the holidays, are full of rich things to eat and I hear from many people about their lactose intolerance or their gluten intolerance etc. It seems the richer the people, the more intolerant to some kind of food they are! In Totogalpa, Nicaragua, I lived in the home of the extended family that made the pan dulce, sweet bread made from refined wheat flour and refined sugar, for the entire town. It was the best smelling place in the town as the large domed clay ovens baked all day using wood as fuel. Oddly in the town there was noone that I could see that had any food intolerance and there was little obesity. Maybe the food intolerances are just a way to limit the endless eating that goes on in an affluent society? My staple on the boat now is oatmeal, I have learned to love it and it needs only water and not fuel to make. I have learned on the bus that oatmeal made with water is “gruel” and the root for the word “gruelling”…and I see why! When you eat oatmeal you last through the challenges.
I should sail to Marina Del Rey tomorrow and then maybe can get the rubber tubing I need to fashion self steering sheet to tiller. As it happens, Malibu has a Malibu Country Market just by the library but it has no stores other than boutiques and couffouires….no place to buy bread or rubber tubing!
addendum!:
A call to Marina Del Rey guestdocks revealed that they only allow seven days and since I have a VAMC WLA appt on Dec 30th, I remain at Paradise Cove.
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