Advice on San Diego

[JSoup]

We are considering trailering our 31CB to San Diego for a few weeks in March. Our boat is a two family partnership, so one family would use it for 2-3 weeks and the other family (ours) would use it for just over a week during Oregon's Spring Break. Please share any advice you may have on temporary moorage (it would be nice to have amenities since we will likely use this as a home base), day trips, possible overnight destinations, truck and trailer parking, etc...

Thanks - Eric

 

[Trisailor]

Check out Chula Vista Marina. They are on the southernmost end of San Diego Bay. There is an adjacent RV park and have a small sea food restaurant on site.
There are some centrally located marina's in the Mission Bay area - Sea World is one.
Kona Kai resort at the north end of San Diego bay has guest facilities, they are a bit more cost wise but a nice location with plenty of on site amenities plus close proximity to the airport. They are also are closest access to open ocean.
The Marriot Hotel downtown has a marina, not sure what their guest policies are.

 

[JSoup]

Thank you for this helpful info! Anyone else?

 

[Annie Time]

We have gotten a slip at the Bay Club on shelter Island a few times. It’s a bit pricy but has real nice amenities. It’s very close for fuel not far from the open ocean. We have left our trailer at the launch ramp parking lot on Shelter Island. One of the better places to launch. We did disconnect the truck to go do our running around and then park the truck with the trailer at night. It’s a short walk back to the slip. Take a look on google maps.
There is also guest mooring at the west end of Shelter Island. Nice slips very reasonably priced. Need to book the two weeks in advance on line. We do the same with the truck and trailer. We also take a bike as it’s a long walk between the slip and parking. Hope this helps


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[JSoup]

Thank you for the advice on San Diego- we just got back last night. We ended up at the Bay island and really enjoyed it, it was perfect for our needs. Having an ebike for errands was really nice, but we enjoyed walking as far as Rosecrans several times too. Parking in the open lot worked well except you cannot unhitch the trailer to use the truck separately. Our boat partner did it to get diesel while his wife waited with the trailer and they were warned they could have been ticketed. Also note a long bed quad cab truck with a R31 trailer is about 60’ long and way over the length of the parking spots. It seems to be an allowable practice to park the nose of the truck over the curb in the dirt. As noted, the truck needs to be moved every 72 hours.

Our boat partner had challenges towing down, due to having an almost full fuel tank and the boat being a little too far aft. This led to too light tongue weight and swaying at anything above 55mph. For our trip back we had just over 50 gal and got the boat as far forward as we could. We had no problems at all at 65mph most of the way. We did break a brake line on the trailer somewhere in the last couple hundred miles. We were through the hills when we discovered it, and made it the rest of the way being extra careful. We have no idea how it happened and may not have noticed had my son not been driving a separate vehicle and saw it when he passed us.

We did break the stern thruster shear pin putting it on the trailer when it sucked up the tail of a strap hanging off the trailer, but otherwise had no boat issues. As noted elsewhere on this forum, due to access problems replacing the pin is ridiculously difficult for what should be a very easy job. The Side-Power ratcheting Allen wrench that should make it much easier next time. https://www.mauriprosailing.com/us/prod ... OL6MM.html

 

[mikey]

thinking of boater homing from Vancouver BC to San Diego with a C28 in Jan/Feb, Anyone ideas on launching,truck/trailer storage,moorage and cruise spots there?

 

[b&jsrubiconii]

MIkey:

Check out the California Delta on the way down or back...I wouldn't miss it unless you're set on spending entire time in SD. It is also "attached" to the SF Bay as well. You could spend weeks there and never see the same thing twice.

Also, in the same vein, check out Channel Islands National Park out of Ventura. Excellent launching ramp at Ventura Harbor. Islands are amazing.

Finally, can't go wrong with Catalina Island (could launch from anywhere in the greater LA area)!

Just some thoughts to make sure you don't skip these amazing places if you're not headed in a "bee line" to SD.

Safe travels!

 

[mikey]

thanks for the tips b&j. Might be a bit cool in SF in Jan/Feb?

 

[Scuba Too]

Let me know if you're thinking about including a jaunt out to Catalina. I go there regularly from Huntington Harbor and it's about 2.5 hours from slip to mooring in Avalon. More than happy to discuss and give advice/suggestions. Note that from San Diego I think it'd be about 7-8 hours.

Eric