Our First Week Aboard Betty Jean

In November of last year, Bud (Grand Slam’s new owner) and Adam orchestrated the ol’ switcheroo – simultaneous trips moving Grand Slam up to Long Beach and Betty Jean down to San Diego. Bud and his son drove down to San Diego where they began their trip while Adam and I drove Bud’s car up to Long Beach to get acquainted with our new boat and take her home. The drive up was really exciting – (besides the fact that we were driving Bud’s BMW) we were about to be aboard our new boat all by ourselves! But we were also nervous about everything we didn’t know – here’s an excerpt from a blog that Adam wrote about this time period.

Selling Grand Slam and buying Betty Jean was humbling. On our first long leg down the coast from Long Beach, after raising the sails, having trouble setting the new rig to the wind, learning the new steering, bumping our heads in places, we realized how much of our experience and confidence was tied up in Grand Slam. Everything I knew was from sailing that boat, everything we’d learned together about sailing and cruising was on that boat and we were entering entirely new territory with new problems, new advantages and disadvantages, a smaller boat requiring more patience, much more careful steering, closer quarters, smaller closets, and a tiny bed. We’d downsized to something new and strange, that we loved from the outside and have learned to love on the inside.

Welcome Gift from Bud

Loading the boat with supplies

We took about a week hopping down the coast, stopping in Newport and Oceanside. At each stop we practiced docking and line handling, trying to get a feel for our new, heavyset boat. Adam worked during the day and we explored every afternoon. In the evenings we cooked and made lists of boat projects and a wish list of equipment. My head swirled with images of new upholstery and pillows & dishes from anthropologie.

Here are some pictures from our trip: