Departing October 7, 2006 from San Diego, CA arriving October 7, 2006 to Los Coronados, Mexico and returned October 8, 2006 to San Diego. The Los Coronados Islands are just east of Tijuana and are part of Mexico. They are the closest islands to San Diego. It takes about 4 hours for Kosmos to get there from her slip. We were joined by several friends and Eric’s cousin for a total of 6 on board. The islands are a nature preserves and you are not allowed to set foot on them. A decent anchorage is at 32°23’58.13″N 117°14’21.86″W, but watch out for the aqua culture nets just to the south at 32°23’35.36″N 117°14’4.57″W. In fact a boat got caught in some lines near that area. We heard them calling for help and altered course and went to full throttle to help them. They did not have a diving mask to work on their props. We did. We were about 15 minutes away when a Mexican fishing vessel was able to help out the stranded boat. The fishing boat had a diver and sent them out to cut the lines. Pretty awesome. It is great how mariners help each other out. We got the call they were ok, and changed course back to the anchorage area.

We spent the night anchored near the island. A few boats anchored nearby. It was not the smoothest of anchorages. It was a very full moon. Here are some fun shots of the moon and the red light of a fishing boat anchored nearby and you could see the roll of the boat.

Later, as Christi was making spaghetti, she suggested it may be a good idea to put out the paravanes. When deployed at anchor the paravanes are called “flopper stoppers”. They reduce the roll of the boat. All we can say is “Wow!” they really make a huge difference — enough that Christi stopped worrying about a big pot of boiling water falling over on her. The next day some fishing boats went by at full speed and their accompanying wake. We braced for the wave to hit, and as it passed under us we barely could feel it. It was amazing. Next time we will deploy the paravanes right away.

We kept the paravanes down and proceeded back to San Diego. The paravanes do a nice job keeping the boat more comfortable underway. Very smooth, and amazingly easy to deploy and bring in. While we love the active fin stabilizers (hydraulic powered underwater wings under the water), but it is very comforting to have the paravanes. Also the active fins do not work at anchor, while the paravanes most certainly do.

Here are some photos of the weekend crew and a moon shot over San Diego.