SVBeTrue Welcome to SV Be True 2 and our adventures on the water

Back on the road (water) again

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

04 Oct - We arrived back at the boat after our trip to the UK ar around 7pm to enjoy a lovely sunset back in California. BeTrue was still at her dock and all was good. We quickly settled in and collapsed asleep after our long journey home

05 Oct - Today was our prep/rest day before heading off to San Diego. I was awake at 7am and decided to go for a stroll on the beach. When we had arrived back last night we saw that there were proparations going on for a race. As I went for my walk the racing started - it was the long beach marathon and I watched in awe as hundreds (thousands?) of runners headed off along the baech track. Geting back tot he boat around 08:00 Heidi was up and we started soring things out for the day. We went to the grocery store to stock up and spent some time in the club getting admin done over the internet. AFter sorting everything out we went upstairs to the bar to find Micheal Mercer and a few others settled in for the afternoon. We joined them for a drink and to thank them for their hospitality and then headed back to the boat for an early night and to collapse back in to bed.

06 Oct - Waking early again we had a lasy morning before slipping the lines around midday, fuelled up and then headed out. Clearing the breakwater their was a light wind blowing in roughly the right direction so we put up the sails and had a lovely cruise south until around 17:30 when the wind died. WE then were back on the engine motoring through the night.

07 Oct - Having motored through the night we arrived at daybreak outside San Diego. As we starteed to head in, we were overtaken by a navy destroyer and were chased down by a helicopter carrier - we were definitely in US navy territory now. Turning in we headed up the channel looking for San Diego Yacht Club. As we rounded a bend in the harbour, whilst oggling the submarine base, we failed to notice the massive landing ship coming out and had to smartly steer out of the channel to let it pass.

Arriving at San Diego Yacht Club at 09:00 we docked in a great spot on the outside of their docks and checked in as well as inspecting the tremendous facilities (swimming pool, hot tub, laundry and showers included!) We headed back to the boat and after a couple of hours we headed off to investigate the loclae. This is clearly a boaters mecca as around the yacht club there were many chandleries and rigging shops. We had of course to stock up with a whole host of little oddss and sods that we needed. After our big shopping trip we were back at the boat for a late lunch and then a stroll around Shelter Bay. BAck at the boat for around 19:00 (now in the dark as the nights are drawing in) we had a pleasant dinner and then, in order to stretch out our bed time until at least after 21:00 we went over the club and had a luxurious hot tub - now that was style!. AFter a great long hot shower we were back at the boat just after 21:00 and so decided it was probably ok to turn in now to catrch up on our sleep from the night before.

Marking time in Alamitos Bay

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

20 Sep - Time to move again so after visiting the marina office to sort everything out for when we need to leave the boat whilst we go to the UK, we pulled out around 10am. It was then a pleasant sail in 10 - 15 knots across to Alamitos Bay. Getting into the yacht club was exciting due to the amount of trafic that was coming in but we were soon safely berthed. Once settled in, a couple that we had met at Shoreline yacht club, Alan and Cherul, came over to chat with us and helped us orient ourselves to this massive marina. As they departed we jumped on the dinghy on toured the complex, eventually finding ourselves close enough to a grocery store to do some shopping. On the way back we found Alan and Cheryl's boat (the Knotty Anchor) and joined them for a cool drink and to discuss their adventures. Once back at the boat we reached out to the couple on the boat in front of us and had a pleasant evening chatting and drinking.

Tucked in at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club

21 Sep - With little of note around and in overcast conditions we decided to spend the day catching up on boat jobs today. We fixed the bent traveller on the mainsheet, cleaned and re-waterproofed the enclosure and added a fan in the cockpit. The Club had a wedding going on so we just stayed around the boat in the evening.

22 Sep - Time to move on again so we slipped our lines and moved all of 500m to Long Beach Yacht Club. The club was closed so we had a quiet day exploring the surrounding areas by dinghy and on foot.

Tied up outside the very exclusive Long Beach Yact Club

23 Sep - This morning we spent some time tidying up the yacht in preparaiton for leaving to go back to the UK. In the afternoon we took full advantage of the yacht club's pool and sun deck, spending some time soaking up the rays and swimming before heading to the bar in the evening to meet some of the club members and enjoy some bar food

24 Sep - Up early, we headed back to our mooring at Shoreline Yacht club. We closed down the boat and by midday were heading to the airport.

Visiting the RMS Queen Mary

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

18 Sep - Again it was time to move on today so we left our berth with CBYC and motored for about an hour across the massive Long Beach harbour. Again we were lucky as there was no major traffic in this very busy port and we were tied up at our new home at Shoreline Yacht club by midday. We then spent a frustrating few hours gettng transport sorted back to the UK and got some replanning done for our trip as we now knew when we needed to be back. As we replanned we had to move our haulout and realized that it would become increasingly difficult to make Panama by this Christmas. Having learnt that 'rushing' down the west coast was no fun we had some long, hard discussions and in the end decided that we shouldn't push ourselves so hard to get to the UK in the boat next year.

We have now got a new tentative plan that we are working through that will see us spend the next six months (Oct 2025 - May 2026) getting down to around Costa Rica and Panama (this will allow us more time to explore Mexico), the following six months (May - Nov 2026) around Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia and the Galapagos Islands and then the next six months (Dec 2026 - May 2027) heading up to Bahamas before the leap across the pond now in summer 2027. In the evening after diner, we walked across to the far side of the marina to look across to the RMS Queen Mary that looked beautiful all lit up. Our plan tomorrow is to head over to look around her.

Queen Mary by night

19 Sep - After a leisurely start and a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs we caught a bus round to the Queen Mary. As part of our entry fee we had a guided tour of the first class facilities which have been very well maintained by the city of Long Beach.

'Picadilly Circus' - the first class shopping area

The Stunning Art Deco main first class lounge

On the tour we also met someone who was staying on the Queen Mary that night and., ofter the tour she let us see her state room

Opulent first class cabin

before we went to enjoy a cocktail in the first class bar overlooking the bow of the ship.

Having a cocktail in the first class bar

We then spent a good 4 hours walking aroudn the rest of the ship - it has been beautifually preserved with the same décor as it's heyday and we could have spent longer exploring the many nooks and crannies that are available. Our investigations included getting into the engine room which was truly massive...

and a look down to one of the propellers as well as being able to walk the bridge of this wonderfully grand ship.

In the evening we headed to the club house for their Prime rib night along with attending their annual meeting where we did a burgee exchange with the club.

Round the corner to Long Beach

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

16 Sep - It was now time to push on from King Harbor and so after a slow morning, we took up our mooring and headed out of the harbour. The day was calm and in a light fog we motored south. Rounding Point Vincente we put up sails and as we starting heading more east caught a reasonable breeze pushing us along from behind. As ever, the breeze built through the latter part of our journey and by the time we were approaching the breakwater into San Pedro we were being pushed along in a brisk 18 - 20 knots. We found out later this stretch of water is known as 'Hurricane Gulch' and is renowned for being windy! Luckily there was no other traffic using the channel and so we shot through and pushed up against the wind to reach Cabrillo Bay Yacht club in lovely sunshine. Once stopped we were glad of the breeze as it took some of the heat away from the day. As the club was not open today, we dropped the dinghy and found somewhere to tie up before heading out for a walk and explore. The yacht club and Marina are quite new and very posh but once outside of the marina San Pedro is very commercial. We walked along the many wharfs and investigated as far as USS Iowa before heading back to the boat then settled in for the evneing

17 Sep - Today the main aim was to visit the USS Iowa, a World War II battleship. We waited for the club to open and then headed into town. Heidi had managed to find a groupon for the tour and we wondered around the 822ft long ship, which fought in WWII, was at the surrender of Japan, was recommissioned and fought in the Korean war and then recommissioned again in the late 80's. I had served with officers and soldiers that had been spotters for firing the ships massive 16 inch guns and it was fascinating seeing the scale of this huge ship.

The Mighty USS Iowa

There wasn't much else to see in town and so we headed back to the boat and had a quiet afternoon. In the evening there was a 'burger bash' up at the club that we attended to 'fly the flag' for RVYC but we were soon heading back to the boat for a quiet night.

Quiet time in King Harbour

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

14 Sep - Today we moved on to King Harbour, further down the coast. A simple two hour motor had us settled before lunch ad then we headed out to explore. Within 5 minutes of leaving the boat were walking along the Strand - an amazing promenade past architecturally stunning sea view homes with the wide Hermosa Beach to our left. Along the broad beach were dozens of volleyball courts and it being a Sunday there were plenty of bronzed bodies out playing on the courts even in the midday heat. After a little while we reached Hermosa Pier and the pier Plaza with a great collection of eateries in it. We pulled up at a Mexican restaurant, found a table looking out to the plaza, grabbed some simple food and spent a great couple of hours people watching . After lunch we headed back walking along the beach this time letting the warm sea cool our heels. That evening there was a free concert on the beach so we headed back with our Chairs listening to a Fleetwood mac tribute band watching the sun set over the ocean.

15 Sep - Today was a bit more of a calm day. We spent some time cleaning the boat and also went for a walk, this time down towards Redondo beach to the south; yet another vast expanse. We only got as far as the Fisherman's wharf there and then headed back to the boat. We also went a little way into town to do some grocery shopping.

Slowing Down in little Venice

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

12 Sep - With some sad news on the home front things will be a bit slower for the next couple of weeks but I'll try and keep up a commentary on what we are up to. Today we had a low key day around Venice. We walked along Venice beach early in the morning and then headed to Eggslut for a great breakfast. After that we found the canals of Venice - looking forwad to comparing them with the originals! Rest of the day we stayed pretty quiet

The Grand Canal of Venice, CA

13 Sep - We moved over to the California Yacht club this morning - a trip of several hundred... yards. After settling in amongst the superyachts we went for a stroll around Burton Chase Park and then headed back to the boat. The club house unfortunately burent down a couple of years ago but the club still has a pool and basic facilities which we tok full advantage of.

Sunset among the superyachts in California Yacht Club

Dropping in on the A listers in Malibu

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

10 Sep - We had finally outstayed our welcome with the Channel Islands yacht club so it was now toime to push on. After working out time and distances we realised that we couldn't quite make it all the way to MArina Del Rey in Los Angeles in one day, but it would be almost too short for a night sail so we decided that we would break the journey by anchoring in Paradise Cove, Malibu. The forecast for the day was for lightish winds as ever, building in the late afternoon (we sense a bit of a theme here!) and so we left around 10 expecting to be motoring for a while. The wind however was up around 10 knots so instead we managed to get the sails out for a while. IT was still a bit light though so we switched from the Genoa to the Spinnaker and then had a lovely few hours on the cruising chute in glorious sunshine again. With the wind building, and our course needing to be a bit more downwind we then switched to our poled out genoa and had a great sail towards Dume Point, just before Paradise cove. As we have got used to rounding the point was a bit messy so we pulled in the sails and motored the last couple of miles and of course, as we approached our planned anchoring spot the wind decied to pick up to around 20 knots! Unphased now though in anchoring in these sort of conditions we dropped the hook and plenty of chain then had a chance to look around - Paradise cove certainly suited its name and looking at some of the properties I can see why it is a mecha for the super rich. We felt very smug sitting on our boat in the middle of all this wealth knowing that few people get to gaup at these properties from their best side!

Who lives in a house like this 2 (maybe this is their second property after Carmel!)

11 Sep - After a fairly comfortable night on the hook we were up and at'em early the next morning weighing anchor at around 09:00. in another clear sunny day we motored along the coast by Maibu having another day of 'houses of the rich and famous' We managed to sail for a bit but then we were back to motoring into MArina Del Rey, the capital of boating around here. After passing hundreds of other boats we pulled up at the Pacific MAriners yacht club and squeezed into their guest dock (it was 13 feet wide - our boat is 12'9 so with the fenders out we are wedged in! After settling in and meeting a couple of the members we headed off for a walk down to Venice beach and along the Pier

Betrue squeezed into Pacific MAriners guest dock

Enjoying Channel Islands Harbour Marina

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Channel Islands Harbour Marina

06 Sep - This morning we spent some time wokring on our sails in the calm of morning. Firstly we had to put the cutter sail back on, an easy task, then we had to work in the mainsail which had started to stick when it came out. We took the sail down, inspected, cleaned and oiled all the moving parts and put it back together. We also got some very helpful advice from members of the channel Islands club and other liveaboards on the dock that we had met the day before. With nothing amiss we put it back together and tried a few new ways to furl it - hopefully now the sail will come out a bit easier.

The rest of the day was fairly quiet other than that. Heidi headed off to the supermarket with one of the locals, Stacey who has had a very 'california life', having been a world class gymnast, a model for vogue, and featured in a number of films as both and actor and a stunt double

07 Sep - Today, it being a sunday, we had a relaxing day of it. The highlight was walking around th local farmers market where we picked up fresh fruit and herbs. Also, more walking on the beach. In the evening the L dock crew had an informal barbecure which was great fun

Miles and Miles of empty sandy beaches in the sun

08 Sep - Today we moved around to our berth on the Channel Islands yacht club and spent most of the morning emailing and catching up with ourselves. In the afternoon Linda and Dave Witham from the OCC came over and dropped off the new data hub they had been holding for us. Other than that more walking on the beach!

Hundreds of sand pipers waiting to head into the ocean

09 Sep - A great relaxing day - found another West Marine so had to buy some presents for Be True as well as visitng the loca grocert store. Other than that it was a fairly chill day between the boat and the beach - tough life!

Downtime in the Channel Islands

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

02 Sep - Having already overstayed our planned time in Ventura, it was now time to hopefully find some nice cruising grounds around the Channel Islands. This was the first area that promised to be anything like Vancouver island for cruising with multiple anchorages on many small islands. We set off around 10:30 in building winds and were soon sailing close hauled in 15 - 20 knots of wind. The sea was pretty choppy giving a less than smooth ride but the sun was out and everything was going pretty fine, until the inner stay started flapping loose. Crawling up the deck to try and find out what was wrong it soon became obvious that the pin holding the stay to the deck had come undone (I'd actually seen the locking nut when we had been repairing the windlass on the deck and had wondered where it was from but didn't investigate at the time!) Luckily we were not sailing with the stay sail so all we had to do was lash the stay to something firm before we could continue on in the fresh winds.

We had been told that the bay that we were heading for (little Scorpion Bay) was quite sheltered but we were finding this hard to believe based on the weather we were experiincing. After sime indecision (shall we go to a different bay that we don't have any information on or stay with our original plan?) we kept going for Little scorpion bay. We could also see three other sailboats in the bay so figured there must be some protection there!

On arriving we found the other boats bouncing around quite a lot. Although there were some rocks that broke the swell the wind was still blowing 15 - 20 knots. We found somewhere to anchor though by about 15:00 and then settled in to make sure we weren't going to drag. After about 30 minutes, with the wind not abating, we felt fairly secure, We then noticed one of the other sailboats dragging straight towards us! We tried to raise them on radio, using the horn and even by rowing over but then it became obvious the owners weren't home! As the boat got nearer thankfully the anchor must have snagged again but they were still uncomfortably close. It was then that the owners returned from a walk and a flurry of activity took place. They got their engine on and tried to pull away, then snagged another yacht's stern anchor and after sorting that out started looking for a new place to drop. It took them over two hours to get their anchor back down and settled with a couple of their attempts getting them all too close to some of the other boats. As the evening wore on there was no let up in the wind with gusts to 25 knots. Having seen one boat drag, we were also concerned for the rest of us and so decided the safest thing to do was to sleep in the cockpit. As the night wore on the wind came around to start pushing into the anchorage which made matters even more uncomfortable with the swell now making the boat bob around form side to side

03 Sep - As the clock crawled into the new day both Heidi and I were still camped in the cockpit trying to snatch sleep when we could. Eventually Heidi headed down to the bed but with the boat rolling like a drunken sailor that didn't really help much. Around 02:00 the wind finally died down but the swell increased and, as we were beam onto it (we had put out a stern anchor) it was very uncomfortable. Through the night we also watched two other boats having to move (one dragged again and the other one ended up too close to the rocks when the wind shifted) and so all in all a fun night was had by all!

We were both up with the dawn due to the bad sea state but this did have it's advantages as we were greetedby a glorious sunrise. After breakfast we were (recovering!) in the cockpit when the skipper of a big motor cruiser that had come in the previous evening came over and asked if he would like us to join them on a bit of an explore in their rather plush dinghy.

BeTrue at anchor in Little Scorpian Bay

Jeff, the skipper, proved an expert boat handler and we had a wonderful time touring the coastline with him and one if his friends, Karen. Once back at his boat the invited us in for morning coffee and a tour of his beautiful boat; Teak and Holly.

Our little boat from the bridge of Teak and Holly

Karen, Dave and Dan were with him on the boat and as we sat chatting they got their instruments out and treated us to some wonderful scottish and irish folk music -all were very accomplished musicians and we felt very honored to have this private concert! On getting back to the boat, we decided that, after the previous night, we should take things easy and so had a fairly leisurely afternoon and evening

Our own personal caleigh

04 Sep - After a REALLY good nights sleep we decided we should have a go at sorting out our stay that had broken on the way over. BY mid morning, after a couple of false starts, we managed to get it all back together and appropriately tensioned. We then fired up the engine and checked the windlass again before dropping the dinghy and going for an explore ourselves around the rugged coastline of this island. We didn't venture too far from the boat though as there was a lot of kelp and we couldn't get to shore so were soon back on the boat for some more downtime

05 Sep - After another good night's sleep we decided it was time to push on from Little Scorpian Cove and so pulled up the anchors by hand (a good workk out!) and then headed round the corner of the island to Smugglers cove in glorious sunshine. We were the first to go into the big open bay in the morning and so had the pick of the anchorages and we pulled in close to the south side of the bay. With the sun beating down we settled in for a fabulous day. The views were very meditrerranean with an old olive grove prominent on the shore and the sea was crystal clear.

Heidi happy with olive grove in the background

I jumped in the water and snorlkelling around for the first time could see down over 25 feet to inspect our anchor placement and chain. On first inspections unfortunately I saw the anchor moving and so after a quick reposition and a second check, I cold confirm the anchor was well bedded in.

The rest of the day was spent just soaking up the views and the sun.

05 Sep - Today was to be our last day on the Channel Islands before heading back into Oxnard. TO cap off our cruise of these delightful islands we puttered along the coast of Anacapa Island, a very remote spot so close to shore which doesn't really have any good landing spots so is totally uninhabited, apart from a lighthouse at the Eastern tip. There is also an amazing natural arch in the rock here.

Anacapa lighthouse and rocks

Once clear of the island we headed back across Santa Barbara straight. On the trip we cut across the path of a large pod of dolphins and were delighted when a few of them took time out to play in our bow wave. Wiht the crystal clear water, it looked like they were floating in air around the bow as the ducked and dived around the boat.

We were soon pulling into Oxnard and then pulled into a slip that the Anacapa Yacht club had for us. Although there was noone from the yacht club around (there was a big race on this weekend) the liveaboard community at the dock made us feel most welcome. Once the boat was safely put to bed we went for a walk and found the channel Islands yacht club where we met the vice commodore and others who made us feel very welcome. They told us about a dinner and comedy evening they were having that night so we bought some tickets for it and went along. The food was amazing and the comedy very 'sharp' with us somehow becoming the target as we unfortunately ended up write in front of the comedians. A fantastic relaxing evening though and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone at the club.

Best of times; Worst of times!

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

28 - 30 Aug - The morning dawned beautifully sunny and still. We were planning today to make a big (200NM) push 'round the corner' to Ventura. The weather was showing that it would be fairly calm but we were hopefully of at least some wind on the way down At least it was promising clear skies throughout. As we left Stillwater cove we tried to avoid the kelp but ended up with quite the tail which took a while to clear. Once free of our small forest, and with 12 - 15 knots of wind we were able to set the sails for a broad reach. As the morning wore on though the wind started to fade. With very little swell and bright sunshine though we thought there would be few better times to try the spinnaker and so with some trepidation we set everything up and launched it withour a hitch. What followed was a sparkling sail for a few hours on 'sunny' casting a lovely golden shadow over the boat

Great sailing on the Spinnaker

Toward 15:00 the wind was getting back up to around 15 knots and so we decided it was time to go back to just the Genoa but the sailing still was great. Around 19:00 we turned onto our new course which we were anticipating to hold for the next 24 hours and were able to pole out the genny and cruise along at a good clip. This point of sail lasted all through the night and well into the following day in glorious sunshine - some of the best and most consistent sailing so far.

We eventually had to turn in to start heading towards Point Conception - a headland that we had seen anecodtally recorded as the 'cape horn of north america' but we had done so many 'terrifying capes' by now we weren that worried. Also the forecast was for a flat calm as we passed the Point.

As we approach the point though, we started to get a few bad vibes. Firstly, the sea state was quite lumpy and, after having to dodge a 1200ft container ship, the wind started to increase. As we closed on the second headland (we didnt actually know which one was the true point), the wind kept increasing, getting up to 25 knots with higher gusts and the sea became horribly steep. At this point we decided it was time to take in the sails (we had been going along with just a reefed main and staysail) and started to rely on the motor. Good job too as we were getting pushed around all over the place as the waves had no real pattern. For the next few hours we hung on like grim death as we passed the headland with the boat getting thrown around all over the place. At one point she was rolling from one rail in the water to the other in a matter of seconds. As the sun set we fought on through this mess and remarkably, as we rounded the headland, and with the sun setting everything started calming down. Wihtin two hours we were motoring along with little wind and a calming sea and as the night wore on things just got calmer. Frustratingly every so often there would be an hour of good wind but the direction of the wind changed a lot and so we motored on.

Around 21:30 a bright light flared up in the sky which looked like it was heading out to us. At first I wondered whether it was a searchlight from a helcopter coming to tell us we were too close to an oil rig that we were passing but as we watched, the light elongated and we realised we were watching a rocket going up to space! on researching we later found that this was a starlink launch from VAndenburg 'space force' base - pretty cool to see.

An initial thought with our next step had been to go into Santa Barabara where we could anchor at night but it was already 04:00 as we passed and so we instead kept going for Ventura where we had confirmed we could dock at their yacht club.

As we approached Ventura we were greeted by our first clear sunrise as well as a host of dolphins swimming by. Navigating into the harbour was simple and once in we realised we truly had finally turned the corner, it was warm and sunny; there were palm trees and wonderful sandy beaches with surfers in the waves. This is what we had come for!

BeTrue finally looking in her place in California

Once settled in we went for a walk along the beach and then back tot he boat for an early night to recover