Troy’s visit, and the seafood smorgasbord.
Sunny Los Angeles lived up to the hype even though we never got more than a mile from the ocean. Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, and Malibu were plenty to keep us entertained.
My best man Troy flew in from DC for a week-long adventure. And a cherry on top was our friend Cynthia came in from Seattle for the first weekend. The last time Scooter saw Cynthia we were trapped on the hard in Gig Harbor. And the last time Troy set foot on board we lost our steering, the first time. So we had a lot of catching up to do. It took a substantial dinghy ride to cover the former largest small craft harbor in the world, but we were up to the task. Also, it was Halloween so the people in the electric booze cruise boats were in full regalia, and the people on the $400,000/week charter yachts were to the 9s and presumably drunk.
A fresh day gave us a chance for an 11-mile walk to the Santa Monica pier. The highlight of the day was the Venice Beach skatepark. It was like watching a Disney movie. An 8-year-old was the main event, shredding, talking trash with the adults, and capturing the attention of the eclectically dressed skaters and spectators alike.
Taylor’s mind was racing. Between her desire to do anything dangerous, her passion to teach all kids the athleticism and motor skills life requires, and her love of anything inspiring that could be a Disney film, she was in heaven. We’ll have to come back (Spoiler, we did), and we definitely need to budget to buy her a skateboard.
We also had a weeklong mission to have the best taco’s in LA, per a Letterkenny bit, but that turns into a tall order without a car. Still, we made a pretty solid effort. Given our budget, we often had to split tacos, or quickly get home for an actual dinner. In any case here’s the research.
- Taco Libre was good but mostly because we were starving. (5/10)
- Teddy’s Red Tacos was the LA experience we needed, beef tacos dipped in beef consume (9/10).
- James Beach was nearly the ‘best fish taco I’ve had in my life’. Scored most of its points from Peter Klaven (8/10)
- Valle, a recommendation of Tay’s Malibu cousin might actually be the best taco I’ve had in my life. Pork Belly perfection. (9.5/10)
Off to Catalina! We spent one night in Avalon. The mooring field was nearly empty (15 boats) but was still hard to navigate in our sluggish boat. I can’t imagine trying to catch the mooring ball on a busy summer Saturday (200+ boats). Avalon lit up at night, and seemed cool but wasn’t for us. We shoved off around Catalina’s southern tip in search of some empty beaches. We caught 3 Bonito but didn’t know what they were without cell service. We had to send a detailed description via sat phone to our fish experts. Once confirmed they were edible and legal, we texted our chef friends for recipes. They turned out great, so thank you to our remote research team.
We stopped in Little harbor and surfed and swam at Shark Cove. It was mostly deserted so we got to surf poorly without being judged.
Then it was a quick jaunt up to Cat Harbor for the night and respite from the swell.
The next day, the swell prediction was stronger so we devised a plan to save Troy from turning green. He hiked the 6 miles across the island, and Tay and I sailed the 18 miles around to the other side. We met up with him at Emerald Bay, after he snapped some perfect shots of Scooter from above, and we hauled in another Bonito for lunch (fish tacos, 10/10). Scooter is officially the place to go for Tacos in LA.
As the sun set, I stuffed the bonito guts into the bait bag and the crab pot went over the side. Taylor talked a little trash to Troy about how feeble my attempt was, but she would soon come to eat those words, literally.
The water was so clear, with a flashlight we could see 15 dark smudges around the net, and when we pulled it up the spiny lobsters exploded and flapped their tails away, except for two that got tangled in the net. They’re freaky. Locals call them bugs which feels very appropriate. They rub their antennae against their skull like a guiro. They have no claws, just all sorts of legs, and antennae longer than Scooter’s radio antenna.
We arose with the sun, and motored back to LA hoping to beat the brewing Gale.
We saw Humpback whales, a mom and calf feeding, which kept our streak alive of guests seeing whales and brought Scooter’s whale-count to 42. Back in the marina, we feasted on lobster tails.
For Troy’s last day in town, we hit the skatepark (as spectators), ate at the aforementioned taco joints, and were inspired to watch skate documentaries.
This was an unbelievable week. For those interested, stay tuned (sign up) cause this Thursday I’m going to dive into my favorite part of Scooter: The Galley!