Follow The Horizon

We rode our bikes from where we’re moored in Marina Del Rey along the beach to the Santa Monica Pier. There’s no shortage of beaches in California, and the beaches of LA are the largest we’ve seen so far. Acres and acres of perfectly groomed sand. Completely gone is the attempt to maintain a natural habitat of sand dunes and indigenous plants, theses beaches are for people, lots of people!

Okay, a bit of a mistake on our part, it was Sunday, and it felt like all of LA had decided to go to the beach. There’s a beautiful cycling path that runs most of the length of the beach, past the venders of Venice Beach where there seem to sell just about everything you don’t really need. We passed loud music and dancing of multiple ethnic origins, buskers, and crowds of people everywhere, it was almost impossible to keep our distance even on the cycling path. Seriously, there are signs all over the path. It’s not a sauntering path. Once passed Venice Beach, the crowds thinned, we able to pick up the pace, and enjoy the feeling of being back on our bikes!

When we arrived, we couldn’t believe how many people were crammed together on the Santa Monica Pier. Yup, this was just the sort of place we had pledged to avoid while we traveled. This was one of the iconic places we had always heard about, and wanted to see. Perhaps when covid is over we’ll have the opportunity to visit again. We snapped a couple of picture from the entrance, and turned around and rode back. We came, we saw…

On the way back we went half way out on the much less crowded Venice Pier before the crowds on the end made us chicken out and ride for home.

We’re moored at the public dock that backs onto a park. Lots of activity during the day, but still very quiet at night. Curious people can lean on the fence about 20 feet from the stern of our boat. “You sailed from where!” We even a little boy named Kai who was very excited to see the name of our boat.

This is the first harbor we’ve seen with a dedicated sailing lane. You keep to starboard as you motor in or out, and there’s a wide lane in the middle for sailing only. It’s possible to sail all the way to your slip. Perhaps we’ll try sailing on the way out if the conditions are right.