Our charter was again with the Marina Sailing. The Newport-Beach charter fleet is docked in the Balboa Marina between the small Linda Island and the Highway 1. Two restaurants are directly adjoin to the pier, parking is aplenty and the office building hosts decent facilities for the sailors.

We cruised with 4 children aboard, and the visit to the Island was a trip of discovery to them. Kids took over helm en-route, and on the Island they had a blast with diverse activities, incl. lots of swimming, a Zip-Line adventure, a Yellow Submarine ride, and we even had a live classical music performance on deck after the dinner!

For the first time I had such a group insisting on sleeping on a deck. We were almost forced to take turns for the available places in the cockpit, or on the foredeck! The more space was open in the cabin. As usual, we "over-packed" a tad... and suffered from it. But that's a sensitive topic.