Bar Hopping in the Dingy Newport Bay

[TPC]

Just as you cross the Newport bridge to Lido Island sits the Newport Bay Elks / Yacht Club.
Cheap to be a member, about $120 a year.
Excellent smokers patio on the bar, fantastic views of the harbor from the upstairs meeting room.

I got stuck waiting for the boat trailer to be fixed. It was going to be one week, then two, then three,, then who knows.
So I got a slip, and am waiting it out on the water.

Tied up the dingy at the Yacht Club:

Said to be Cubans, passed out free:

You get this fantastic group of Newport locals that hang out for the cheap drinks, good cheap food, entertainment and the smokers lounge/patio.
Sports on all the TV's, everyone boats, golfs and fishes.
I'm boat slipped way over near Newport Dunes and the dingy is my ride of choice to bar hop.

Pearson Point floating Seafood store barge in route.
Nice on the inside,, great seafood.
This side of the bridge all the way to Newport Dunes is now no fishing. The signs everywhere say fishing OK,, but DFG was writing tickets galore.

The tale goes DFG needs the funding from the fines because they lost funding from licenses.

In route, the Electric Duffy boats are notorious for having 85 year old drunks at the helm.
They will run your ass down.
They look like Disneyland Jungle Cruise boats.

Floating Party boats every night:

John Waynes Wild Goose being restored to it's original condition like when the Duke owned it.
Former owners butchered it:

Amazing what you come across in a dingy.
Two stranded young girls in their dingy, they ran out of gas and it's a long row back to their parents boat.
They had row'd enough and asked for help.
I carry a spare gallon and got them going again.

Neat, appreciative kids. Their parents must be power boaters.
Remember any dingy motor with a built in gas tank as a rule, has about a hour running time at 50% throttle.

Then you have the sail boaters running at night with no Nav lights.
That gets them a stop by the LEOs and a breath test.

Kinda stealthy in the dingy,, kinda flying under the radar.
I have lights and roll with the flow of traffic.

Most the harbor restaurants, though posted no boats allowed on their private docks, look the other way when you tie up your dingy.
You may come out and it's been moved a few times,, but that's cool.

Also, the Newport Harbor Office has an excellent online map of Dingy Docks, and access foot bridges to most areas in the Harbor and on the islands. The docks are identified with a blue and white buoy on a sign or blue and white buoy icon on maps.
You can figure it all out and avoid the parking hassles if you had taken your car.
A dingy dock / footbridge near the Pavilions/Rite Aid and we found a cool little breakfast joint called the Waffle Affair next door:

 

[OCMerrill]

Blow Boaters.......:thumbsdown:thumbsdown

This past weekend at the Isthmus we were on our assigned mooring ball that was paid until sundown. We were shore camping about 7 miles east.

Next to us was a grouchy sail boat fuck. we bought the day around 10 am and never hooked the can, just floated around for the 1 1/2 hrs it took the dive shop to outfit the clan of 6 with BC's.
Then back to the gas dock to load them all in. So we go over to Emerald Bay and hang there on Reef row number 9 until about 2. Epic dives or so I am told.

We go back to the can next to the sail boater so we can get the dive shop to re-fill. Nick is like the island helper although now running shore boats and working for the Harbor, what a great guy. The gals at the dive shop cute, polite, and knowledgeable. All new gear also and super service.

So Mr blow harder is upset at my music. Its not loud, all the kids are laughing, talking about the dive, and whats in store for tomorrow. I tell the guy were out when the tanks are filled. He continues to bitch. So now I am like fuck him, find In Living Color on XM and put my stereo to the test. So he moves moorings while blowing his horn like 50x and complaining to Harbor Boat 2 how this one hour has ruined his life. He gets him self all fucked up and now he has full attention of everyone. What a dumbass.

Harbor Patrol gets him settled and tells us same shit from him 3-4x a year. Twin Cummins roar to life, kids follow in the Dinghy and were back to shore camping lifestyle. I am just not a mooring can type of guy I guess.

I never have any issues with fellow power boaters. Not one time.

 

[yz450mm]

Blow Boaters.......:thumbsdown:thumbsdown

This past weekend at the Isthmus we were on our assigned mooring ball that was paid until sundown. We were shore camping about 7 miles east.

Next to us was a grouchy sail boat fuck. we bought the day around 10 am and never hooked the can, just floated around for the 1 1/2 hrs it took the dive shop to outfit the clan of 6 with BC's.
Then back to the gas dock to load them all in. So we go over to Emerald Bay and hang there on Reef row number 9 until about 2. Epic dives or so I am told.

We go back to the can next to the sail boater so we can get the dive shop to re-fill. Nick is like the island helper although now running shore boats and working for the Harbor, what a great guy. The gals at the dive shop cute, polite, and knowledgeable. All new gear also and super service.

So Mr blow harder is upset at my music. Its not loud, all the kids are laughing, talking about the dive, and whats in store for tomorrow. I tell the guy were out when the tanks are filled. He continues to bitch. So now I am like fuck him, find In Living Color on XM and put my stereo to the test. So he moves moorings while blowing his horn like 50x and complaining to Harbor Boat 2 how this one hour has ruined his life. He gets him self all fucked up and now he has full attention of everyone. What a dumbass.

Harbor Patrol gets him settled and tells us same shit from him 3-4x a year. Twin Cummins roar to life, kids follow in the Dinghy and were back to shore camping lifestyle. I am just not a mooring can type of guy I guess.

I never have any issues with fellow power boaters. Not one time.

Ready torpedo tube number 2, Target Lock, fire... Smile and wave...

 

[Magic34]

I want 2 waffles for $6. That's a long ride from the Dunes.

 

[Motor Boater]

My mom grew up in bay shores in Newport and lived right across the street from John Wayne. My uncle was friends with Wayne's son Ethan. My uncle used to go on trips with John and Ethan to Catalina, Mexico etc on the wild goose. My uncle has great memories of that boat and he is pretty disgusted every time he's sees the boat and the additions that were made to it.

You can tell him they brought it back to the way it was when Wayne Owned it and even located most the original parts.

 

[wsuwrhr]

I've done the same in a duffy. Newport is a trip.

Brian

 

[77charger]

Took my boat there for the boat parade and it was a great time.Was funny seeing all the duffy drivers holding a bottle of wine or something else as they drove by.My guess most were over limit and alot of others with drinks in hand even as harbor patrol drove right by.

There concern was getting the parade going and keeping the route clear and unless someone did something obvious they were not going to get stopped.Many nav light vilaotions went unoticed.

 

[shueman]

Ocean Boating is a world I'd love to experience ... these stories take me there ... THANKS !!

 

[boatnam2]

My girlfriends daughter and friends just did a camping trip on two harbors, just graduating UCLA plus growing up at the long beach yacht club as a kid has gotten her many of great boat trips. This weekend they decided to rough it camping on two harbors and got pinned in by a few buffalo late at night so they called 911 which sent a officer to the scene, he asked what he should do and they said take them to a bar lol so he did, they ran into a family from the yacht club which invited them to stay on their boat next 2 days if they promised to take showers, so breakfast lunch and dinner plus drinks and a day of being towed around on tubes all day mixed in with some parasailing turned into a great trip. They jumped on the slow boat home and upon arriving in port headed up to oxnard to get on one of the girls dads yachts to spend a few days after that they get home to sober up a few days before heading to coronado island to spend a few days on another girls dad yacht, i told her mom she has it rough. Next week she head to Nicaragua to do a surf trip with another friends who happens to be a pro surfer she lives awesome water life all from playing a sport in college.