This message is about house keeping issues at Marina Del Rey.
Parking costs $10 per day for cars, trucks or RVs with trailers. Parking enforcement is strict and violations are expensive. Bring scotch tape to keep your parking payment stub visible on your windshield. The sun can make them curl up, causing you a parking violation. Be sure the side with the expiration date and time is facing outward for the enforcement people to easily read.
The entry gate machine accepts cash, VISA or MC. I use VISA so I also have a payment record if needed later for a ticket dispute. There is a blue button on the top and a green button on the bottom. The colors look similar at night. Insert your VISA card, then press the blue button one time for each twenty-four hour period you will stay. It goes by hours not calendar days. Then when you're done, press the bottom green button to charge your card and print the ticket. On weekends in summer, there's an old guy with curley hair who disables the gate ticket vending machine, opens the gate and takes your cash to hand you your entry ticket. Yes he works as a contractor to L.A. Dept of Parks and Recreation. Does all the cash receipts reach the county? You tell me what you think. I never understood his purpose other than to funnel slush money to bureaucrats and politicians.
Unfortunately, the gate ticket vending machine will only dispense a ticket that covers a maximum of four days. You just need to repeat the process to buy another ticket for the rest of your parking time. The second ticket will measure time from when you are entering, giving an expiration that is not what you want.
When you park longer than 48 hours, you have to call the Beaches and Harbors office, preferably during business hours before you go beyond the 48 hour limit. The number is below. Nice they are closed Fridays and weekends so you ought to call between Monday and Thursday before 5PM to get on the approved list that the enforcement officer will have that weekend. Know your trailer and car license number when you call, because they put that on the list. If you call after hours, then it should be okay to leave a voice mail message with your licence number, car make and color and expected departure date. I would suggest checking back during business hours to be sure they got you on their list. As long as you have not passed 48 hours from your entry date, you'll be okay. This matters only to those arriving Thursday after 5PM who don't call or leave a voice mail. With voice mail, you won't be on the approved list until Monday.
Do not leave your trailer unhitched to drive around town... another expensive ticket for that. Read the following from their web site at link:
http://beaches.co.la.ca.us/BandH/Marina ... chramp.htm
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Location: Public boat launch ramp is located at 13477 Fiji Way (Basin H). Enter lot from Fiji Way (open 24 hours a day). All vessels must be trailerable.
Fees: $10 launch fee (vehicle/boat); $7 (vehicle only). Pay machine accepts dollar bills, coins, Visa/Mastercard credit cards. Fee includes launching, recovery and 24 hour parking.
When staying over 48 hours, vehicle must be registered with the Dept. of Beaches and Harbors, by
calling 310-305-9534. Monday through Thursday 7:00am to 5:00pm. Please call in advance. Failure to give the required information may result in a citation. Vehicles must display a parking receipt right side up on the drivers side dashboard of vehicle for each day parked.
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Keith continues...
There is more than enough parking for all. No problem. You are not supposed to "camp out" however, in an RV or trailered boat over night. If you want to, then have polite conversation with the lonely parking enforcement officer (a nice black guy driving a blue Beaches & Harbors pick up truck who goes by the nick name "Smokey" for his ranger hat). He will talk your ear off, but let him. He will then probably let you slide so you can camp out in the lot over night. You can also talk with "Smoky" if you want to detach your trailer to go shopping or to dinner, but don't be too long. When the shift changes, the new guy will give you a ticket.
There is a wash down that charges a quarter for a minute of water. Remember to bring a hose to rinse your truialer after your launch and retrieval.
At night, the ramp docks have lots of birds and are coverd with shit which makes them slippery and dangerous. Have a sponge or towel handy on the boat to wash your soles off after boarding, or your boat will smell like bord shit.
There are also public toilets at the ramp open 24/7, but there may be a homeless person sleeping inside at night... less likely in summer than in winter. I have never been threatened by one. Public pay phones (a rarety today) are next to the toilet building.
Guest docks are not far from the ramp on the right side as you go out. Dock at an empty space, but be aware that a paper slip clipped to the dock post signifies another boat has paid for that space and will be annoyed if they return to find you there. Try to dock where there is no paper on the post.
When docked, then go into the park to the office. The Guest Dock Office is a building with a red tile roof in the center of the park. The guest dock manager will assign you a dock space and give you a pass number so you can use the locking gates and the guest showers. Remember to out your paper slip on the dock post for your space. If you arrive after hours, there is a self service box where you identify your boat and write your selected the dock space number on an envelope. Then calculate your rent money, put it inside your envelope and slide it into the locked box.
If there seems to be paper slips everywhere, then go out to the main channel and turn right. Big boats have pull-in guest slips there. You big boy C-Dories over 16 ft. may want to take one of those slips, or share one. If they're all full too, then look on your right at the end of the slip section for a green tent-like floating structure and a long dock (not slips). That is a white sea bass grow-out pen of my fishing club. (No, you can not "sleep with the fishes"!) The dock which the pen is tied to is a two hour guest dock and public pump out station. Tie up there, on either side, then go to the park office to see if you can get a guest space.
The guest showers require a guest kep pad code to enter. They are not bad. At least they beat the facilities on C-Pup16... a bucket of ocean water.
In the off chance that there are no available guest spaces at the guest dock or if you prefer peace and quiet rather than hearing neighboring boat party noise, then anchor.
The Dept. of Parks and Recreation (DPR) web site shows anchorages inside the marina. See
http://beaches.co.la.ca.us/BandH/Marina/Land.htm I'd check with the harbor master first on Channel 9. Frankly, I do not think they allow anchoring inside the marina. I have never seen it done. Even though the DPR does mark locations for anchorage, the sheriff may not allow it, and they patrol the marina all nighIf you can anchor inside the marina, remember to use your anchor light and a stern anchor. There are some seals in the marina, but that have not to my knowledge been bad boys jumping onto boats.
If you can not anchor inside the marina, then you can definitely anchor outside the marina. I do that all the time, launching C-Pup most Saturdays between 11PM and midnight, anchoring where I'll tell you, and then waking at 4AM to go up to Malibu to fish the dawn bite.
The anchoage is on the airport side, east (left) exit of the marina to the ocean. If you are going there in the dark, there are two bright lights that illuminate the flag pole. These look like truck lights coming at you in the dark. Go straigh "into the light", as it is place to show the center of the channel. Be careful of hitting sail boat channel marker buoys in the dark, although they're foam and cause no damage.
Just outside the marina you'll find the boat gypsies lined up there at anchorage... ratty rusty green slimed sail boats that some homeless out of luck folks prefer to live on instead of living in a car or on the street. They may float for now, but I would never take those boats out to sea. There is a lot of area to anchor in near them in-shore with about 25 ft of water. I ancor close to the jetty wall where it is very calm.
You'll see when you exit the marina on the east (left) exit what looks like another marina channel running parallel to the MDR boat exit channel to the sea. This second channel has similar channel bank rock liner and a jetty wall which I anchor near with my boat. That is Ballona Creek. It is not navigatable, so you won't have boats coming out of it at night to ram you... dead bodies maybe, but not vessels. (This is Los Angeles!) I say this anchoage is nice and quite, but then I'm use to the jets at LAX taking off nearby! Really, at night, there are few flights and you do get use to it. Less so dead bodies bumping into your hull. .. (just joking, that only happens in San Pedro!)
For restaurants, you leave your boat at the guest dock and take a public water taxi to Fisherman's Village. There's a nice Mexican restaurant, and a fancy white linnen one called "Shanghai Red" . There are no water-front restaurants where you can dock your own boat to have dinner. On foot rather than water taxi, there is a shopping center (open parking lot type) on Admiralty Way with a super market. The market has a limited dining faciity inside and a variety of cooked, take out meals. The center has a California Pizza, many new boutique restaurants, and a Starbucks. It also has the only West Marine store in MDR... the other one on Fiji Way that had a guest dock for boat access closed. As you know, there is no more Boaters World. The only other marina store in MDR is Ships Store near Mothers' Beach. See
http://www.socalsail.com/bg/co/ships-store-inc/
If you want a hotel that offers a dock, the new Ritz Carlton... what am I saying... we own C-Dories, not Fairline Euro yachts... there is an old 1960s three story cinder block construction hotel just west of the boat ramp and guest docks (Burton Chace Park) that is called the "Marina Del Rey Hotel". It has a good bar and I think a restaurant. It use to offer free guest slips to hotel guests, first come first serve until gone. (A $20 tip to their slip assigning dock master may be a good investment...) Hopefully it still does. I usually put my parents at this hotel when they visit L.A. from Pennsylvania. See
http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll/qs ... cation-map for location. Rooms from $129.
Enjoy your stay in Marina Del Rey. I now plan to spend the entire week with you and return together on Saturday.
Have a safe drive to Marina Del Rey.
Keith
C-Pup16
