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CRM

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West Marine have taken over (Spin = Made an alliance with!) Boat U.S. the 'spin' continues, in the interest of boaters. In reality Boat U.S prices were quickly hiked to those of West Marine. Anyone planning a visit seek out Boaters World, they are on the net. Prices are 15-40 % below the new 'Alliance'.

Anyone 'appalled' by Downtown Los Angeles, the delightful central square is full of 'squatters', likewise, in some places the tents are two deep on the sidewalk.
Take yourself off to Venice or Huntington Harbour they are both half hour drive away and a boaters dream.
 
Re: USA Socal info

I will be in SoCal for a couple of weeks in July, vacation. Thanx for advice to avoid downtown LA - I was planning that anyway! Is it possible to charter a boat, bareboat, in Venice or similar? What kind of boats are avaialbe (30-45 feet flybridge?) and will a European ICC licence be ok? Thanks
 
Re: USA Socal info

I went a while ago: The Queen Mary was a fun place to stay on board as it is an hotel s well as tourist attraction, (at long beach) with 30's decor, bar etc plus spruce goose, best place in LA i think, and british too damnit, hope it's still going but not sure. Bet SFrisco is better boating, but er not the same place. LAX has the alternating man and woman voices telling you where to park, just like in Airplane, teehee. Malibu etc beach is wildly overrated imho, a right mess of houses plonked on the beach. Las vegas is 250miles, worth a flight or drive cos its is a mad place and the mojave desert on the way is where they made every single crappy film since 1910 ( and quite a lot of good ones too). Road trip LAX-vegas-yellowstone-sf-highway1-lax good stuff.

No idea of the boating question tho.
 
Re: USA Socal info

Ta for info. Yes QM hotel is still there I think, hadn't thought about that, might go there. Been to Vegas much on business.... spend day working and evenings doing ....erm you know what. Thing is, what's it like if no business to do? I mean, what do you do during the day? Cant step outside becos of heat, and cannot face gambling all day as well as all night. So not too sure about LV.....48 hours mebbe
 
Re: vegas

ooh no. plenty to do in vegas. In fact, i think the gambling is shite, whereas all the other stuff is ace.

All the hotels are, well, hotels. They think the main thing is the gambling. BUT imho the main thing is the other bits. Frexample, the live tigers in one hotel, reproduction Venice in another, ace cars in MGM grand (?) with actual motors such as erm hitlers, kenedys, musolinis etc. Bet there's loads more daft but interesting stuff like this, I only hasd a short time, dead good to tramp around, have a drink/coke and continue the mooch up and down the strip. Hotels love it if you go to the other hotel,s no problem. BUT the kids ain't allowed on the slot machines. Also, "Worlds' largest Gift shop" is a must see, and quick flight $75 over Gand Canyon is ok. Dunno bout heat - i went in december
 
Re: USA Socal info

Don't know when TCM last went but they moved the spruce goose to somewhere in the desert 15 years ago. We went to LV last year on a simliar tour and it seemed to be moving a bit down market, catering more for the "adult" market only,
where as 10 years ago there they were building theme parks (MGM Grand etc.) to keep the kids amused but now these are all closed. I wouldn't bother now if you have under 21's along.
 
Re: USA SoCal info

Best boating for South California is out of San Diego...spent two weeks ago arsing about SoCal on a Harley a few years back, and it's worth taking a wide detour inland if heading from LA to San Diego to take in places like Joshua Tree National Park (coastal highway is very boring). ICC should be OK for chartering, but bare-boat charters are fairly rare in the US (insurance is crippling) other than for poxy little runabouts. Maybe worth doing a deep-sea fishing charter to catch some sailfish (they have pretty big ones off SoCal — I caught a 120lb 9ft monster in the waters further south).

Other stuff: Mojave desert is fab, Vegas is hideous, Venice Beach is "interesting", Malibu is crap, South-Central LA/Watts is desperately scary (don't stop, even at red lights), and the best bits of SoCal are the bits where there's no one else. IMHO, natch.
 
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