Sorry it’s been so long since I have updates this blob. Since leaving Northern California we have had a very hard time finding a wifi signal. We have an antenna that we raise up the mast and usually can access any open “hot spot” within a few miles. Up in our slip in Alameda there were usually about a dozen open signals, even at our house in Vacaville, out in the country, there were two to three. Coming down the coast we found good hot spots no matter how small the area but once we got south of Ventura there’s been nothing, zip, zero! I’ll continue to write this blog and hopefully I can find something...
We spent several days holed up in Ventura. The marine weather reports said it was pretty rainy and windy outside but other than a few good deck washing rains, we were snug and comfortable. We spent a few days bicycling around the area between the rains, provisioning at a local market, doing laundry (things like shopping and laundry take much longer on a boat) and relaxing and reading in the boat. I’m going through my books way too fast; hopefully I’ll be able to find more as we go along.
On 10/15 the front passed and it went from howling wind and rain to dead calm. We motored down to Marina Del Rey, one of the largest man-made marinas in the country. This marina is essentially surrounded by Los Angeles and its neighboring cities. In the marina I saw the water equivalent of a street sweeper. There was this boat operated by the harbor patrol that had a ramp in the bow with a moving belt that scooped up any floating trash. Despite the efforts of the harbor patrol, there was a tremendous amount of trash in the water. Perhaps since this was an artificial marina and there was no water source coming into it to “wash it out”, the floating trash just stayed in the marina until it was scooped up by the harbor sweep.
On 10/18 we’d had enough of being surrounded by high rises and decided to go out to Santa Catalina Island. The forecasters were predicting north winds 10-15 knots, which would make for perfect sailing, but once again we only had variables and mostly from the south so we motored over. We picked up a mooring in the Isthmus and enjoyed a nice dark night with gently lapping swells. The next day we decided to hike around a bit, we got directions for what should have been a relatively easy hike overlooking the bay opposite the Isthmus. We must have taken a wrong turn because the trail kept going up and up and was going the wrong direction! Luckily the day was pretty cool and cloudy, good for not getting overheated but not great for pictures. After awhile we turned around and headed back but had some great views. Here is the Isthmus harbor from way up. My legs were aching by the time we got back!

That afternoon the harbor patrol started asking all the boats in the harbor to turn around on their moorings because they were predicting a strong North swell and wanted the boats to be facing the swell to minimize the pressure on the moorings. Catalina moorings have attachments at both the bow and the stern so the boat is pretty much tied in place and they can fit more boats in the harbor (the Isthmus is very busy in the summer). It sounds simple to just rotate the boat around, but at almost 23 tons, it’s not so simple. We were trying to muscle Sunny around using the motor for assistance when we heard the dreaded THUNK, we had gotten the mooring line tangled up in the prop! With the help of several cruisers in their dinghies we got the boat secured to another mooring and worked on getting the prop freed. Tom dove on it but it was too wrapped up for him to free. We ended up having to call a diver to cut us free. It was a very tense time and a bit expensive but in the end the only damage was to the mooring line. We were lucky; we could have bent the shaft or otherwise damaged the engine. Here’s our $200 nylon mooring ring (this was wrapped around our shaft, the diver cut it off):
That night the swell wrapped around the harbor and made the boat rock back and forth rather uncomfortably, neither of us got any sleep that night. The next morning we decided that even though the forecast called for calming seas, we wanted to move on.
On 10/20 we had a wonderful motor-sail from Catalina to Newport Bay. There wasn’t quite enough wind to turn the motor off but enough to get the sails up which helps smooth the ride. We saw lots of dolphins and pilot whales but couldn’t get any of the dolphins to come play on our bow.
We spent 5 wonderful nights in Newport Bay. We really like this bay, there’s always lots going on but as there’s a 5 mph limit in the bay, there a usually very few wakes to rock the boat. We’re surrounded by multi-million dollar homes and fancy yachts, yet moorings are only $5/day. Our cat Ginger enjoyed the peace and quiet:
Almost every afternoon there were dingy races in the channel right next to our mooring. Some of the kids look like they’re only 5 or 6, but they handle their boats well and could probably sail circles around either of us.

Newport has a big problem with sea lions. While the tourists might think they’re cute, they’re also loud, can be dangerous, and have in the past sunk boats in the bay. Most of the boat owners try to make their boats inaccessible by putting up plastic fencing on the rails and chairs, buckets, etc on the swim steps, the sea lions still get up and when they do they make quite a mess:

One of the days we were in Newport we took the bicycles and made a big loop out to our first apartment after college in Huntington Beach and our first house in Westminster. The house was a disappointment; it has not been maintained well. The Pepper tree we planted as a little sapling though has grown to be a big tree so that was nice to see.
Another day we went out to the pier and watched the surfers:

On 10/26 we left Newport and motored to Oceanside, they were forecasting some big winds and since we’re meeting my Mom and brother on Thursday, we wanted to be safe in a slip before the winds hit. We’re currently snug in Oceanside while the winds howl over our heads. I have heard that the Oceanside library has internet for visitors so will try to post this. On Friday we’ll head to San Diego for a few days then onto Mexico! - Carolynn

Morro Bay to Ventura

It’s Tuesday; October 13 and we’re at Ventura Marina, a little west of Los Angeles. Here’s what has been happening since I last updated this blog:
We stayed two days at Elkhorn Yacht Club in Moss Landing. Moss Landing is a sleepy spot in the middle of the Monterey Bay agricultural zone. Two miles to the south is Castroville; “the artichoke capital of the world”. Everyone at the yacht club was very nice. It’s a funky little club that I bet is real fun. Here is the yacht club as we came in:



On Monday the 5th we took the dingy and explored the Elkhorn slough. Unfortunately we didn’t anticipate how cold it was going to get since it was nice and sunny at the marina. We were in just a t-shirt and shorts and got very cold. The slough is just a large flat plain with a wide, shallow river running up it. After several miles in we decided that we had more wildlife to see off our boat and ran back to the warmth of Sunny. We also bicycled into Castroville to get some provisions, this is a largely Mexican immigrant town but seems like it is doing well. Monday night the yacht club had a spaghetti and meatball dinner while we watched football and talked with many of the members, once again everyone was very nice and welcoming.
Tuesday morning we decided to make a jump for Morro Bay. It’s roughly 120 nautical miles and at an average speed of 5 knots, it would take us 24 hours. One of has to be on watch at all times so we switch back and forth as to who is in charge while the other person (hopefully) sleeps. It’s going to be a long night.
The forecast for the trip from Moss Landing to Morro Bay was for north west winds, 10-20 knots, which would make for perfect sailing. Unfortunately we never saw over 10 and the direction was variable and we once again had a swell on our beam. We unrolled the jib to try to stabilize us but pretty much motored the whole way. We got into Morro Bay the next morning, tired but still functioning well. There were no available moorings so we anchored in the north end of the bay and relaxed for the rest of the day. Here we are in Morro (yes I know our fenders are dangling at anchor, a faux pas, but we were just at the public dock (my excuse)):

After a good night’s sleep, we spent a little time exploring the town. Morro is mainly a fishing town with some sport fishing and seafood related tourism. Between the depressed economy, and the decline in fishing the town was pretty gloomy and many of the people on the street are not really rude, but didn’t look very happy. You would say hi and get a grunt in return, what a contrast to our last few stops. Hopefully things start to improve.
Not everyone is feeling too much of a financial pinch, this little boat pulled in for lunch:

We met Tom’s sister Ann and her family Thursday for a wonderful dinner (thanks Ann), plus Ann gave me some great looking scfi books. Afterward everyone went back to Sunny and we showed the two boys where we lived. It was wonderful to see everyone but we were pretty tired afterwards, Tom and I both agree we would not have the stanima for two active, inquisitive boys, I don’t know how Cathy and Ann do it, we slept well that night :-)
Here’s Tom steering the dingy with Morro Bay Rock in the background, our dingy is like the family car and our only way to get to shore when we are at anchor:

We frequently monitor the weather since it can affect us much more than when we lived on the land. The weather guys were predicting a system coming through in a few days bringing strong SE winds and a chance of rain. While Morro Bay is a secure anchorage, we were getting a bit bored with the town and anxious to get beyond Point Conception before the winter storms started. Conception is where California coast “turns” from being mainly north/south to more east/west and is the unofficial line between northern and southern California (at least to sailors). We decided to make the jump around Conception while the weather was calm rather than being stuck in Morro a week or more.
We left Morro Saturday October 10th in the morning hoping for the predicted NW winds but once again motored the entire way. Here’s Tom at the helm leaving Morro:

We had a nice calm passage around Conception, motoring the whole way. Pretty soon we need to find some wind or we’re going to forget how to sail! ;-) The passage took about 26 hours, but we’re both getting better at getting at least a little sleep underway so we’re not as tired.
We’re currently in the Ventura Isle Marina, a little expensive ($70/night) but very secure. It rained quite a bit last night and is predicted to be windy tonight so we’ll stay put until this clears. We’re not sure what our next stop will be, I want to go over to Santa Cruz Island, but only if this SE wind ceases. We’ll see... ‘til next time.

We’re off!!

After saying our goodbyes the night before, we left our slip in Grand Marina, Alameda before 6 am on Thursday, October 1. There’s something magical about motoring in the dark and calm, looking at the lights while the city sleeps around you. The sun slowly rose behind us as we made our way across the Bay. We were fighting a bit of a flood tide (the water was flowing into the Bay and the tide was rising) so the going was slow, but that also meant that the water was fairly smooth going out the gate. During an ebb tide (water flowing out the bay) the outgoing tide can meet the incoming swell and create dangerous breaking waves, not good to a little boat like ours! The best time to leave the gate is during slack tide, but that would put us into Half Moon Bay after dark and we hate to come into any port in the dark, even one we have visited before. Here are a few pictures as we passed by and left San Francisco.

Here’s the sun just coming up on the city:

Here’s Coit tower:

Goodbye San Francisco!!:

We had an uneventful, though not real comfortable trip to Half Moon bay. There was little wind so we motored the whole way and the swell was hitting us on our beam (the side of the boat) so periodically the whole boat would violently rock back and forth accompanied by crashing sounds below as poorly stored items careened around the cabin. We had thought that we had secured everything well but the chaos below proved us wrong. Luckily nothing got broken and the only damage was a few scratches in the cabin sole (floor). Ginger (our cat) was very unhappy and loudly proclaimed her opinion whenever we ventured down below. We anchored in Half Moon bay in the afternoon and soon everything was returned to normal and Ginger forgave us (after many treats).

We pulled anchor the next morning in the dark and headed for Santa Cruz. This trip was a little more comfortable, we had stored things better so there was less crashing sounds and there was enough wind to roll out the jib sail which smoothed out the ride somewhat. It’s strange how the boat reacts to different waves. There were waves that looked really big, well over our heads, with the top breaking over. We thought that she would be pitching for sure but Sunny just rode these waves up and down as smooth as could be. Then there would be what looked like a tiny swell, only a few feet high that would cause the boat to pitch side to side. Anything not attached would go flying! We learned very quickly to never be without a good handhold. We got into Santa Cruz in the afternoon and docked under Aldo’s restaurant:

We hung out in Santa Cruz for two days, visiting old haunts (we both went to UC Santa Cruz). A lot has changed, but it’s still a dynamic town.

Early on Sunday, October 4th, we left Santa Cruz and motor sailed to Moss Landing, which is a small harbor in the middle of the Monterey bay. We lucked out and were invited to stay for two days for free at the Elkhorn Yacht Club. We got in just in time to watch the San Diego Chargers lose the Sunday night game (*sigh).