Saturday, Nov 29

We are now in our third day at Two Harbors, Catalina Island. We've read about and heard of this place for years; A Paradise Island getaway for southern California boaters. How could we be in the area without stopping here for at least a couple days?

The Island is interesting. With hills, trees and trails, many small coves along the coast, and the water is clear - we can see the bottom in 18 feet where Sojourner is moored. There are palm type trees everywhere and the little settlement of Two Harbors is really nice with a good bar and restaraunt, a well stocked general store and an outdoor amphitheater and BBQ that could handle hundreds.

Yet, we're both getting restless, anxious to move on, to get past the smog and the beautiful people and the $5.00 beers. Since we passed Point Conception a couple weeks ago, the weather and the ocean have improved to where our best days are now at sea going somewhere. At the same time, our cost of living has risen to where it just isn't much fun being here anymore.

So, tomorrow we'll sail the 12 miles to the town of Avalon on the east end of the island. This also puts us about 3 hours closer to our next stop at Oceanside, CA. We'll probably stay at Avalon for one part night, leaving about 3:00AM Monday to reach Oceanside during daylight. Then on to San Diego for a couple days before crossing into MEXICO!!!!! E

Marina Del Rey

I am standing in our companionway with the computer sitting on top of hatch cover in order to get any internet. Well, at least it is working! We traveled to Marina Del Ray (Venice beach is right next door) yesterday leaving at 0400 & arriving at 1430. The early start was to avoid arriving at night. The ocean was pretty quiet. We tried to use the sails a couple of times but the wind was too flaky to give us any consistent boost. The forcast called for rain all day & we didn't see a drop until we were in the marina. When we pulled into the marina looking for the transiet dock we spied our friends on "Pomaikai" already tied up. Nice surprise. Our plan was to leave today but it looks like we will be traveling to Catalina island tomorrow morning. We have purchased a turkey with the trimmings that will probably be cooking on our way to the island. There have been some storms circling around the area. This mornings marine report talked about waterspouts & cloud to ocean lightening hence the delay in departure until tomorrow. We are wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. C

Ventura Harbor Boat Yard

We arrived in Ventura Monday afternoon after a slow trip in the fog. I mean FOG. We had to thread our way through the oil rigs that we couldn't see & those pesky buoys that you find on the GPS but never find in real life. We had a few power boats come out of the fog near us & Emrick had to hail one of them move over. Once we arrived & found the harbor boat yard we slid into the area for the travel lift & up we went (the pics show you how that goes). The yard started work the next day. The rudder was in fact very loose & I guess that is to be expected after 30 years of use. They allowed us to stay in the boat while the work was being done which saved us some $. The work is done & we will go back into the water today to test out all the repairs. While sitting "up in the air" on Friday some friends we met in Morro Bay showed up looking for us. We had a great visit with them that night & they moved on to Marina Del Ray on Saturday to meet up with us in Catalina. We will be leaving for Marina Del Ray early tomorrow, stay the night & then move on to Catalina Island Wednesday. We plan to spend the holiday weekend there & then move on to San Diego.

$$$ from the bucket

Well, yet another change is taking place. We discovered yesterday that some steering difficulty we noted while enroute to Santa Barbara is related to the rudder & will require the boat to be hauled out to fix. We are not interested in paying the prices to have the work done here in Santa Barbara, so we are heading out early tomorrow to sail to Ventura where the cost is more reasonable. There was a cartoon posted in Morro Bay that showed a man driving his car 350 miles to a marina where his boat was docked, whistling all the way. When he got there, the cartoon showed him busily rummaging in his car & finally pulling out a large bucket. He continued to whistle while he walked down a long dock to his boat When he finally got to his boat, he threw the bucket's contents high in the air over his boat. Out came lots of $$$$, falling onto the boat and into the water around it. He turned around, walked back along the long dock to his car, got in & drove away, continuing to whistle. That is what it feels like. . . . . On a positive note we received our self steering part this am & Emrick already has it installed.
Just so you know I worked diligently on the pics yesterday. I have no idea why they are presented the way the are on the blog. I will keep working on it & I still have more to add. C

Santa Barbara

We entered the Bay of Santa Barbara about 0910 on Sunday after having passed the big bad Point Arguello & Point Conception with very little swell & no wind. The fascinating part of the night was seeing the oil rigs. They are huge & lit up with white, green & red lights. Some of them are four stories high. We needed to thread through them as they are scattered all over. There were a total of ten of them before we reached the bay. While on watch I had my first encounter with a large ship traveling at night. Notice I did not use the word fascinating. That ship came along side of us silently & because it was so dark the only lights it had that I could see was the starboard green light & a mast light. At first I didn't recognize them as moving lights, I just thought they were from shore. It took me a minute of staring to figure out it was a ship & moving fast along side of us. So, I did what any prudent sailor would do. I slowed down & prayed that it could see us or at least move past without getting too close. There wasn't enough time to use the radio to hail them. Thankfully it passed in front of us heading for an oil rig. Since the ship slid up behind us I was forever looking behind us the rest of the trip. The overnight was cool & damp. I kept waiting for the warmth that all the books talked about. We didn't feel it until the sun came out on Sunday morning. About one hour out of Morro Bay, on our way here, we ran over a kelp bed that ripped out a piece of our self steering. So, we decided to continue on even if we had to hand steer all the way. Our choice of Santa Barbara as a destination was to allow us a quick way to order & receive the new self steering part. Santa Barbara is a neat little harbor & once we were in our slip it was great to find out that the bathrooms were close by & we could get internet on the boat! Hence the timely posting of pics & narrative. Emrick has ordered the new part which should arrive tomorrow. He is down in the locker/storage part of the boat checking things out as I write. Our plan is to leave for Santa Cruz island (Tuesday or Wednesday depending upon how easily the new part can be installed), head to Catalina Island & then on to San Diego. We have no desire to port hop along California. It seems to take forever to get in & out of some harbors & we know the traffic will be increasing so our chosen path will allow us to bypass all of that. We don't know much about the islands but do not expect them to have internet so the next time you hear from us will probably be in San Diego. I am still working on the pics posting as I get use to this blog format. Just a note that if you double click on a pic it will enlarge it. Time to go & soak up some sun! See ya in San Diego . . . .

Monterey Bay & Cannery Row Pics

Santa Cruz Pics

Fort Bragg Pics

Morro Bay

We made a quick decision to leave Monterey on Monday (that weather window thing again) around 1030 & arrived in Morro Bay about 0830 the next morning. Our overnight trip was full of wind (from the wrong direction) which was hard on the auto pilot. We had to give it a rest & steer but the moon was full & by about 0200 the wind had calmed down enough for us to reengage our auto pilot. Yes, for those of you who are wondering, I did participate in 2 hour watches from the time we left Monterey. That meant Emrick was “down below” getting rest & trying to warm up. I was aaaalll alone up top. Just me, the moon, the very large wind waves & a few intermittent lights on land. No sickness (that is very important to me) & I actually enjoyed steering our course. Funny what you can get use to.
Morro Bay was sunny & warm when we arrived. This bay is known for fog, a nasty bar & a big rock. We did not see any fog, the bar was very gentle & we did see a BIG rock.
We stopped at the fuel dock to fill up & then tied up at the Morro Bay Yacht Club dock. The club is the host to transients (there is that word again) since there is really no marina. What a super place to be. We tied up next to two sailboats heading south & got the “low down” on the place. The restrooms, laundry & shower were about 10 steps up the dock but we would have to travel for internet. Not bad. The sun has been with us since we arrived & it has been warm enough to dry out the boat. That dampness was getting on my nerves.
So, we are planning to leave tomorrow morning but are not sure of the destination. This stretch will take us around the fabled Point Arguello & Point Conception which are known for giving sailors a nasty ride. Our weather reports indicate we should have good weather. We are not sure if we will need to rest at Santa Barbara or decide to just keep on sailing as long as the food holds out. . . .
I have added pics for you all. I hope I can label each of them. One picture I did not take was of a 40ish male with long sandy colored hair, wearing a cowboy hat & speedo, with a body he obviously was proud of, standing on a surf board & paddling by our boat (multiple times) while smiling. The first time I saw him I was sitting in the cockpit with Emrick & Al & all I saw was from the shoulders up “float” by about a foot from the boat. It was so weird looking that I stood up to see how he was able to “float” & was greeted by the site I described above. I was temped to take a pic but after the 6th time he floated by I figured he had gotten enough attention. C

Morro Bay and the Morro Bay Yacht club have been fantastic. Our timing here couldn’t have been better as this place is usually rainy or foggy. We have had nothing but sunshine and temps around mid seventies. Just perfect. It’s been really fun watching the pelicans too. These ungainly, prehistoric looking creatures cruise around and then just drop out of the sky and sort of crash into the water as though they need some practice on their entry. No style points whatsoever, in fact we give high scores to the loudest and biggest splashes.

So tomorrow we’re off to round what is known as the Cape Horn of the Pacific. Point Conception is sort of a line of demarcation between north and south, warm and cool, and quiet and busy. Between the oil rigs and the hundreds of container ships feeding Wal Mart, etc., and thousands of pleasure boats, this next part of the trip should prove to be exciting. We’ll see. E

Breaking out of Fort Bragg

A lot has happened since our last post. Sorry about that, but internet access has been rather hard to come by. At Fort Bragg, where we languished for a week, it was about a mile and a half walk up a serious hill for basic groceries or a Laundromat. The only Wi-Fi was a similar walk in another direction. It reminded me a lot of an airport; not user friendly. And, unlike Brookings, where folks offered us rides or cars, there was definitely none of that going on.
Anyway, we escaped from Fort Bragg early on Wednesday the 5th, easing out of the very picturesque harbor with smiles on our faces. The ocean was a little snotty but not too bad – it’s amazing what you can get used to. We sailed with the jib and the mizzen, the sun was out, and Sojourner was happy to be dancing again. Later that afternoon, when I began thinking about the 12 hours of night coming up, we watched as the fog grew closer from the west. Al and I made bets on whether we’d outrun it and be spared. I won. The wind direction shifted to dead in front of us and grew stronger, so we pulled down the sails and motored through the night making good just about 1 knot. We were grateful for our radar as we were slowly passing by the Farallon islands and the shipping lanes in and out of San Francisco (in the fog).
On Thursday and Thursday night we motored as the wind died and then filled in directly behind us. Now, we were moving again, making good about 5 knots, so down the coast we went.
Friday dawned a beauty of a day. Clear blue sky and blue water flat calm. We motored the last 10 miles to Santa Cruz watching the shoreline from several miles out trying to pick out the “conspicuous” amusement park near the harbor entrance. Finally, at around 9:00 AM we were at the offshore buoy for the harbor entrance. We were all pretty exhausted, but cheered by the warming sun, and decided it was time to enjoy it for a while. Shutting down the iron beasty , the silence was magnificent. While fresh coffee perked on the stove, we removed layers of clothing and foul weather gear and just soaked up the sun and the sights. Boats were exiting the harbor as if it were Saturday, seals crowded onto the buoy all barking, and pelicans, looking totally prehistoric, flew near. It was spectacular.
Santa Cruz turned out to be another non user friendly place. No groceries or internet, so we weren’t excited about staying for the few days while a weather system worked on through. Then, Al decided it was time for him to get back to his life in Brookings. We picked up a rental car and, after a fine dinner at the Crows Nest, he was on his way. Al had been a great companion. In addition to helping us through the cold nights, he taught us a great deal about sailing and navigation. He will be missed.
Saturday began by looking like a repeat of the beautiful Friday we had just enjoyed. Claudia and I decided that we could both get a head start on our next passage and put ourselves in a more “user friendly” place by sailing the 20 miles across Monterey Bay to Monterey. So, off we went. Sails up and quietly zooming at 4 – 5 knots. Sojourner was happy and so were we. Then, clouds moved in. And about 5 or 6 miles from our destination, fog rolled in. Then it began to rain. Oh well. I kept hearing Al as though he were still with us. “it will be all right, just keep going”. And so we did, and we’re now tied up in beautiful Monterey Harbor anxious to check out the museums and nearby Fisherman’s Wharf. Yet we still have to go somewhere to access internet service. I sure got spoiled having it onboard in Winchester Bay and in Brookings. E

Monterey is really something. Coming into the harbor in the rain was a new experience. Those are the times you wish you didn't wear glasses! There is lots to see here with all the history behind the harbor & the many shops for us tourists. We found out why the internet is so hard to find in these harbors. Apparently the state will not let the harbors have their own internet because of all the private internet companies that are available. Something about free enterprise but it sure makes for finding WiFi service a chore. We are waiting out another weather pattern that should pass by Tuesday so we can move on to the next harbor. At this pace we might be in Mexico before Obama takes office. C