Beautiful sunshine

We left Ventura Yacht Anchorage after a beautiful visit. We had sailed down from Santa Barbara in complete fog and we were going to leave in full sunshine. We had accomplished everything we had wanted during the visit including a fabulous retirement dinner with Frank Butler and Sharon Day. Before dinner we introduce Frank to Wii golf on our boat. He was a fast learner and after three holes was already a stroke ahead of Rog. Bob Namn and Jan were fantastic hosts with assisting us with our sail repair, trips to Costco as well as our trip to Fry's electronics. We are learning that cruising is really about boosting our internet signal more than repairing the boat in exotic places.

You will notice the sun on the water--we loved it even though we were leaving around 8am!!

Di found that she could continue to search the internet by using her Ipad--thank you so much Howard. Rog is still learning how to navigate without too much help. Notice the Uggs--not too warm just yet.

Rog took a few moments to check in with family and friends. Six hours of motoring gives you all the time you need.

If you look very close you will see the dolphin right bow roller. We saw hundreds on this leg, quite exciting. We also saw a large shark sunbathing but were not fast enough to click a picture

You can see that there was not much wind or waves. We had great flat water and warm sunshine so we are very happy.

Just beautiful sunshine on the water, what we had been looking forward to and now it is coming true. The lower the latitude the better the attitude.

Di was very happy at the helm as she brought the boat into Marina Del Rey.




Summer has finally arrived on the first day of fall in Marina Del Rey and we will here for four days before we head over to Catalina Island on Wednesday. We plan to meet up with Terry and MichelleNot much work planned while we are here, the boat is in great shape.

Just a little more fog

We loved walking around the Santa Barbara Marina but it was not what we were expecting in the way of weather. We woke to total fog every morning with clearing some days and not others. Was not exactly what I had in mind when I asked Rog to bring us down to Southern Cal.

As we got ready to leave last Sunday around 11am for our four hour trip to Ventura we were not sure what was in store for the passage. We did know that we were leaving in complete fog and had no idea that it would get worse just outside the harbor. We never saw any of the boats that were anchored just outside of the harbor entrance. We also missed the oil rigs--never saw them and we passed within half a mile!!!


Marilyn was happy to be finally adding a little more fuel to the boat. They had not gotten fuel since leaving the Bay Area but are happy to report fuel consumption of less than a gallon per hour. Take that you power boaters. Our burn rate was slightly higher than there.

Just past the oil rigs we thought we had finally left the fog behind, blue sky and coastline. It does not get any better than that for a cruiser. However this would not last long as you can see in the next photo. After less than two miles we found the heavy fog again.

Those are not clouds up ahead but more fog!! and right down on the deck!!! No, I want sunshine. At this point I actually called ahead to the Catalina dealership in Ventura to make sure we would be able to find our way into the harbor. No worries--full sunshine ahead.

We gave Full:Shell the honors of leading the way into the Harbor, and what a welcome sight it was!! Our sea conditions have been beautiful compared to other cruisers that we have talked to so I should stop complaining but really.

Arrived in Santa Barbara

We left Morro Bay around 3am on Tuesday morning with Full Shell right behind. There was a bit of fog as we left the harbor but we got out without an incident almost. When Rog went forward to bring up the fenders the boat decided it want to go right back home. She turned herself around 180 degrees before you could blink an eye or get to the helm to straighten her out. After a little fright and a few choice words Di's Dream once again headed off on the correct course with few complaints from the crew--Di. It turned out to be a beautiful night to head south with very light winds, no waves to speak of and little fog. We continued under these conditions around Pt Arguello.

Once south of Pt Arguello we did put up all the sails with the hopes of picking up a bit of boat spead. We saw up to 18knts of wind and surfed a few small waves at 9knts. A wonderful rounding of Pt Conception. We stayed within two miles of the coast and enjoyed a great ride in full sunshine

Eric was still following us south on this beautiful afternoon

We actually arrived in Santa Barbara to a very full marina. Not a slip was to be found although we saw many of our Marina Village friends already safely tied up, El Tiburon was the first to great us as we pulled in. The Harbor Master was a wonderful help and took Rog on a exploritory trip around the marina until they found a spot to slip us in between two other boats on the pump out. It was ok, we were tied up.

We woke up Wed morning to a beautiful sunny day and decided to head into town for a little shopping trip. The boys were taking the tram to West Marine and the girls headed off to Nordstoms for a bite of lunch. We will not post who had the more succesful shopping trip but I can not report what safety item I found!! All the girls had necessary purchases.
I must digress for a moment to mention the beautiful dinner we had on Full Shell the night before we left Morro Bay. Marilyn had spent the day simmering the sauce for her lasagna, there was a bit of help from Eric too, and preparing other goodies too. Way too much wine was enjoyed by all of us.

Catching up

In a previous blog I mentioned our plan to check out all the great breakfast spots along the coast so that we could recommend them to other cruisers. We loved LouLou's on the Pier!!! Very handy. You will notice that we are sitting outside in shirt sleeves in beautiful sunshine. This would not last long as you will notice in the following pictures.

After rounding Cypress Point the fog descended upon us in a big way. No visibility and plans to go into Stillwater Cove were quickly aborted. Next stop San Simion with an estimated arrival time of midnight. Fog was so thick we had to enter in single file using radar and chartplotter.

We did arrive by our midnight calculations but it took us a little longer to drop anchor, tequilla for all by 1am. We cheated death one more time.

We did have a couple of hours without fog surrounding us on our trip south but you will notice that is was never very far away!! And down on the deck. However it did not last long much to the dismay of Marily, Pam and Di.

Silly Girls

Roger and I have lead a group of boats down to Half Moon Bay over the Labor Day Weekend for the last several years. This has included boats from the Oakland Yacht Club and boats sold by us through Farallone Yachts. We have had as many as 30 boats go with us and this year there were 26 signed up for the cruise. Ron Konkle and Mike Rose were kind enough to head up the event as we were only going one direction--south.

The other thing we do annually is take an end of the summer polar bear dip in Half Moon Bay


Rog was brave enough to dive in however the girls were not to be outdone. Marilyn, Mimi and Di all tested the 59 degree water too!!! Next time we all get in the water it will be considerably warmer--probably Bahia Santa Maria so stay tuned.

In Monterey

Blogging has become difficult for the time being. First I thought I could download all my pictures from my camera to the new Ipad we received for a retirement present. That did not work, I can blog on my Ipad, but I can not figure out how to upload pictures!! Bad deal because I put all my pictures for our departure there and wiped them off my camera card. Now I have to figure out how to move them to my Me.com account and down load to this computer. Sounds easy but sitting on the boat using 3G did not work so a wireless connection needs to be tried.

All said I am beginning to remember how to do this. I need to identify pictures in my album and then compress so that they are not to large for our friends to see. So here goes. My days will be a little out of order until I figure out how to get my exit pictures over to this computer. It will happen, I have Eric Anderson sitting next to me!! Or I will have to wait until Mark Koehler comes down to San Diego.

Food is very necessary and cooking on the boat is not always what the girls want to do!! So now that we are in Santa Cruz we found the closest breakfast spot overlooking the harbor entrance for a second cup of coffee. Darn--no internet here.


Next time you are in the Santa Cruz we all recommend Aldo's for a great $5.95 breakfast of eggs, french toast and bacon!! Full Shell, Kat Den Rie, Hotel California joined us before we all pushed off for Monterey.

It was a fabulous sail from Santa Cruz to Monterey with winds of 15 to 20 knots out of the west, yes out of the west not the south, making it easy to sail at 7 1/2 to 8 knts. Rog was a very happy camper, we hope there are many more days like yesterday. Di would like it to warm up just a bit but is otherwise very happy.

We are both getting adjusted to the cruising life. Adjusting the sails, going up and down the companionway repeatedly is making for sore muscles and aching hands. This too will pass I am sure


We got a wonderful slip in Monterey thanks to Scott Pryor who is also a Catalina 470 owner. We got to enjoy cocktails with him and his wife Debby our first evening in port.

This is Thursday morning, not sure of the date, and we are having crepes and internet connections for breakfast. Di's dad will be coming down to the wharf for a visit and a Rob Roy Perfect!! We will try to hold him to two drinks.

Farewell party

We have gotten the boat all ready and now have to finish up at the office. Patty threw a fantastic party last Sunday down on the sales dock. We arrived at the party in a new Ranger Tug with Patty at the helm and a mariachi band playing in the cockpit. It was great fun going through the marina with the band playing all those familiar tunes.