Hello From Santa Barbara

It's happening, you now hear us complaining about the heat. Not the worst thing that's happened to us so far. Today we spent several hours playing in the surf. Nadia loved it. I suspect it won't be our last time. I've been catching up with the boat maintenance. Oil changes, dinghy repair, paint touch-up etc. It's a lot of work keeping these things floating.

Nadia's Notes: I saw five octopi, one sting ray, five starfish, three crabs (probably more), lots of mussels, limpets and nudibranch and their eggs, they had blue bodies and orange sticks, sticking out of their blue bodies (all in the wild). At a butterfly exhibit I saw, monarchs, zebra longwings, morning cloaks and lots more. I saw 4 great blue herons, one with a wound on it's wing that I named Heather Jean.

In Warm Santa Barbara

Dolphins riding by our boat on the way into Santa Barbara Channel

Blue skies and palm trees, a welcome sight

Nadia enjoying a day of fishing off the pier in Santa Barbara.

They were right, the difference in weather once around Point Conception is remarkable. The last 40 miles into Santa Barbara were so calm we didn't even raise the sails. We have stowed our down sleeping bags and dug out the shorts. Santa Barbara is as California is supposed to be. Warm and sunny. The marina here is huge by most standards I'm used to. The city is geared for vacationers with long sandy beaches and so much to do it's impossible to decide where to start. Brenda's mom and dad are planning a visit in a couple of weeks.

Pete

Out and About

Climbing a ladder to get onto the pier at Port San Luis.

Life Aboard

Hearst Castle

South of Point Conception

We're only about three miles past Point Conception but we are past it. It was another very calm day. I believe we are officially in Southern California. It was another very good day for wildlife sightings. Whales and hundreds of dolphins. Many times we had very large groups of dolphins around the boat. At one point I'm sure there was in excess of 100 dolphins jumping around us. We are currently anchored in Cojo anchorage. A temporary stop for us slowpokes who can't make the next stop before nightfall.
We were heading to the Channel Islands tomorrow but our windlass motor mount broke again. I should be able to get the anchor up tomorrow but doubt it will last long. It was fixed in San Francisco most recently. We need to go to Santa Barbara to have it repaired.

Port San Luis

Morro Bay is part of a wet lands area that supports many different shore birds. We rented kayaks a couple of times and went exploring the shallow waters around the bay. There is a large cormorant, night egret, great blue heron and vulture rookery on one side of the bay that is very interesting.

We left Morro Bay this morning. Although we only covered 25 miles it was the calmest 25 miles of the trip. The sails didn't even go up. There were quit a few sea lions in the open water along the way. They porpoise through the water much like a dolphin does. We saw three whales in the shallow waters of San Luis Bay. I found this unusual as the bay is only about 20 to 30 feet deep. There is a shark warning on the beach of all things. They sighted a great white here about a week ago. I think I'll just wade into the water up to my waist and clean a few fish.

We haven't talked to a sailor from California who hasn't said that conditions change dramatically for the better once you go around Point Conception. Tomorrow we should do just that.

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