THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER, 13, 2007 – Morro Bay to Port San Luis

 

The morning was very sunny, bright and warm.  We were all preparing to leave and getting the last weather forecast in anticipation of rounding Point Conception tomorrow.  With the new forecast in hand, there was some discussion as to whether tomorrow was a good day to get around the points.  Problem was, if we didn’t go tomorrow, it appeared that we’d be stuck in Morro Bay for quite a few more days before a good forecast would come our way.  It was either tomorrow, or we’d wait until into next week.  It seemed that the weather, and thus the forecast, were just in flux.  Finally, we agreed that we’d go on to Port San Luis and make a final determination tonight.  Russ and Debbie on Zephfre were planning to do Conception on Friday, as well.

 

We left Morro Bay Yacht Club at 0920 in a mere ripple of a seaway.  In our short cruise to Port San Luis, we saw lots and lots of sealions and especially, sea otters.  They seemed to be everywhere.  The sealions were the smaller guys apparently feeding in groups with them porpoising through the waves like miniature dolphins.  It is so odd to see them do this.  I just wonder if maybe they are juveniles??  Some of them were leaping really high into the air.  Mid morning, the winds picked up a bit, but we still had a good down-hill run and enjoyed the views of the passing shore.  We had quite a good view of the Diablo Nuclear Power plant, as well as great seats for the critter show.

 

Shortly before we arrived in PSL, the seas and winds really picked up.  We came into the cove in 25 knots of wind, which would not have been a big deal, but we had to pick up a mooring ball in the outmost portion of the cove, where it was really howling.  Harbor Patrol had a boat out there to show us which moorings to take.

 

Jake and Susanna snagged theirs on the first try.  I attempted to get it off of the bow, and just couldn’t reach it with the boat hook.  Every time we’d get close, the wind would quickly blow us off.  Finally, the Harbor Patrol boat came back over and handed me the mooring line and I was able to get it attached.  He was a very nice guy and told us they had a water taxi service into shore and would come back and get us in about an hour.  It was way too choppy and windy to try and pull down the dinghy, so we took him up on the offer.

 

The facilities ashore were not particularly geared for cruisers, but we did walk around the pier and the various restaurants and had lunch outside at a café nearby.  The food was okay, but the service was lacking.  For some reason, the entire staff seemed to be busy and harried, although there were only a couple of tables with diners.

 

After being delivered back at our boats, we checked the weather yet again and it looked like tomorrow was our day.  We planned to get up before first light so that we could get around the point before the winds kick up in the afternoon.  Needless to say, it was an early night for us.

 

 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2007 – Port San Luis to Santa Barbara

 

We were up at 0430 and slipping the line off our mooring buoy at 0500.  It was really dark, but the wind had died in the anchorage and it was an easy task to get unmoored.  Not so easy was avoiding the boat behind us.  We had not adjusted our instruments for night vision last night before going to bed and didn’t allow enough time for our eyes to adjust this morning before setting out.  I went out on the bow just in time to see the buoy and the boat right in our path and yelled for John to go hard to port.  We missed it all, thank goodness, but another lesson learned.  Do the stuff the night before and get up with enough time to let your eyes adjust to the darkness!  Why, oh why, do we have to learn this stuff several times?!!!!!

 

Once we were safely out of the harbor, we could see that it was in fact blowing 14 knots.  We were hoping it would be dead calm, but it was not to be.  There was a good 3 to 4’ swell going, and with the seas on our beam, it was a little rolly and choppy.  With the sunrise, the seas became quite white-cappy, with the period being very short, and with the occasional large swell mixed in for good measure.  Our only company was Anna Ruth and a few sealions doing their thing.

 

By 0815, we could see Point Arguello.  John and I were in the pilothouse enjoying the scenery and another cup of coffee when I heard Zephfre hail us on the VHF.  I was just getting up to pick up the radio when all at once, Mystic Moon turned hard to starboard……and kept turning.  We were doing donuts out here less than an hour from Point Arguello!!  John immediately disengaged the autopilot thinking that it had gone nuts.  No joy….we had no steerage whatsoever.  I ran up to the pilothouse to see if we had steerage up there.  No way.  Needless to say, we were really rocking and rolling through the chop and swells.  Once again, I could hear things in the salon skidding around.

 

John went to the lazarette to see if we had a hydraulic leak.  Surprisingly, when he opened the hatch, there was not a drop of oil anywhere.  Descending further into the laz, he realized that the coupling holding all the steering/autopilot/rudder together had come apart and the bolts were laying on the floor of the lazerette.

 

In the meantime, I was trying to keep Mystic Moon into the swells using the bow and stern thrusters, which by the way, I’d like to report does NOT work with the rudder hard over.  We continued to do the steady 360’s and rock and roll.  I also had radioed Zephfre and Anna Ruth.  Zephfre, was several miles ahead of us and offered to stand by in case we should need assistance.  Anna Ruth was about a mile ahead of us, and they turned back around.  Everyone was very concerned, because we all knew the wind and seas would only continue to get worse as the day wore on.  But, the good news was that we were not in any imminent danger, just a little uncomfortable.  The better news was that we had isolated the issue and were trying to fix it. By the way (and running true to form), in the midst of all of this, um, excitement, I looked up from the helm to see whales blowing all around us.  Go figure……

 

Well, it seemed like hours, but by using the emergency tiller (fortunately we had stowed it right next to the rudder post) while I turned the wheel, John was able to realign all the parts and replace the bolt and nut so that we again had steerage.  He did take the time to call Brad from the Laz to make sure he had the assembly correct.  (Some day Brad is going to not answer his phone when he sees it’s us, but mercifully, not this day!  Thanks, Brad J)   There was much joy around when John shouted from the laz to get underway and get us into the seas.  WOO-HOO!!!!!  And it was only 0855.

 

Settling down and getting back underway, we called Brad back to let him know we got the thing fixed and were fine.  Neither he nor John can figure out how that bolt backed out of there.  It will be, however, another point of routine inspection from now on.  Anyway, no harm, no foul, so I tided up the salon (again).  Fortunately, I had stowed things really well for this passage, so there were no casualties.

 

After that, our rounding of Points Arguello and Conception seemed positively tame.  The wind and swell moved around to our stern, so while the seas were still rough, they were behind us so that the ride was reasonably comfortable.  I made us some eggs for breakfast and we saw hundreds of dolphins and lots and lots of those pods of sealion dolphin-wanna-bes pop up from time to time.

 

Approaching Santa Barbara, it was interesting to see so many (real) dolphins in the channel.  We had a good size pod come play on our bow.  We even saw them in the waters where there is oil floating (a natural phenomena, I understand, not a man-made spill) and found that very curious.  It didn’t seem to bother them at all.

 

At last, at 1730 we were safely in our slip in Santa Barbara.  Jake and Susanna were all the way across the marina from us (it’s huge!) so they declined dinner, but John and I celebrated our latest escape from death J and our arrival in Southern California with steaks on the barbie and a good bottle of red wine.  Ah heck, sitting up on the flybridge in the warm breeze, watching the palm trees sway, we were practically giddy. J

 

 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2007 – Santa Barbara to Venture

 

The morning was bright, clear and sunny.  We called Jake and Susanna and bid them farewell.  They’re staying in Santa Barbara a few more days, but we’ll for sure see them in San Diego, if not before.

 

We vacated our slip at 1015, just in time to watch the fog roll into the harbor.  By the time we were past the breakwater, it was already socked in and we had less than ¼ mile visibility.  It was amazing how fast it rolled in.

 

The fog stayed with us until around noontime, when it lifted and was just slightly hazy.  Shortly thereafter, we had a grey (I think) whale surface right in front of us.  He didn’t stay and put on a show, but I always love to see these guys anyway!

 

Val and Stan were waiting for us at Ventura Isle Marina and directed us to our slip – which was a good thing.  We are 16’8” on the beam, and I think this slip must have been 17’6” wide.  No kidding – our fenders wouldn’t even really fit and we could step off of either side of the boat.  But, with John doing a masterful job of handling the boat and Val and Stan pushing us off and poking the fenders back down, we got in.

 

We first met Val and Stan at an early Selene rendezvous and have kept in touch ever since.  They’re just a great couple!  Their boat, Pax Nautica, is a 53 also, but almost 25 hulls newer than ours, and they’ve only been living aboard it for the last 3 months.  They invited us back to their boat for champagne and a boat tour, and it is gorgeous!  They’ve done a lot of really custom stuff on board and it came out very well.  Howard continues to just make these boats better and better, too.

 

We had a great time catching up, sipping champagne, and touring their boat.  They had a previous obligation for the evening, so directed us to Brophy Brothers as a nice place for dinner ashore.  We took their advice and had a great dinner.  Ventura is a cute little community with waterfront shops and restaurants and plenty of activity on a Saturday night.  There was a live band on a stage in the water that was quite good and lots of people milling about.  We had a very nice evening.

 

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2007 -  Ventura

 

We spent the next 6 days at Ventura Isle Marina.  It was a nice break after being on the go since leaving San Francisco.  Mark Tilden came in on Sunday morning with the delivery of Kasekuchen for Bob and Cheryl Klein.  It was so good to see him, but I missed Roseanne L .  He and his crew, though were great, and we had many pleasurable hours and much jocularity with them and Val and Stan.  Mark and crew left to go home on Wednesday morning.

 

Josh drove up for dinner with us on the boat Wednesday night.  We had a really nice evening with him and thoroughly enjoyed his visit.  He’s doing really well, although he’s working very long hours.  We certainly remember those days and don’t miss them at all.  Sometimes it’s very hard to watch your kids do life.

 

Most daytime hours were spent doing our never-ending list. It took a full day and a half to really clean the boat.  We did get the TV slider door fixed – took us all day and 2 trips to the hardware store, of course. (Thank you Val & Stan for your gracious offer of a car!)  BTW Gordon, nice install on the TV – it was really well done!!  We found and *think* we’ve cured our leak from the flybridge into the salon.  The drain in the corner of the settee was not installed properly and was leaking through the fiberglass down into the salon.  We took the ceiling panel down (AAAAaaaarrrrrggg!!!!!) and dried out the area really well (I will need to buy new hair dryers soon J)  We pulled the bad tubing out, replaced it with some flexible hose, and then shot epoxy into the void until it filled up.  We’re pretty sure we got it, but honestly we’re both too chicken to really test it.  Yeah….I know……We’ll have to man/woman up soon and find out.

 

John got the bad GFI plug on the flybridge replaced and sealed around the casing.  Hopefully that guy won’t die out again.  And of course, I got to the store to pick up some fresh stuff.

 

Stan had some business to attend to the first part of the week, so we had planned to leave on Thursday for the Channel Islands after he returned Wednesday night.  However, after looking at weather, we decided we’d delay our departure until Saturday.  Thursday would have been okay, but Friday looked nasty with strong winds and swells from the wrong direction.  They were predicting rain and maybe hail, of all things.  It’s got to be us……

 

Sure enough, Thursday was fine.  Val and I had a great kayak tour of Ventura Harbor, even going by Windhorse (Dashew’s boat) tied up to a dock in Ventura Keys, (and Val and I have the most wonderful “farmer’s” tans on our legs – we both look like we’re wearing knee-highs – oh yay!) but Friday was as predicted, including the rain.  Seems like we made the right decision; and what the heck, we have to keep remembering that we’re not on a schedule anymore J.

 

Oh…and yeah….not a word from Mary on our watermaker.