After eight long days we finally left Monterey. At 0557 I threw lines and we were ecstatic to be continuing our journey south. Today would be our longest day 119.5 mile to Morro Bay. Originally we had hoped to anchor at San Simeon to break up the trip a little bit but after the long delay in Monterey and having our first weather window we decided to push ahead. We had a mixed bag of weather from clear and sunny to thick fog. The seas were 2-6 foot swells with very light winds. The animals were all out as well. We spotted a couple of whales, sea-dogs and lots of cormorants. Our cruise led us around Big Sur and leaving San Simeon astern. Finally at 7:27pm we entered Morro Bay in the fog and dropped the hook with one other sailboat. It had been a very long day and we were exhausted. As the evening progressed the fog got thicker and thicker until we no longer could see our anchorage mate. We watched a show and retired to bed early.
San Simeon
Tons of Cormorants
Leaving Monterey in the Dark
Adios Monterey
Sunrise
California Coast
Big Sur
Dinner Underway in Pilothouse
Entering Morro Bay
Morro Bay
Morro Bay
Once again we awoke to fog but the seas and wind looked good so at 0630 we up-anchored and made our way out of Morro Bay. The seas were calm most of the day until right outside of Point Conception where we heard a small craft advisory announced on the radio for 3pm that day. You never like to hear unexpected weather announced while already en route. Fortunately we were scheduled to arrive at Cojo Anchorage at 2:55p.m. and were both hoping the anchorage would afford us enough protection during the blow. Of course it was my shift to round Conception and while Jeff napped I watched the white caps develop and a washing machine started it's cycle. We had the wind behind us and the confused seas had the boat challenged to stay on her course. Jeff woke up and noticed the change and helped keep watch through the rest of my shift. Crab pots hid in the wavelettes you could just feel the shift in the air. I was ready to be anchored. We were the only boat at Cojo probably due to the small craft warning and once we got the hook to stick the rolling and blowing began. Cojo offered some protecting from the NW winds but the waves made their way around Conception and swirled us around. Safe but not so relaxed we settled in for the rest of the evening.
Point Conception
Leaving Morro
Point Conception
Point Conception
Entering Cojo Anchorage
Cojo Anchorage
Train Passing By Anchorage
Cojo
A little sleep deprived from rocking and rolling all night but small craft over we up-anchored at 0630 for our 44 mile cruise to Santa Barbara. The cruise brought with it more fog and lots of dolphins and sea birds. This was our third time stopping at Santa Barbara and it's always a favorite. They have a nice marina that is within walking distance to town full of shops and restaurants. Knowing this would probably be our only day there after lunch we threw on our tennis shoes then headed to State Street which is always nice to walk around. It has a little bit of everything. While we were out we scouted out a place to have dinner. Since we walked so much during the day (12,000 steps) we decided to have dinner near the marina at a place called Anchor Rose which has vegan options for me and outdoor seating. Check and check. Dinner was good and it felt like a nice treat after our big push to get this far down the coast. Nice for someone else to do the cooking. After dinner we headed back to the boat to relax and get ready for tomorrows cruise.
CoJo
Sunrise at Cojo
Fog Bank in Distance
Foggy Cruising
Santa Barbara Marina
Santa Barbara
Dinner at Anchor Rose
Timing and coordination can be a big challenge when boating with weather always being the dictator and you really have no say in when you will be stuck in port or have a good weather window. That's hard to understand for a lot of non boaters who want to pencil you in for your exact time and date when you will arrive. We did our best to give a decent timeframe to the kids in Los Angeles for when we could possibly arrive in order for them to get off work, be in town and just have a general idea. Somehow this was all working out. Izzy and his girlfriend would be landing in LAX on Sunday (two days from today) from a recent trip and Sami would be off work on Monday and Tuesday. Could it be possible?
We dragged our feet ever so slightly making an additional stop in Oxnard which he hadn't planned but it made the trek to Marina Del Rey from Santa Barbara much shorter. The 33 mile cruise was uneventful. The smell of oil in the air from all the oil rigs digging offshore between Santa Barbara and Oxnard. In Oxnard we stayed at our sister marina and found comfort in a lot of the familiarity. We took a dip in the pool and cooled off then strolled around the basin remembering our time here in 2019 when we created our own SOCAL loop. We had a quiet evening onboard in anticipation for our departure for Marina Del Rey in the morning.
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