Ventura to San Diego

Nov. 7 we leave Ventura in the night after staying at a great Yacht club. Very nice people, make you feel at home. One night free moorage and the rest at a good rate.
Had a great visit with Patty, we went out to the stables and seen all the preperation for the horse show. If you think boating is expensive take a look at horse shows. Need to spend more time with Patty touring the shows.
We are off to Avalon on Santa Catalina island. The navy is out playing "war games - this is warship 083 ", give me a break, as we shake our heads. We tie up to a mooring ball in Avalon, which costs us more than any place else we have been at. Toured the town the next day, everything is closing up, the tourists are going.
Nov 9 depart Avalon and heading for our last stop in the US. - San Diego. Decide to anchor in Mission bay 20 miles north of San Diego. Very nice bay, just like being at home, no swell.
Nov 10 arrive at San Diego at the municipal docks. This is were all the Canadians are, flags all over the place. We meet lots of people that we have been crossing paths with down the coast.
The next few days are busy preparing the boat for the crossing into Mexico. Food, fuel, fishing licence clearance papers etc. We are ready for MEXICO!!!!!

San Luis Obispo Bay to Ventura Yacht Club

We arrive in San Luis Obispo with 20 to 25 knots on our stern. Pull in and anchor for the night. We decide to leave early the next mornig so we can get to Santa Barbara ( 90 miles ) to see our daughter. At 1;13 we lift the anchor, and head out the forecast is for 20 to 25 knots with 4 to 6 foot seas. The first hour there is no wind but the seas are lousy, 4 to 6 foot at 4 seconds on the beam. We start to pickup the wind a little later and keep telling ourselves only 40 miles to go to Point Conception ( the most feared cape of them all ) Commen sense prevales and after a while we turn around and are anchored back in San Luis before day light.
We have a relaxing day, the weather is moderating and we head out the next mourning under heavy fog visibility 400 feet. A couple of hours out we pickup a non paying passenger a beautiful little neon bird with blue irradenesence wing tips, okay it was a brown chick a dee, but he was still lost in the fog. By early afternoon we have seen dophins and over 20 blue whales, very rare for this area. We have had our radar and chart plotter on all day and pick up a sail boat off our starboard side. We motor along until the wind picks up to 15 and we have a beautiful sail to Coho Bay. We invite the young couple over to our boat for happy hour ( we meet them at San Simeon ). And that ends another day.
Next morning we are off to Santa Barbara in the fog. Oil wells in the channel with lots of oil leaking all over. The water is flat calm and you can see our trail in the oil slicks, discusting.
We anchor outside of Santa Barbara, at least that is what our chart plotter says. Have not seen land for 4 days.
Pickup anchor and decide to head to Ventura for a couple of days and see if I can find my sister Patty. Missed my daughter by 2 days. Arrive at Ventura Yacht club at 14:00, very nice people helping us dock.

Heading south Oct 28 & 29 2007

We only stop in Half Moon bay and Monterey for one night, we need to make miles before the weather changes. Next stop is at San Simeon Bay ( home of the Hearst castle). We arrive late at night a drop the hook at midnight. Next day we are off to San Luis Obispo Bay.

Top picure is San Simeon Bay( Hearst Castle on top of the hill

Close up of the Hearst castle

Leaving San Francisco and heading south Oct 27

Oct 27 2007 - after nearly 2 months in the bay area we are ready to head south to San Diego. Zoe and Lucas are home a weather window has opened up and we need to meet my daughter Tammy and my sister Patty in the Los Angeles area. We motor out early heading to Half Moon Bay, and then on to Monterey.

Oct 2007 - a great week with Zoe & Lucas

Zoe and Luca visiting us in San Francisco for a week. Fun had by all.

A day sail to Angel Island Lucas was navigator when we went out sailing.

New Engine installed - Sept & Oct 2007

After a week in South Beach Hbr we thought it was time to anchor out at Sausalito to check out the sites. As we were motoring out of the Harbour our engine started making sounds that no engine should make. We had a couple of mechanics check it out and the long and short of it was that a new motor was needed.

We installed a Yanmar 54 hp with transmission, exhaust hose, shifter and control cables. Now almost everthing in the boat is new. We were lucky that the motor packed it in at San Francisco and not some deserted beach on our trip south. Ouch ! as Al Oliver would say that takes a few dollars out of the crusing budget.

Before I carry on with our trip the month that we spent in Sausalito we ran into a few interesting people. First off the crew at List Marine took us under there wing, ( the wives of the mechanics would ask how those Canadians were doing and would drop off treats ) The owner Tom took us to his home for food and drinks with his friend Vicky and Tom's wife Suzanne.

One of the characters that we meet was Suzie, mid 40's, she would row in every day and dock here dingy to go varnishing. One night after a few rums she was telling us that she had been anchored in the bay for 27 years ( no that is not a mis typing ). Although she said it was not all on the same boat.

Time is a ticking and we needed to be underway. So after a month in the yard we are ready to head out the gate. We stock the boat take her out for a few hours of running around the bay to make sure every thing is working. At the end of the day we notice a small amount of oil in the bilge, so the next day we take it back to the yard. After a few hours, we get the word that the oil leak is fixed, but there is a fuel leak ( a defective part). Unfortunately the only part is in the eastern US, and between not shipping it out on time and then sending it to the wrong side of the states we are in the yard for another week.

Now our daughter - in -law had to rebook her tickets from San Diego to San Francisco.

Sept 2007

We toured San Francisco with the crew for a few days and then they returned home. We relaxed at the South Beach Harbour and enjoyed their yacht club. We all enjoyed the sites, sounds and food that San Francisco has to offer.