S/v Pearl is officially in Southern California! We left Monterey Bay on Friday, September 23rd with the intention of a 21 hour sail down to Morro Bay. Plans were to wait there for a weather window around Point Arguello and Point Conception, two capes known for "spirited" sailing.
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| Oil platform off the coast of CA. There are many of them with names like Gilda, Henry, etc. |
As we progressed down the coast, we realized our weather window was closing, so we decided not to stop and continued on around the two points, adding another 24 hours to our sail. The anchorage after Point Conception is not to be entered at night, and since we were there at 2am, we kept heading south and set anchor in the Northern Channel Islands outside of Santa Barbara at 8:30 am on Sept. 25th. We stayed on the hook for four nights at Santa Cruz Island. We had an absolutely beautiful anchorage and sandy beach all to ourselves.
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| Santa Cruz Island, Willows Anchorage. |
The waters here are an amazing color and clear--we could see our anchor 35 feet below! Extremely limited internet and cell range allowed ample time for sketching, painting, journaling, napping, and beach combing.
Six or more friendly dolphins accompanied us from the Channel Islands, and we were greeted by 50+ more when approaching Santa Barbara Harbor.
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| Salty is always the first to spot our water-loving friends. |
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| Auto pilot is steering as we all peer over the bow. |
We arrived in Santa Barbara Harbor on Thursday, Sept. 29th and will be here for several days.
I visited Old Santa Barbara Mission (circa 1786) yesterday.
Downtown is beautiful with tile work, fountains and Spanish architecture.
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| This is their court house! |
This AM I went to the Farmers Market. I ate fresh figs while buying avocados, lemons, limes, grapefruit....ahh, Southern California!
All is well on s/v Pearl.
Hooray! Thanks for the post. You know you're a real sailor when you keep going to beat the weather.
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