Skip to main content

Santa Cruz to Long Beach



We left Santa Cruz on Saturday, October 16 at 10:00am. As we crossed Monterey Bay we saw a large pod of humpback whales that were breaching and putting on quite a show. It was a real thrill! I tried to take pictures, but didn't get a very good one.
Humpback whale breaching in Monterey Bay

We did our first overnight sail that night. We passed Morro Rock early in the morning.




Passing Morro Rock in the morning.
As the day progressed the weather deteriorated and we pulled into San Luis Obispo Harbor around 1pm in the midst of a thunder/lightening/rain storm. 
Heading toward San Luis Obispo

We ended up waiting three days for the storm to pass.  Here are two views from our cockpit.


We left San Luis Obispo at 7:30am on October 20th. Our plan was to round Pt. Conception and anchor in Cojo Anchorage just past Pt. Conception before dark, however when we pulled into Cojo the wind looked like it was changing to SW and there were two sailboats on the beach up by the cliffs that must have been blown ashore in a south wind in the not too distant past. We decided to head out and do another overnighter to Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard.  We arrived in Oxnard at 8:30 am on October 21st.
A Meadowlark hitched a ride with us out of San Luis Obispo - first on the backstay and then on a spreader until he finally flew away (two or three miles out)
Between Santa Cruz and Point Conception we saw lots of groups of Ocean Sunfish floating on the surface flapping their fins. It looked like they were waving at us.
Rounding Pt. Conception. The "Cape Horn of the Pacific".
The moon going down and daylight breaking off of Santa Barbara.

The Radar and GPS screen as we approach Long Beach. The green triangles are AIS markers for registered ships.... there were so many........a little daunting!


Whew! We made it into Alamitos Bay Marina at 4:30 and Drew came and met us at 5:30.













Comments

  1. Looks like you're having a great time. Thanks for posting the photos so John and I can live vicariously. Miss you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two Fall Road Trips 2023

The first trip was doing the Selkirk Loop. We headed first to eastern Washington, then northern Idaho, then British Columbia. We highly recommend. Crossing the Columbia                                                                                                    Priest Lake, Idaho                                                                                                   The FREE ferry across Kootenay Lake We headed to Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park. It was beautiful, nice hikes, good...

North to Southeast Alaska

Our old friend, Roger, invited us to join him (as crew) on his first leg home from Sitka to Seattle. We did the first leg (and most scenic) from Sitka to Petersburg. He has been heading north on a boat from the Seattle area every summer since he was a little kid so he knows the area well. We flew into Sitka (arriving at 3PM), got a taxi to the harbor, jumped into the skiff, headed out to the boat, and we were on our way to Kalinin Bay on Kruzof Island for the night.  (Jim's hat says "Where's the Fish") The next morning we headed north and into the Pacific along the Khaz Peninsula, inside Klokachef Island, up around Khaz head and then various anchorages around Baranof Island, Admiralty Island and Kupreanof Island. The weather wasn't the greatest, but we did have some sunny days, mostly calm waters, lots of wildlife and good fishing and beautiful scenery:   

North to Vancouver Island..........

 ........this time on our van aboard the Coho Ferry to Victoria. It was a really fun week visiting old cruising friends and for Jim to see old haunts from his time living in Victoria (many years ago). The Coho ferry leaves Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula and arrives in downtown Victoria in one and a half hours: We drove up the west side of Vancouver Island then cut across to a wonderful Provincial C ampground on Gordon Bay on a beautiful lake. The Provincial Campgrounds are big and very well maintained. From Gordon Bay Campground we headed to Nanaimo to hook up with Bob and Gisele Coffey (s/v Relax) where we spent the night. We did a lot of catching up, took a couple of walks around the ponds surrounding their neighborhood and then headed up to another BIG and Beautiful Provincial Park:Rathtrevor Provincial Park about one hour north of Nanaimo. We spent two nights "buddy vanning". . From there we drove (along with Coffeys) down to Shawnigan Lake to visit Ian and Diane (...