The next two days found me scooting along with great following winds and putting the miles under the keel. The first stop was San Simmeon, a sleep y little stop with a beautiful beach. The Herst castle can be seen high on the hill top where I am sure Mr. Herst once looked down upon the rest of us. It seemed surreal and might have made a good tourist trek for me, but there seemed no safe place to leave my dingy for a day. I was looking for a day off (where I catch up on sleep and boaty things) but alas this was not to be.

The 2nd stop was Port St. Luis which is close to San Luis Obispo. The lack of a good California cruising guide prevented me from ascertaining the joys of this place and I opted to anchor overnight and take off in the morning.

I was led to believe that the next big obstacle was Point Conception, some 30 miles south. It is a squeeze point where winds can be fierce. With light winds predicted, the chance to go 'round this "Cape Horn of the Pacific" seemed like a wise choice. Ha! It was a total calm day and I had to motor for lack of wind. As well, I planned on anchoring just around the Point to rest my laurels if it was a hard day, but I redid my schedule and decided that a trip to the Channel Islands was in order as these have been highly touted as decent cruising grounds for the Californians of like mind.

Anchoring in Cuyler "harbor" on San Miguel near sunset, it struck me as a bit of a desolate place. Two other boaters were there, and the guide says there are great hikes on the island but you must be accompanied by a ranger as it was owned by the Defense Department. Of course, there were no rangers to be found. I still wanted to spend that day lounging but this did not seem great. It was cold and very windy. Given that I like windy, I up anchored the next morning and ran down to Prisoner's Bay on Santa Cruz. Good choice. The winds were nonexistent the next day and I got my day off. Ashore, there was little to see but I did get in a two hour hike up a road. I got some rest and relaxing in and even went for a swim to clean off the boat's bottom. It was a fun day, but if I lived down here, I probably wouldn't go cruising often as there is little to see in the way of nature. Ah well, I get to head to LA next, and there is lots to see there, with little of it natural! I can already see the smog from 60 nm north. Marina del Ray next!