Surf's UP! Gallery Photos (see more photos from Surf's UP post here)


So-long Santa Barbara...it's been real.

If everybody had an ocean.
Across the U. S. A.
Then everybody'd be surfin'.
Like Californi-a....
You'd catch 'em surfin' at Del Mar.
Ventura County line.
All over Manhattan.
Redondo Beach L. A.....


Just like the Beach Boys song, we've been hitting a lot of the surf capitals of the world on this leg of our journey through SoCal. We just never thought we'd actually be hanging 10 on Due West!

After our quick road-trip to the Southwest to visit Heidi's parents, we headed back to Santa Barbara intending to leave the next day for ports south. However, Zeus/Jupiter had other plans for us, as a SCA (Small Craft Advisory) and then Gale Warning raged on for 4-days preventing us from leaving Santa Barbara Harbor. Normally after you've stayed at Santa Barbara Harbor for more than 14-days, they start to charge you double-rates per night. This is because they don't want to encourage riffraff to stay there!

At any-rate, due to the SCA/Gale-warning preventing us from leaving this lovely bureaucratic harbor, they actually waved the double-fee moorage for those nights until the winds died, the seas calmed, and we were able to head south. While we really enjoyed meeting new friends Jolie and Scott, seeing old friends Rod and Steve, and family Sam and Matt... Heidi's ol' home-town of Santa Barbara wasn't the place she thought it would be. "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, do this, don't do that, can't cha read the sign..." Just goes to show you, you can never go back...On the plus side, the marina did offer garbage and recycling at every finger pier on the dock, which was very handy, and the views of the palm trees and beach can't be beat.

On Monday before we left Santa Barbara we had ordered a bunch of parts for our water maker installation from West Marine at the harbor. They had guaranteed everything would be in the next day...well, some snafu in the warehouse and they didn't arrive. But our weather window had arrived and we couldn't stay an extra day at these exorbitant rates, what to do? Luckily for us, our old friend Steve who we'd rafted the Grand Canyon with 10 years ago offered to pick them up the next day and drive them to Oxnard for us, about 45 minutes away.

So on Wednesday, December 16, we headed out at 0700 for Channel Islands Harbor at Oxnard, about 5 hours away. The motor to Oxnard was pretty uneventful, not even enough wind to motor sail after the gale blew through two days before. The most exciting thing was getting 5-Horns from an oil platform!? For those of you non sailors, getting a blast of 5-Horns technically means "I don't understand your intention", but practically speaking, it means "GET OUT OF MY WAY, I have rights of the road and tonnage on my side!" Since this oil platform wasn't able to be self-propelled, we're not sure why they gave us 5-Horns. We stayed the required 200-yards away as we passed between two of them. Odd.


This guy gave us 5-Horns!?

As we pulled into the Channel Islands Harbor, there were Steve and his wife Robin waving us in. How fun! BIG HUGE THANKS to Steve & Robin for bringing us our West Marine order, plus a CUTE little driftwood Santa Clause ornament that Robin had made for us.

One of the nice things about belonging to a yacht club is taking advantage of reciprocal privileges as you cruise. Different clubs offer different amenities, some offer free moorage, others offer the use of the clubhouse for meals, showers, etc. We joined Lahaina Yacht Club (LYC) in Maui when we raced Vic-Maui in 1996 and have remained members ever since. Luckily for us, LYC offers some of the best reciprocal opportunities in the world. At Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club in Oxnard, we were able to stay free for 2 nights (could have stayed for 3), and take advantage of their lovely facility including: swimming pool, hot tub, restaurant, bar, and showers. VERY nice! And everywhere in California, be it marina or Yacht Club, has FREE showers?! Here where they have a water shortage showers are free? In the Pacific NorthWET where there is no shortage of water, every place charges for showers... go figure.


Sunset on Hollywood Beach, the two little lights in the distance are oil rigs.


Kirk working on solar panel installation.

We planned to stay in Oxnard two nights to take advantage of free moorage while working on boat projects (Kirk) and business (Heidi). Our friends Maryalice & Rick were just here two nights before us, and raved about Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club, and Hollywood Beach. So we headed there to catch a fabulous sunset, then had a drink at the yacht club on the way back. The next day we both worked all day, and Kirk got the two additional solar panels ready to mount before we headed out for dinner at The Italian Job, a delicious Italian restaurant across the parking lot from the YC that was very gluten-free friendly for Heidi!! ☺


Heading out of Channel Islands Harbor early morning.

Friday morning we headed out of Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard at 0700, stopping for fuel on the way out. We burn about 1 gallon of diesel an hour traveling at 6-7kts/hour (about 7-8 miles/hr), and carry 120 gallons of fuel for a capacity of about 700 miles. With all of the motoring we've been doing on this trip so far it was time to re-fuel. Remind us, WHEN do we get to sail again?!?


Beautiful mural of marine mammals fill the wall of the Redondo Power Plant.

Another uneventful day motor-sailing to King Harbor, Redondo Beach, not enough wind to sail and get there in daylight. (Big thanks Rod and Steve for the tips on staying here instead of Newport.) We stayed at King Harbor Yacht Club for the night, saw another beautiful California sunset on Redondo Beach, and went out for gluten-free pizza for dinner, as Heidi is realizing her opportunities for GF Pizza may be rapidly dwindling as we approach Mexico and beyond. After dinner we stopped by the YC to check out their live band, have a drink, and say hello. The Yacht Clubs really appreciate reciprocal guests visiting their restaurant and bar. Since the moorage is free, this is one way they can make a few bucks, and we can show our appreciation for the opportunity to stay. It's a win-win!


Redondo Beach Sunset.

One more up-early and off the dock by 0700 Saturday morning, headed to Dana Point for the night, before an afternoon storm was approaching. This time we had enough wind to motor sail with the mainsail really drawing and helping us along.


Port of Long Beach through the smog...

This leg of the trip took us straight across the vessel traffic shipping lanes into and out of Long Beach port, the busiest port on the West Coast. There were lots of ships and ferries and boats of all sizes going in and out, but it all went smoothly, and nothing we had to dodge. Sadly, the air pollution around L.A. was noticeably bad.


Sea lions sunning themselves several miles offshore...

Cool animal sightings of the day (finally we have some!):
The highlight of the day were Humpback whales (maybe just one, following us?!) a few hundred yards to starboard, whale spouts and backs were all we saw. Then, just as we were getting ready to take the main down and approach Dana Point, a Pacific White-sided Dolphin LEAPT right off our port quarter and almost into the cockpit! Not really... but it was VERY close, and very cool!! We also saw lots of California sea lions sunning themselves, a few miles off shore.


Dana Point Harbor.

We planed to anchor out at Dana Point because the Yacht Clubs there don't offer reciprocity, and the harbor guest slips were full for their holiday lighted boat parade, which turned out to be on Saturday night. Interestingly, you must call the Harbor Master to get permission to anchor, and then are not allowed OFF your boat at all!?! Can't quite figure that one out...?? At any rate, it started to pour rain, and gust wind shortly after we had our hook down, so we didn't plan to go ashore anyway.


Dana Point Lighted Christmas Ship Parade.

It was great to be on the hook again after staying in marinas since the Bay Area. The furbies, Tosh & Tikka, really LOVE being at anchor, because then they can have free range of the boat inside and out. If we are at the dock, they only get supervised outside time as one little black-and-white girl who shall remain nameless, has a propensity to hop onto the dock if no one is watching her!


The furbies Tosh & Tikka love being at anchor. Here they are chasing a fruit fly!

Several boats anchored too close to us to watch the boat parade in the pouring rain and gusting wind...reminding us of being in the Aquatic Park for Fleet Week! We were SO glad to have our trusty Rocna anchor holding us tight. Kirk asked a few of them to move because they were too close and one possibly ON our anchor. They all refused to move and said things would be just fine.

Suddenly, about 2100 (9pm), we heard a loud bow thruster at full-throttle, and looked out our port light to see a 50' sailboat inches away, careening down the side of our boat, narrowly missing taking out our stations and lifelines, as they dragged anchor. It was of the guys who Kirk had asked to move earlier...luckily there was no contact, no damage. Why the "lemmings" always anchor where you are is beyond us! The weather called for gusty conditions all night and another SCA until 10am. Lucky us! Fortunately the wind subsided over night, although the seas were sill large, we couldn't see that from inside the breakwater, so we decided to head out.

Up at 0700 this morning again, to head to Oceanside, 25 miles away, we had the notorious big rollers on our beam again, and couldn't change course to make things more comfortable, because we had to avoid a military operations zone that was right on our path, forcing us around and then back in down the coast.

So far SoCal has not lived up to its name in the warmth department...Heidi is still wearing layers of smart-wool, fleece, and down under her full foul weather gear (see photo at top!), just like back home in Seattle. This was NOT in the brochure! Presumably one day down the way, we'll be able to pack up our wool, fleece, and down? Jim and Frosty both say it will be past Cabo...In the mean time we're very thankful that we have them.

Our friends Maryalice & Rick who were nearly rolled by a big wave entering Oceanside a few days ago, cautioned us that the entrance can be very treacherous. Our cruising guide said the same thing. And all day long we watched the big rollers tossing us around, knowing we'd have to contend with them again as they stacked up in the harbor entrance at Oceanside...

Scariest. Harbor. Entrance. Yet. Surfed a 12' breaking wave in through the breakwater and had to yell at 3 surfers to move out of our way!?!? Heidi was so glad that for once, she was not driving; Kirk could HAVE the helm for this one! Luckily Kirk has LOTS of ocean experience driving in big waves. So he steered Due West up into the wave until he felt the bow wanting to round up, then he steered down hard until he felt the wave pass under us, and then he steered back up to get on course again and INTO the channel not onto the breakwater where the wave wanted to take us. If he'd steered down earlier it would have surfed us right into the other breakwater. We wondered how many boats have been pushed up onto the breakwater at this entrance.

Definitely got our shot of adrenaline for the week and then some... \Heidi only wished she'd had the presence of mind to take a photo of that huge green room towering over our bimini, instead of hanging on for dear life. Next time...All's well that ends well. Now to get out of here on Tuesday morning will be another good trick. Where else do you have surfers surfing IN the harbor channel entrance?!? Ironically one surfer was pissed that we stole his BIG wave...CRAZY!


Sunset from Oceanside Yacht Club.

We're now tied up at the Oceanside Yacht Club for another 2 nights of free moorage. This club has the nicest people we've met yet, very friendly and lots of nice live-aboards on their YC dock too. Stopped in for a drink at the bar and to do laundry, and saw the Seahawks WIN!! Go Hawks!! Watched another amazing sunset tonight. If the weather forecast holds, we'll get out of here EARLY Tuesday morning for San Deigo, before the next front sets in. Otherwise, we may be spending Christmas right here...


Happy Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!