As always, we're at the mercy of the weather. Unfortunately, it isn't cooperating for our planned wine-tasting stop at Morro Bay. A low-pressure trough is predicted for this afternoon and tomorrow, bringing southerly winds. Rather than fight winds on the nose, John decided last night that we would stay here in Monterey until they blow past. We now plan to head south again on Saturday.

After a rest on Tuesday, John and Tom got busy with more chores, including changing the filter on the dinghy motor. Yesterday morning John took me for a spin around the bay to check it out. Wow, that dinghy sure goes fast! Unfortunately, it still has the same problem it's had since we bought it. Even if clean fuel and a new filter, it doesn't run properly. Since we're going to be here for a couple of days, John contacted an outboard motor. The mechanic thinks it's a dirty carburetor and can do same-day turnaround on the repair if we bring it to him, so we're renting a car tomorrow in order to take him the motor.

Tuesday evening the Bensons' friends Trace and Jelena came to the boat, and now they're our friends too. They were just back from a bareboat charter in the Virgin Islands. Trace might do part of the Atlantic crossing with us. It's always good to have another sailor aboard. Last night Trace took us to their house for dinner. We had a lot of fun with them and thank the Bensons for the introduction.

I had a nice long bike ride yesterday too. John wanted a couple of wrenches to dedicate to attaching the tow-behind generator (which works great, by the way). John and Tom set out walking to Home Depot on Tuesday, but gave up when they got to the Naval Postgraduate School. I volunteered to go on the bike and to pick up a pot roast at the grocery store while I was at it. Unfortunately, Home Depot didn't have what I wanted, and I didn't see a grocery store on my way there. So I continued on to OSH and found a grocery store across the street from it. I have no idea how far I went, but it took a solid half hour to get back, and that was partly downhill.

When I got back to the boat, we had a quick lunch and then walked to the aquarium. (That was a half-hour walk, so I definitely got my exercise yesterday.) It was fun to see what new things they'd done. We had hoped to replace the Monterey Bay Aquarium tee shirts that we wore out long ago, but they didn't have anything that really appealed. I did get a good book on whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and I'm excited about that.

With the change in plans due to weather, we decided to make some other revisions to our cruising plans. We're still allowing for three days in Morro Bay, but if there's a good window to round Point Conception, we could decide to shorten our stay - and of course, the weather could lengthen it as well. Then, based on what we're learning about southern California, we are simply blocking out time for the Channel Islands and other places in southern California before the time we know we want to be in San Diego for the Baja Ha-Ha festivities.