On the day before our departure, we loaded final provisions onto Tradition, our 1981 Pearson Ketch and, after months of preparing the boat and years preparing ourselves, we were ready to start our first great sailing adventure.
|
Comments [0]
We ran out of fresh water on Santa Cruz Island so had to make port somewhere nearby. I had a friend from work who had recently moved to Ventura and was in the process of bringing his vintage Alberg 32 down from Sausalito. Russ and Katie Sullivan also lived in Ventura and invited us to come see their avocado ranch. So off we went to Ventura.
After 2 weeks on the boat it was nice to be tied up to a dock again and not worry about water or power. We each took extra long, extra hot showers and headed to Brophy Brothers for our ritual meal onshore of a cheeseburger and beer. Yum!
We were busy for the couple of days we spent in Ventura. The day we arrived, my friend Kelvin and his partner JC picked us up at the dock and treated us to margaritas and stories of their passage from Sausalito. The next morning we headed out to re-provision and pick up a few spare parts for the boat. Once again, having the folding bikes along proved to be a great idea. We ended up loading over $150 of groceries into the bike baskets and riding several miles back to the boat.
We both really liked Ventura. Over the next couple of days we had an excellent Mexican dinner with Russ and Katie, a great pizza with Kelvin and JC, wandered around the beautiful old town of Ventura, got a tour of the avocado ranch, stopped for lunch at a wonderful Indian restaurant (can you tell that food is a big part of our day ;-) and stocked up at BevMo.
It would have been easy to stay longer but we didn't think we could afford the extra calories. So after a few days we set out for Catalina Island, 65 miles to the Southwest.
|
