Later that day, we were treated to a whale breaching (no picture :() and sea lions thermoregulating with their flippers in the air near the oil platforms near Santa Barbara. We were also able to sneak around the sleeping giant (Point Conception) around noon in winds less than 5 knots and flat seas! Our fishing luck has not improved- we find kelp in abundance and periodically snag it with fishing lines. We also stop the boat and put it in reverse every day to remove speed killing kelp from the keel and rudder.

Because the seas were smooth we were able to stand longer watches. Miya had her own 2-hr watch during the day where she would be in charge of keeping an eye out for traffic both visually as well as on radar and record and plot hourly positions on the chart. Kirk and I found ourselves up for up to 5 hours at night and were able to watch movies and play computer games in our cocoon at the nav station. We relied heavily on the radar to help us "see" nearby traffic. Visibility was often less than 1 mile. The good thing is that we're only traveling at about 7 knots so you have time to react. Off watch, I would sleep, cook, sleep, read, try to coerce the kids to do school in the flat conditions, sleep....