We’ve arrived in sunny southern California rounding Pt Conception at about 10:00 am and arriving to Santa Barbara at 6:00 pm—or in boat speak 1800. Did I say sunny California? Wrong, they are having an unseasonable cloudy spell which isn’t supposed to clear up until Thursday so we’ll just have to wait a bit longer for the sunshine!

Departing San Luis Obispo Bay at 2:00am in the morning the skies had cleared of fog and we had a beautiful sky blanketed with stars and a shooting stars light show. It was a nice way to start the trip. Unfortunately at about 6:30 am the fog engulfed us and I only saw a glimpse of sunshine for about 5 minutes the entire rest of the day. The fog was thick until we went past ‘The Point’ and on into Santa Barbara Channel where we were able to at least see the shore side and the lovely oil rigs most of the time. There were a few occasions that dolphins came to play in our wake—at one point while I was down in the galley Kevin said there were about 20 of them. Of course he has also told me he has seen a whale and halibut while I wasn’t on deck too so I’m not sure if I believe him.
After anchoring in Santa Barbara I was starting to fix dinner and was hearing a crackling noise. I thought it was something to do with the propane line until I listened towards the bow and heard it there as well. When Kevin came down he started pulling up floor boards, uncovering locker lids, etc to see if he could discover what it was and finally decided that it had to be something in the water. Still a little worried (yes, me worried about something) I looked on the internet and found that the noise is from sea critters—depending on what you read it can be anything from shrimp to popcorn crap to snapping crap. One post referenced Rice Krispies and Snap, Crackle, and Pop which is just what it sounds like—a big bowl of cereal! From what I read it is just one of many sounds we’ll be hearing through the hull in the warmer waters.

We spent a day exploring the older section of Santa Barbara which consists of of restaurants and specialty shops. Bonnie was craving pizza so we had lunch in a California Pizza Restaurant. It did not really help her cravings though because she really wanted Pizza Hut Pizza. You just can't beat their crust. Back on the boat we spent another night listening to sea creatures eat other sea creatures before departing for Ventura in the morning. Another day of motoring in dead calm brought us to Ventura Yacht Club in Ventura Harbor. They have reciprocal mooring for other yacht clubs so we get to stay here for 3 days for free. On Tuesday nights the club has a pot luck which we were invited to. We got to eat some delicious food while meeting friendly cruisers.

We plan on leaving tomorrow to head down to Redondo Beach. They have a yacht club there that is affiliated with Ventura Yacht club so were hoping we can stay there for a couple of days.