Today marks our first day in Southern California. We officially made the transition from the cold, stormy Northern waters during the middle of last night, when we rounded Point Arguello, and Point Conception. These two points, about 15 miles apart, establish a firm demarcation line between North and South. Rough vs. calm, gray vs. blue, cold vs. warm.

We finally set out from Morro Bay around 7 pm last night, after having been sequestered there for 5 days due to rough, gray, cold storms up North.
After a blustery few hours heading toward Point Arguello, the winds and swell dropped off significantly around 3:30 am. As the sun rose, and everything was calm, blue and warm, we knew we had crossed that magic line.

The locals, always ones for a party, kicked up their tails for a rousing welcome to their turf (surf?). At one point Nancy estimated she could see over 150 dolphins, all moving in their small pods, on intercept-courses for Meridian. They played in our bow-wave for 2 hours before suddenly disappearing. Perhaps they had another transient ship to welcome?
We are now in Santa Barbara, at a large Marina.

Nancy and I are pretty beat from our watch-schedule, but of course the girls are fired-up. Maybe they can go party with the locals.