We found summer and lo behold it was in Southern California all along!

Wow, when they say that once you pass Point Conception the weather changes they were right. We are now wearing shorts and tshirts. It is not to say we'll never wear long pants again, but this sure feels nice.

We so enjoyed the stay at Monterey, met some nice people who just finished their 2 year Mexico cruise. Julie and Jimmy; Julie gave me a great crab ball recipe that I can't wait to try. We stayed in Monterey 2 days and left around noon on Monday heading south with Port San Luis as our destination. This was to be about an 18 hour sail which was an 18 hour motor ride with of course no to light winds directly on our back. We did have the sail up for a bit but grew tired of it slacking and slapping as the winds would go form 10-0 knots frequently.

Our arrival into Port San Luis was great, the sun was out with light overcast. We found a nice spot to drop the hook next to the Calpoly dock and got settled in for a 12 hour stay. We wanted to time our departure from this point to make our arrival at Point Conception for 7am. Pt. Conception is called the "Cape Horn of the Pacific" and we didn't want to find out if this was an accurate description or not. The weather forecasts was for 10-20 knots winds becoming 10 knots and variable before 3pm and we've heard that at that point the winds builds significantly in the afternoons with building seas. So, with that in mind, we settled in and took naps, bbq'd salmon and had a nice dinner before we raised the anchor. I need to note that the sun did come out and we donned our shorts and I took a nap in the cockpit where it was wonderful! Ahhhh, this is what we've been looking for.

At 9:30 we raised the anchor and followed the trail we left on our chartplotter coming into the harbor back out. It is difficult to see when you are surrounded by shore lights as it ruins your night vision. Give me the black out at sea with no other lights around and my vision is so much clearer. That and our dodger had condensation on it so we had to keep wiping the front plex off. With Scott standing on the bow with his flashlight looking for bouys and crap pots we picked our way back out and Scott took the first shift while I retired down for another nap. As this was going to be an overnighter with our arrival into Santa Barbara planned for 12-1pm.

Round the Cape at 7am and the fog we were in slowly dissipated. The winds that were at our back switched around to a nice reach and we had the jib out. The winds were still light at 5-8 knots so we also had the motor going and were at a low rpm's were making 6.5 knots. The winds continued to drop, of course after we hoisted up the main and had the full jib out, so that after 30 minutes we were bobbing along in glorious sunshine. Once again we are grateful that we have a new engine as this has been more of a trawler cruise than a sail cruise down the coast.

Fighting a bit of a current we arrived in Santa Barbara at 3pm and got a slip for overnight at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club guest dock. Only for one night as they have others coming in so we will have to move slips tomorrow. We are going to go explore, my wonderful husband is going to buy me dinner and then it will be a early turn in as we try to get back on a regular schedule for our 5 day stay here.