Morro Bay to Santa Barbara overnight

Sea Days 7-8 Morro Bay to Santa Barbara, CA

This morning we paid Kurt and Katie a final visit to see how some of their gear works in the daylight. We said goodbye and took the dinghy back to our boat. We tidied up and then pulled up our anchor and headed to the guest dock to pump out and get other things done. We made a nice landing and tie at the dock. Tim wanted to figure out the tagging system on the anchor chain so he took the chain off the bruce, tossed it overboard to rinse it off and then used a boat hook to bring the end onto the dock. Tim had his cross-fit workout for the day. We have 200 feet of chain and now we know the tagging lengths for anchoring. Yay! We rinsed the dinghy and pulled it up and secured it back on the boat. 

While Tim was working on the chain, I was setting out all our gear for our night sail and setting up easy food for us to eat. It was predicted to be like glass so we were anticipating motor sailing all night. 

All set to go, we headed out of Morro Bay about 1530. We have decided to just get ourselves to San Diego and visit Catalina and the Channel Islands at another time. We were heading to Santa Barbara, a 102 mile trek. The Santa Ana winds were expected to really make the passage trouble if we headed to the islands. Kurt and Katie warned us not to go near the islands if the Santa Anas were blowing. We took the report as an indication to go this direction. The Santa Anas were not predicted for Santa Barbara. 

We used the autopilot the whole night which was very nice. We entered waypoints from the paper charts and tracked our progress. The sun set and we saw the green flash as it left the horizon. What a beautiful night! The sky was clear and the stars began to come out. The moon came up much later so we had just stars. There was a meteor shower and several really big ones came down, one lasted 4 seconds. One thing we hadn’t planned on seeing was all the oil rigs out there with very intense lights that penetrated  for miles, or you might just say created light pollution for us, not to mention the smell of those huge rigs was stifling. 

Around 2200 I took the first sleep shift for 2 hours. When I got up, Tim was so excited! The dolphins had come to play. In the darkness, the bioluminescence from plankton was lit up by the dolphins swimming. They resembled torpedoes in the water and if they came close enough we were able to see their features very clearly including their eyes. It was like a Disney movie with pixie dust everywhere. Tim said "I’m having a blast up here! While you were sleeping I was trying not to wake you with my excitement."

I was up for a while and convinced Tim that he should rest. He laid down for 20 minutes and then checked in on me and laid down again for 20 minutes. While he was sleeping we finally got past the super bright oil derrick and I was able to see the stars. As an Earth Science teacher, we teach about stars. There are a number of them that I learned were pulsars, but I did not know how they were able to see the pulsing. In this darkness on the sea, the pulsing was completely visible! The Milky Way was reflecting off the glassy water. The moon didn’t rise until 0305. This all was simply epic and amazing! Tim came up and was waiting for the dolphins and watching the stars.

I was feeling really tired so I asked Tim if I could sleep again for 2 hours. I slept from about 0400 to 0600. I made some coffee and sent Tim to bed for 2 hours. It was really warming up now. I had to peel off the layers in the cockpit. It was early morning twilight and we were passing by an oil derrick and it made a pretty soft whistling sound in the distance. The sun made its appearance and in the early light an entire stream of dolphins was swimming across the front of our bow off in the distance. More than I could count. I was watching for other ships and boats keeping us on course and things in order.

I noticed the wind filling in and watched it for 15 minutes to see if it would stay. It was enough that I thought I would put the jib out and see if we went any faster. I contemplated how to do it quietly so I didn’t wake Tim with the sound of a spinning winch. I wasn’t sure I could even do it all myself, but the winds were light so I went for it. The winds indicated a close reach so I eased the main sail a bit and then set to unfurling the jib. Success! It was up and flying and we gained a knot of speed. The best part was that Tim did not even stir. I was happily sailing along when another boat hailed me on the radio sending Tim flying out of the cabin, banging his head on the way up top to see what was going on. The lady on the radio thought she was hailing someone she knew. That ticked me off because I was enjoying my freedom of choice and how the sailing part was going even though the motor was still doing most of the work. I wasn’t happy that Tim had his sleep shift interrupted.

Tim took over when his rest shift was done and I made more coffee and breakfast. Since the seas were so calm I was able to clean up the dishes, gear and clothing and tidy up the cabin. We prepared to make our entrance into Santa Barbara Harbor. We called ahead and we had to appear at the transient dock where we would be assigned a slip. We checked in and then had our head (toilet) tested to see if it was leaking or not by flushing dye down it. We motored over to our spot and tied up. This marina was very quiet and clean. After eating a bit of lunch we slept.

Santa Barbara was having a heat wave, it was 97 degrees in the cabin and super hot outside with little breeze. Wow! We were not ready for that. With shore power flowing we used every fan in the cabin. We decided to eat dinner out at the Breakwater because they serve ice cream and I was going to have ice cream for dessert! Tim had fish tacos and I had a Seafood Louie Salad. The breeze was beginning to blow. It was time to head back after a little walk to find the laundry mat. We both took showers to wash away all the sweat. Then I employed the wet towel cooling model. That is wetting a dish towel and laying it on my skin while having a fan blowing on me. We also pulled out my seed bags for massage that can be hot or cold packs. They were in the freezer nice and cold. We were quite exhausted and hit the rack around 2100. Closing out an amazing day!
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Dock Day 3 Santa Barbara, CA

We had the 50 hour engine service done at nearly 100 hours. It was kind of crazy, last week Tim called ahead to a company and said we'd be in on Monday most likely and to call when we were close. Tim called about 9am and left a message. Hours went by and he left another message. Then he called what he thought was the same company as listed on Google, spoke to the guy and coordinated a service. Most diesel mechanics are very busy this time of year and they said what others had, we're booked for 3 weeks solid. Marine Services in Santa Barbara Harbor had a 2-hour window on Tues morning, perfect!. The mechanic was awesome and found some chafing issues that we need to address ASAP. He also checked our impeller to find that it was broken! We are grateful that it was discovered as it is an essential component in our raw water cooling system for the engine. We decided to go shopping for those supplies to make the necessary fixes recommended. It was so very hot today! We started the morning by putting up our boom tent. We have it all figured out now. Every new thing we try is like solving a puzzle to figure out how it’s supposed to work or be set up. I’m very grateful for the curtains! They did an excellent job keep the sun out of the cabin. By keeping the sun out and putting up the boom tent, our boat was MUCH cooler inside. Add the fans and we had some great air flow that made it comfortable. We used my seed packs for ice packs again today.

While Tim was working with the mechanic, I took the red wagon with our laundry and my laptop and walked the mile to the marina laundromat where I spent 2 hours doing 4 wash loads and 3 dry loads followed by folding things. While the loads were in process I used the time to catch up the blog.

The sunshine felt really intense so we used the opportunity to pull out the cushions in the v-berth under our nova foam to air and be heated in the sun and to make sure they were fully dried out as they absorb the condensation and water from the leaks that the microfiber clothes miss.

Shopping was no small feat today. We took a short trolley ride and then walked several miles in search of the items we needed. Still no luck with the batteries for the binoculars! We finally got some fly swatters as flies have been an issue in these fishing ports. We found a Trader Joe’s and refreshed some of our groceries. Then we simply Lyfted back to the marina in an air conditioned car, it was well worth it! Our groceries were fairly heavy. We spent the evening putting laundry away, remaking the bed, cleaning up and getting ready to head out tomorrow morning. Cooler air was filling in and we are hopeful for a great night’s sleep.