511 miles in the books

Course from San Francisco to San Diego in reverse order.
Miles: To-from
41 Oceanside-San Diego
35 Newport-Oceanside
40 Redondo-Newport
48.5 Oxnard-Redondo
33 Santa Barbara-Oxnard
102 Morro Bay-Santa Barbara (overnight)
103 Monterey-Morro Bay (overnight)
23 Santa Cruz-Monterey
45 Half-Moon to Santa Cruz
28 Angel Island - Half Moon Bay
12 Ballena Island-Angel Island

​Total 511 miles

In 12 sea days, we covered 511 miles, though it took us 19 days due to weather holds, recuperation and just time to soak up the local faire. We had to hold for a fair-weather gale in Morro Bay for 4 days, a couple in Santa Cruz and Monterey. We really don't have any crazy sea stories because we waited out the bad weather. If we decided to be on a schedule, we'd have plenty to say and maybe broken gear and injuries. No thanks! 

Sea Day 12 Oceanside to San Diego, CA

Tim and I were both so excited to get going today! We ended up helping a power boater by towing him across the waterway to the docks for the boat launch before getting fuel. We took on about 20.5 gallons of diesel and headed out hopeful for some wind to sail with today. We would love to try out our spinnaker to see if it is going to work for us. We left out about 1030. The sun was hot today, I’m getting itchy from all the sunscreen and then no showering. I do use a wash cloth to scrub down at night, but somehow it just doesn’t seem to be the same affect.

We tried to sail several times, but the wind just wasn’t enough to keep us going. The winds were not from the right direction to try the spinnaker. Once we got down near Point Loma, we encountered an unpleasant surprise! We did not realize that lobster season had started the day before and there were hundreds of traps with nearly invisible bobbers or floats on them. We had to dodge them for several hours. We even went farther off the coastline! It was so unbelievable! We are so very grateful for not getting tangled up in any of them!

All the intense looking and watching in the waves wore us both out. We finally got into the final approach channel for San Diego where there were no longer lobster traps. It seemed like it took forever to get in and see our turn at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse! We decided to get a pump out at the gas dock and a powerboat was there pumping so we circled for 30 minutes! Then the guy finally left and we docked only to find out that it was closed, the pump was off! No pump out tonight! 

Steve and Janny with their dog Gracie were at our slip waiting, waving, cheering and ready to help us tie up. What an amazing way to land in our new home port! We docked at about 1750. After they gave our boat a quick look over to see what we had, Steve and Janny invited us for dinner. We shored up all the dock details and joined them for dinner. It was really nice not to have to cook. Our friends are great company too! We had a great evening.

Everyone wants to know what's next. The goal is to get the boat ready for extended cruising, and for Tim to get his 90 sea days. Currently he's got about 30 and will be doing some sailing instruction at a nearby club. We need to outfit the boat and do some maintenance, brightwork and repairs. Never a dull day on a boat.