Southern California

Up at 0430 to catch the tide -- why is it always so early? -- we cast off and motor out from Alameda towards the Golden Gate.  Luck is with us; there's no fog this morning, so the stress level is way down.  There's more wind than I would like, right on the nose, but it's not a problem until we're outside the Gate where we start struggling upwind and up swell.  After an hour of smashing our way unpleasantly upwind, we're far enough out to raise sail and bear off to the south.

The run down to Santa Barbara was a mixed bag.  Unlike the previous leg, we had wind the whole way.  The two daylight periods gave us extraordinary sailing, but the two nights were not exactly restful.  Luck stayed with us concerning fog, though.  Except for the last half of the second night, visibility was good.  Approaching Point Conception we ran into pea soup for a number of hours, but that burned off just as we were closing the point, giving us a magnificent view of the bold, rocky coast.

Point Conception is a divide for weather patterns, and the most amazing thing happens when rounding it.  The weather gods turn the fan off and the heat lamp on, and you can't strip the foulies and longies off fast enough.  You go from cold, windy sailing, often in the fog, to motoring on a flat sunny sea in just minutes.  The abrupt transition is almost jarring.

So, we got into Santa Barbara late yesterday.  Today, we rinsed the sails, washed the boat, did laundry, and said goodbye to Matt.  Tomorrow, we'll day sail over to Ventura where Mintaka will hang out until late October.  We will also have the pleasure there of meeting up with some cruiser friends, Brian and Lisa of the boat Glide, who have just finished a circumnavigation.  We met them way back in Mexico, sailed with them off and on across the Pacific, and hung out with them in New Zealand until they sailed on westward.