Passage from Morro Bay to Ventura, 9-29 to 9-30-2011

Here we go! Bye Bye Morro Bay! Off to Ventura, via Pt, Arguello & Pt. Conception! Hoping all forecasts for calm were correct and they were!

We left at 8:50 am in fog, but not too bad. Probably a mile or two of visibility. The sun came out later in the afternoon. All was calm and the seas were 4-6’. Very pleasant.

We saw a lot of dolphin pods along the way and we had a little stow away turn up in the afternoon. This darling little green birdie hung with us for miles and miles, flying from bow to stern, hanging out in our dinghy and cockpit. He wasn’t afraid of us at all. He stopped a few times to sit with us in the cockpit. See the slide show for all the pics of him.

We got to Pt. Arguello in the late afternoon. Still calm! Came to the 1st of many oil platforms. We noticed that the engine water temp was high, so we had to shut off the engine and check the intake strainer & impeller. Dick found that there was a clog in the intake and cleared it. That seemed to solve the problem, but we maintained a lesser r.p.m on the engine, just in case.

Since the conditions were so mellow, we were able to take 3-hour watches through night and take turns sleeping/resting below on the salon sofa.

We arrived in Ventura Friday morning at about 9:00, so it was a 24-hr passage here. Beautiful weather, sunny skies and light winds. Our sail-maker in the Bay Area called the Ullman Sail-Loft here in Venture and told him we were coming with our damaged sail. So, they were ready for us when we came with our sail.

We went and had a nice lunch and they delivered it back to us in the harbor! Nice!
We lasted until about 5:30 in the evening and both fell asleep for the night.

It is another beautiful day here in Ventura (Sat). We got the sail put back on the boat and put to doing chores. We are going to check out the Ventura Yacht Club later and do some relaxing. We are heading to Catalina Island tomorrow or Monday.