Ventura, Sat & Sun, 10-1 & 10-2

As you can see, we had a lovely slip here in Ventura at a wonderful “Baja ha-ha” special rate. We had super nice neighbors, Brian & Suzy, who also live-aboard. They kindly allowed us to use their internet connection while we were here. They are planning to take off cruising one day. Another couple across the way, Bruce & Angie, offered to let us use their car if we needed. They have been cruising from Alaska to Mexico and were heading back to San Francisco currently. All the neighbors were very nice here. We met a nice gal by the name of Mary, whose husband is a pilot. They have a Vagabond 47, beautifully maintained, which is similar to our boat design. They are also planning to take off cruising soon.

Ventura is a VERY busy harbor! We were slipped with our stern to the fairway and saw all kinds of fun & interesting things. This particular weekend the fishing boats had to come in on Friday night, so ordered by the State Fish & Game, to be inspected. So, the harbor was FULL of HUGE commercial fishing boats. This coupled with all the paddle boats, paddle boarders, kayakers, sailors, etc . etc. made for lots to look at.

The harbor has a beautiful “village” built up around it, with lots of shops & restaurants. We took a nice walk around it and visited the Ventura Yacht Club at the far end around the other side. You could see our happy stern from the other side :--). VYC is a lovely club, but we were unable to enjoy it because they were having a wedding reception that afternoon. We ambled back around to our side of the harbor, after a nice Margarita at the Mexican Restaurant. There was a darling little “Boatel” parked there in front of the restaurant. It is actually a B&B (Pics in the slideshow). We then visited the Pierpont Bay Yacht Club. This smaller club was perched on the second story of a stucco building overlooking another end of the harbor. We enjoyed the few folks that were there and a lovely sunset. We had yummy ribs for dinner and decided we’d spend another day there.

Sunday was another busy day in the harbor, complete with live bands all afternoon and evening, and lots of water activities. All the fishing boats were leaving all day long and into the night. Our friends from Quinn’s Lighthouse, Bill & Al, stopped by the boat mid-day to say hi to us on their way to L.A. It was good to see them! Otherwise, we took the day to rest and prepare for the sail to Catalina. It was another beautiful sunset that evening.