Author: svtrance

Sunday May 10- Happy Mother’s Day! Beth had sent a beautiful orchid that was delivered to the marina yesterday by a local florist!

Morro Bay is a National Estuary with several marine mammals including Sea Otters.

We departed The marina around 11:30am. Traveling about 30 miles we anchored for the night near the Hearst Ranch Winery in San Simeon Bay.

The Hearst Castle was slightly visible from the water, on top of the hill surrounded by fog.

For dinner grilled a pork loin roast, served it with roasted brussel spouts and sweet potatoes.

Monday May 11- The anchor was up by 7am. For breakfast Joy baked a crustless quiche. It had lots of veggies along with some bacon and ham.

Piedras Blancas Light Station

Sailing north up the California coast with a nice southerly breeze with the current!

Big Sur Lighthouse

Our plan was to anchor at Arrowhead Point, holes 6,7 & 8 next to Pebble Beach Golf Course. With a strong south wind of 25 knots true and rolling waves, it was not a good situation to anchor. So we rounded the corner to Monterey and got a slip in a marina.

Saturday May 9

We walked today a little over 3 miles. Stopped at the Blue Sky Bistro for take out. Then we walked to the rock.

Joy purchased a couple of postcards, the shopping process was this, look through store window, call, get price, tell them what denomination of money you are using to pay, the door opens with your items, money exchanged with change.

A Morro is a domed rock, a volcanic plug, remnants of an extinct volcano. This one is 576 ft. tall.

Thanks to Wade and Annie at Morro Bay Landing for donating to us awesome fishing lures and sinkers! Love the extended family support!

Wades fried Joe, Joes Jigs, dropped off these beauties for us too! Thanks Joe!

Thursday May 7- we departed Santa Barbara around noon, arrived at Cojo anchorage at 7:30pm.

For dinner we made Chicken and Vegetable Sauté. Chicken with carrots, broccoli, red onion, lemon zest, Great Northern Beans and Chicken Broth.

After a 2 hour power nap, we were up at 11:30pm for a weather check, pulled up anchor, departed Cojo around 1:30am, arrived in Morro Bay at 1:30pm Friday, May 8.

We’re on the Morro Bay Yacht Club live web cam if watch today or tomorrow! May 8, 9.

My sister in law, Sherry, her sister Annie lives near Morro Bay. Annie and her husband Wade came down to the boat to say hello this afternoon. Always great to visit with family, friends and friends of friends!

For lunch we did take out from Beach Burger locates next to the yacht club.

Tuesday May 5- We walked 6 miles today round trip to provision. With wagon in tow, we’re off to Ralph’s.

Crustless taco pie for dinner with optional toppings of lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, taco sauce and sour cream,

Wednesday May 6- Happy 9th Birthday Alyssa!

Laundry day again, this time we did sheets and towels and whatever else was dirty. Out wagon sure gets a work out! The marina laundromat was open, short walk today.

For dinner we grilled hamburgers, Joy made a coleslaw too.

Sunday May 3- was a very productive day. We sanded the rails on Trance. At one point during the day we left the marina out into the bay and sanded, we were creating lots of dust in the slip.

Monday May 4- teak sealing day!

For dinner I made Loaded Baked Sweet Potatoes. It’s a baked sweet potatoes topped with a black bean, corn, tomato sauce and spices mixture topped with shredded cheese.

Friday May 1-laundry day. We gathered our clothes and towels loaded them in the bags placed them in our wagon, it’s about 3/4 mile walk from our boat to Marina laundromat. Accessible to only to those at the marina. Our gate card gives access. Well, the laundry room was closed for repairs😒. Went back to the boat, tied the wagon to dock, and will try again tomorrow.

For dinner we ordered take out from Sushi Go Go which is next to the marina.

Saturday May 2– the local fishermen were selling fish and shellfish this morning on the dock.

We purchased 3.5 lbs of Spotted Prawns for dinner from Bruce. $20 per pound.

Second attempt at laundry, still closed. Joy and I walked 2.6 miles round trip to a laundromat.

Tuesday April 28- Walking has been our mode of transportation, today was only 3 miles. Went to a West Marine, no indoor shopping, you stop at a table the employee gets the item you pay at the table, credit cards only.

For breakfast I made blueberry scones. The recipe makes 8, mine were smaller in size.

Wednesday April 29- Our friends Robin and Gary are visiting their daughter and her family just north of LA, came down to visit us, it was great to see them!

The text trail went like this: Me: You guys in CA? Robin: Yeah, why? Me: We’re in Santa Barbara. Robin: OMGGGGGG, we’ll be right over!!!! 🙂 Robin: What a great reprieve from our collective COVID-19 isolation . . .

Had Pizza delivered for dinner.

Thursday April 30– boat project day as we wait for our weather window. In general a lazy day.

For dinner we made Taco stuffed pasta shells.

My intent with this blog was to post our activities every day of the journey. Not anticipating long weather delays, or a world pandemic, there have been days with little to write about. This journal is a chronicle of our daily lives and activities. The places we visit, our activities, the food we eat, the people we encounter.

Every tomorrow will be better than the day before.

Monday April 27

Another grocery store run was made today. It was a 6 mile walk round trip. We typically are buying produce.

There are several commercial fishing boats docked close to shore in the marina. You can purchase directly from them too, Joy bought 2 Dungeness crab, cooked them up for dinner.

Movie night, we watched Blow the Man Down on Amazon Prime, made popcorn using the leftover crab butter.

Saturday April 25th – we spent the entire day in the fog. Yes real fog, with little to no wind, as we traveled 59 miles from Redondo Beach to the Channel Islands, Smugglers Cove, the fog lifted as we arrived. Going to anchor here for the night. Tomorrow we’re off to Santa Barbara. Where we’ll wait for a weather window.

For dinner I made Southwest Chipotle Pasta with shredded chicken. One pot meals are the best!

Wind… we’ve experienced a few named wind events on our journey, the Papagayo, the Tehuantepecs, and now just north of Los Angeles is Point Conception, the Cape Horn of the Pacific. There is no specific name for these winds, it’s a combination of wind, waves and current with the islands and mountains, creating a Venturi effect. There is potential for abrupt change in strong north winds while rounding the point.

Sunday April 26th left the island by 7am, arrived in Santa Barbara by noon. Along the way we saw several whales. Finally captured a photo of a tail! We were about 1/4 mile from them.

Joy and I purchased Alaskan Halibut from a local fish market on the waterfront. we grilled it along with bell peppers for dinner.

Friday April 24

Departed Island White by 9am. The plan is sail out a ways away from all this red tide, as we need to make water.

By 5pm we arrived at our destination, Redondo Beach.

For dinner Joy made pasta in Alfredo sauce with sautéed vegetables and chicken sausage.

As we’re sitting in the cockpit after dinner, at anchor, we saw a few boats go by with what looked like lights underneath them. Then we realized it was bioluminescence! The best we’ve seen! The water literally sparkled, when fish swam by they were streaks of light. Dan swirled a deck pole in the water. (be sure to listen to the conversation.) 😃