Santa Barbara, Channel Islands Harbour and Marina Del Rey

We spent a total of three nights in Santa Barbara, one more than planned. As it turned out, there were 7 Canadian flagged boats there. Cathy and I did the rounds to try and find them and eventually caught up with most of them. The snowbirds are moving south! The weather has been pretty good, bouncing between foggy mornings and clear mornings. So far, daytime temps are still between 20-25 C so quite comfortable. Our friends from My Windsong arrived about 2 hours behind us on Monday after a long motor from Monterey. Santa Barbara Harbour is clean, neat, and big! The harbour is split up into 4 "marinas" all managed by the harbour authority. For our 36 ft boat, we paid just over 21 USD per night. So far, rates have been good, compared to Canada. As we move further south, rates will go up. We wandered around town a bit, went to the farmers market Tuesday evening, and I spent some time helping a couple of people out with software and computer "stuff". Everyone we met has been terrific, a couple of boats being single handed down the coast, a couple that have lived aboard for 20 years, a family on a restored schooner from Powell River, more than I remember actually. The cruising part of the journey is taking hold now. We are meeting boats and then meeting them again in different ports. Friendships are made quickly and no one says goodbye, only see you somewhere later. The joy of this is the community that forms and re-forms as people move about. Some are going to Mexico only (probably). Some are heading south and then maybe through the Panama Canal or maybe in to New Zealand and around. Some are going for maybe a year, maybe more, depending on finances. There are few "fancy" boats out here, rather much loved and cared for practical sailboats. Everything from 32 to 48 feet but all home to someone.
We left Santa Barbara Thursday morning to start heading towards Marina Del Rey. We stopped last night in Channel Islands Harbour near Oxnard CA. Another man-made harbour, and again pretty reasonable but getting more expensive. Somehow, we managed to bend a stanchion with a fender going into the dock. Another repair to do in the next wee while. We will be in Marina Del Rey later today (mid afternoon at the current rate). Hopefully we can find a dock somewhere as I have to fly to Toronto on Sunday morning for a week to teach. We will probably get space at the park dock but we can only stay there 7 nights so we need one more night somewhere. Something will turn up!

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