Articles
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Home at last (or nearly so)
October 14, 2008
Homeward bound 
We’re just now coming in through the Golden Gate – home never looked better!
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Day 16
October 11, 2008
Off we go - leaving Port San Luis, heading for San Simeon - about 40
miles up the coast. I'll fill in the last couple of days, spent
waiting out the big winds, after we get underway. -
Days 12 and 13
October 8, 2008
We sailed from SB yesterday morning; was sunny & calm & smooth up to
point conception, then a headwind and big steep waves all night.
Trying to get a nap in the forward berth was like an amusement park
ride, I was catching air when we went over the biggest waves! We got
in to Port San Luis at 5 this morning, just beat and in need of rest
and food. It is incredibly warm, no wind. Will and I just got back
from getting fuel; the Coast Guard brought in a sailboat that got
clobbered today - reports are of 40-knot winds through Saturday! So,
(a) our choice to come up last night looks comparatively good, but (b)
now we have to play it day by day and see if there's a break in the
high winds. We'll definitely be here tonight, though.Coming by Vandenberg air force base (on the coast just south Santa Maria) last night in the dark was interesting - they have numerous space & missile launch complexes all lit up, for miles along an otherwise desolate coast. I had the 10-2am watch, and enjoyed the brilliant stars and bioluminescent bow waves once the half-full moon set.
I woke this morning to find that the yummy organic nectarines I bought fresh in SB, and carefully stowed in the netting slings we use to keep all the produce, were dashed against the wall during the night's adventures and the juice proceeded to drip all over my sleeping bag… Bleah! Seems to have cleaned up nicely though.
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Day 11
October 7, 2008
Took care of chores today, walking many miles in the process… Got my first latte in 12 days (and oh, it was good!) at Red’s cafe. We found a new stainless steel air pot for the boat, to replace the glass one that fell and broke a few days ago; I got some shorts, Alan wanted an iPod, and we experienced full crowd immersion after 11 days of near solitude. We found a laundry that we could drop our stuff off at for $0.75/lb, which sounded like a bargain! After picking up groceries and the laundry, we went to Joe’s for dinner - a wonderfully old-fashioned place that serve traditionally delicious food, suitable for hungry sailor-types.
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Day 10
October 6, 2008
(Note: I re-organized a couple of the posts below – I somehow skipped Day 6, and then numbered the following days wrong. Maybe forgetting what day it is, is the sign of a good trip?)
We sailed from Santa Cruz Island over to Santa Barbara (about 25 nm) under delightful conditions – light wind, brilliant skies, balmy warmth. Had a perfect view of the lovely oil platforms cluttering up the coast… We got in to the Santa Barbara marina around 5, got a slip and tidied up the boat, and got our first showers in many days (oh, that felt sooooo good!) Went to dinner with Bradley. Back to the boat for a nightcap and conversation; we got to bed around 1 am.