time
in Morro Bay instead of Southern California since it's cheaper and a nice
place to be. He's right, we spent several more nights before heading down
the coast. During this time we met Kevin, another yacht club member that
has a dinghy built on the same plans as ours. Since his dinghy had been
damaged we bought his sailing rig. Soon we will be able to sail our dinghy
instead of rowing everywhere we go. The day before we left I was able to
get Mike at the Tug company next door to the Yacht Club to help me out
with some stainless steel work on our boarding ladder. Having all the right
tools, he was able to accomplish in a few minutes what would have taken
me most of a day. Payment: a six pack of Pacifico. Thanks Mike.
A nice day sail down the coast put us in Port San Luis and the small town of Avila. While we didn't go ashore, it was a nice anchorage to rest up in before rounding Point Arguello and Point Conception.
We are now far enough south that we no longer get NOAA weather reports from the Monterey station. The reports now come in from Santa Barbara. We were confused by the lack of anything marine related until we figured out that there are different reports for different folks. Us boating types should tune into 162.475 instead of 162.550 or 162.400 as we had been. Now we are getting marine weather, but in a strange voice that has trouble pronouncing "Patchy morning fog". I finally figured out that they have a computerized voice announcing the weather reports. Effective, but somewhat impersonal. I preferred the sound of a human voice telling me how much wind is going to blow us down the coast.
At 0700 we left Port San Luis and motored
due to lack of winds. It was pretty frustrating since there was pretty
good swell and no wind. Since our electric autopilot had died back up the
coast, we were hand steering until the wind came up. Finally it did and
the sails went up and the Monitor Windvane was engaged. Yeah, no more hand
steering. The wind continued to build as expected, so I dropped the main
and we sailed under jib alone. A 36 foot ketch "Sea Star" was following
us down the coast. As they passed us while going around Point Conception
they inquired over 
the
radio, "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" Ellen replies, "But of
course". So we held out our bottle. They couldn't reach, but we thought
it made a good picture. Point Conception was exciting to round. The wind
was around 25 knots with 9-10 foot following swells. This made for a fast
downwind sail. After rounding the famous point, there is the Cojo anchorage.
It is most useful for boats going up the coast to wait out weather, but
we wanted to stop before heading onto Santa Barbara. Again we anchored
under sail, this time with a lot of wind. Several people have said how
"romantic" our voyage is (usually people unfamiliar with sailing and how
it feels to be covered with salt spray and no shower for three days). Well,
we had a "romantic" evening under lantern-light. That evening Ellen turned
on a light and all the lights in the boat turned off. Ah, the fuse. So
I replaced it, but nothing changed. Finally after the two more tries the
lights turned on. Note: All the fuses I tried were good. Go figure. Later
that evening we turned on the light for the forward cabin. Poof, all the
lights go out again. Well, it's time for bed anyway right? So, guess what
we spent the next two days doing while anchored at Cojo? Yes, that's right
we rewired the whole boat. Started with removing the 28 year old fuse panel
and it's associated jumble of wiring, then installed a new panel made up
of circuit breakers. Then there was the task of bringing each circuit from
the old panel on one side of the boat to the new panel on the other. It
was actually quite fun, and something we had been planning to do for a
while. It is just odd that we did it at Cojo. Ellen is now quite proficient
with wire strippers and terminal crimpers as she did all the work at the
panel as I ran each set of wires up to the panel. Cross another project
off the list.
October
9th
your
hats kids! At Santa Cruz Island, anchorage is found in Little Scorpion
Anchorage in the lee of two large rock outcroppings. This is a beautiful
place that we can't wait to explore by dinghy.
Packed a lunch, water, hiking boots and
us into the dinghy and we were off. Just west of our anchorage is a beach 
to
land on. Of course we found a sea cave on the way and couldn't resist rowing
in. What fun, imagining we were pirates in search of hidden treasure. Yo
ho ho... Once ashore we hike past the old ranch 
buildings
that the park rangers live in and up to Cathedral Point for a wonderful
view of the rest of the Island. We found the camp ground and met Scott
and Greg, two brothers that were taking a vacation together. They were
getting ready to go diving that afternoon. Ellen wanted to see the Cypress
Grove, so we hiked up the other side of the valley and had lunch under
the shade of a tree while looking out on the ocean. On the way back we
went in the sea cave again and found that it exited out the other side
of the point. We paddled all the way through and had so much fun that we
did it again.
October
11th
dock
and gave us a tour of the area. He and his daughter live in the old coast
guard buildings and keep everything running. We took the walking tour of
East Anacapa Island. Inspiration point is a must see as it looks out over
West and 
Middle
Anacapa Islands. (Such descriptive names, eh?) We also got to look over
the cliffs at Cathedral Cove where we wanted to go diving. It was great
to get a bird's eye view for planning purposes. Let's anchor there, then
dive along these two rocks and through the kelp. So we did it. Back out
to the boat and over to Cathedral Cove. This was our first dive from our
boat and it went off without a hitch. Ellen's new gear worked great. We
saw several Garibaldi, the state fish, one large Lobster and a couple of
Sea Lions. What a blast it was to swim in a kelp forest again, looking
up at the canopy that lies on the surface. After the dive we both took
showers and rinsed off the gear before heading around the point to East
Fish Camp Anchorage for the night.
Todd and Ellen Mandeville
S/V "Mandolin" - Cal 34
svmandolin@hotmail.com
www.aljian.com/mandolin
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