Otters in Morro Bay
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Vickie writes about Santa Barbara & Morro Bay
Morro Bay, CA |
Morro Bay, CA
We arrived in Santa Barbara on December 21st and left on the 26th. Santa Barbara has always been one of my favorite places to stop while traveling up or down the coast. Since San Diego, we had encountered very smooth seas and gentle winds. Getting spoiled! As we entered the harbor on Wednesday afternoon, it started to rain. It didn’t last long, but was a taste of things to come. We parked the boat at the guest dock and walked up to the harbor office to get a slip. After that we moved the boat and started to get settled in. We were tired, so we made dinner on the boat and tucked in early. Thursday we had a wonderful lunch outdoors in the sunshine overlooking the harbor and ocean. Then we spent the afternoon walking all over downtown, looking in shops and searching for a fish market that had live crab. We finally found some at the fifth fish market! We wanted to have crab for Christmas Eve dinner. We ordered it and picked it up on Saturday. Friday it poured all day. They were expecting an inch of rain that day and I’d be surprised if we didn’t get it. No walking for us that day! Instead, we got rides to the laundry mat and grocery store from Uber. Very fast and inexpensive, and we meet interesting people! Good to get laundry and shopping done. Our reward was to go the moves Friday night, by way of Uber, again. We saw the movie “LA LA LAND”. A very entertaining musical comedy, with great acting. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone-always good! Saturday (Christmas Eve), Dennis spent a good part of the day working on replacing the raw water pump for the engine. We had our fresh crab for dinner, with a big salad and sour dough bread. Yum! Sunday, (Christmas Day) Dennis finished the raw water pump. We made an omelette with left over crab for dinner, and had a nice Christmas holiday together. Monday morning we left for Coho anchorage. It was only a 4–5 hour trip. The swells and wind were coming from the south (behind us), and pushed us there faster. It was an easy trip, although the swells were about 5 feet high. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the anchorage we discovered that we could not stay! The swells and waves usually come from the north, making it a good and sheltered anchorage. But when coming from the south, they were not blocked at all! We would have been rocking all night and our anchor would not have held. So we had no choice but to keep going thru part of the night, to Morro Bay. It was our first rough trip since before San Diego and probably colder than we had experienced! But, we pulled into Morro Bay at about 2 am Tuesday morning. Morro Bay is another really nice place to be when on a boat. The harbor is in a lagoon, with a sandy beach and sand dunes on one side, and on the side we tie up on, lots of cute shops and restaurants. We tie up to the Morro Bay Yacht Club dock, and have a great view of “the rock”. There are sea otters and seals swimming all around. The weather here has been sunny and breezy, just a light jacket or sweater required. Today (Wednesday) we walked up the hill about mile to the grocery, to get some odds and ends we ran out of. Then we toured some more shops and had an appetizer and a beer at a pub. Another nice afternoon! We were going to stay here until Friday, but our weather window has opened up for us a day earlier than we thought. Our next stop is San Simeon anchorage. We can see Hearst Castle lit up on the hill above us, if there is no fog. We will make dinner and take a nap when we get there, and leave for Monterey in the middle of night, a 14 hour trip, which should put us there on Friday night. Sounds like a good place to ring in the new year! We’re feeling like we’re getting closer to home. After working for years with a fixed schedule, it is very strange to be at the mercy of the weather and sea conditions. I am learning to relax and enjoy the journey and not so be concerned about the outcome! We are missing you all and looking forward to seeing you when we get home. We will update you in Monterey. Wishing you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! Vickie, Dennis and Zelda