In Two Harbors (Catalina), after arriving on Thursday, we stayed at a mooring ball, amid several other boats — even more on Friday and Saturday night. They have a shuttle service, $4 for transport to or from shore. So you don’t really need a dinghy at all, though we did use the dinghy most trips. Suzana took the shuttle to go running one morning, as I wasn’t willing to ferry her to shore in my pajamas.

Two Harbors is so named because there’s a narrow isthmus, with bays on either side. It’s a half mile walk between. Here’s the other side:

And we ran into our new cruising buddies, Bill and Julianne, on Epiphany. We first met them in Monterey, where they approached us thanks to our flying the Baja Ha-ha burgee (flag). They’re doing the Ha-ha as well. Since Monterey, we’ve run into them four times. Their boat is the closest one:

Leaving Two Harbors, we did an overnight to San Diego. On the way out, before dark, we passed Avalon at the other end of Catalina, but didn’t have time to go in and explore.

Overnight, there were several interesting encounters, including an abandoned and dismasted sailboat, a radio exchange with the Coast Guard, an aircraft carrier named “Warship Four”, and the usual dolphins. More on those later if we have the time.

At present, we’re in San Diego at Sun Harbor Marina, a small, very friendly marina. We arrived right on our original schedule (amazing!), on October 15th. Also here are Don and Roz on Ramble On Rose, who we know from back home, and who are also doing the Ha-ha. We’ll stay in this marina until the start of the Ha-ha on the 29th, doing final repairs, preparations, and provisioning.

RAQ (Rarely Asked Questions):

Q: Where do you commonly find clumps of indigenous eel grass in the Channel Islands?

A: In the raw water intake hoses for the engine cooling systems of pleasure craft.

Q: If you start at 6AM, in the dark, and it’s 65 nautical miles to the next port, and the winds are light and variable, and your anchor is doing one knot, how long will it take you to get to your destination?

A: Half an hour to untangle the knotted anchor rode, plus ten hours motoring.

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Finally, going some place during daytime. Finally, sailing, with good wind. Our trip across from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz Island was incredible. We started motoring, since we were meeting our friend Carol there at 3:30, but as the wind picked up, we switched to sails, and were soon moving faster than we had been under power — over eight knots at the peak.

Carol took the ferry to the island, and we picked her up at the dock. Sounds simple. Sounded simple when we talked to the park ranger about doing it. Wasn’t simple. There’s no real place to tie up to the pier at Scorpion Anchorage, just a ladder coming down to where the swell is beating against the pier. Just keeping the boat in place was a challenge. Getting Carol and all her luggage down the ladder safely was even more so. Carol told the ranger at the pier what we were planning, and they said, “Oh. I guess you could do that.”

But it worked, and she joined us as our first house guest of our journey aboard Gardyloo. And she was a great first guest, bringing both enthusiasm and food.

We moved over to Prisoner’s Harbor for the first night. There, on the next day, we got our dinghy together with its new electric outboard. Suzana and Carol were ferried to shore for a short hike, then back again.

The following day, we went out for a sail. But before putting up the sails, we noticed the engine behaving badly. Smoking, swearing, and playing pool. Actually, just smoking, and not putting out as much raw water from the cooling system as usual. A little exploration turned up a clogged raw water intake. And a half hour routing around under the floor, disconnecting hoses (“look, it’s just dribbling water into the bilge”), then poking the wrong tool down the hose (“look, now it’s gushing water into the bilge”), reassembling the hoses, and we were off.

We stopped briefly in Potato Harbor, a really tiny anchorage with cliff walls all around.

Then on back to Scorpion Anchorage for the night.

The following day, we rowed the dinghy (too lazy to get out the outboard again) to shore, some of us getting thoroughly drenched while beaching the dinghy. From there, we hiked up into the hills for a view of Gardyloo at anchor (and of the two ferries):

Back on the boat, we packed up Carol’s remaining stuff (minus all the food we’d eaten and/or she’d donated to our ongoing travels), and dinghied her and her luggage to shore. Amazingly, it got there dry. We must be learning. Carol took off for home, and we stayed the night at Scorpion.

The following morning, we got up very early, leaving at 6AM in the dark, in order to make it a (mostly) daylight sail to Two Harbors on Catalina.

The anchor came up with the chain tied around it in a knot. It took a lot of work and some ingenuity to untangle things enough to bring the anchor aboard. Even then, there was a knot in the chain that will have to be dealt with at Two Harbors. But good enough to move on.

Heading for Two Harbors, we saw another of the Channel Islands, Anacapa, plus a ton of dolphins, some of whom joined the boat for a time, swimming alongside.

In Two Harbors, we tried their unique mooring system (google Catalina mooring). It only took us three tries.

Then we dinghied in to town (with the outboard this time) to have dinner at the only restaurant. This blog entry is being written under the influence of the Mahi special, a glass of Pinot Grigio, and a very good flourless chocolate ganache.

Like the previous two legs, Morro Bay to Santa Barbara was an overnight.

It started out nice and pleasant, with enough wind to sail for a while at the start. There were scattered showers, but light and often avoidable. The lightning came rather later, luckily many miles away on shore.

Unfortunately, as the journey continued, Suzana became reacquainted with her tendency to sea sickness, necessitating an extended nap for recovery and recuperation. But Harry was quite happy on the helm for the interim.

Sometime in the night, a big blob appeared on the radar, approximately the same place where some very bright lights had shown up. Too big for a fishing boat. Too static for a UFO. Eventually, Harry figured out to zoom in on the chart for more details, and realized it was an oil platform. Huge and science fictiony.

Suzana recovered enough to take the wheel and let Harry sleep for a few hours. Followed by another, shorter shift, while Suzana napped again and we approached Santa Barbara.

Just as we started into the Santa Barbara Harbor channel, a big rain started up, drenching us both. Thank god for foul weather gear. But we managed the approach, getting a slip assignment, and docking, finally safe and dry in Santa Barbara.

A bit after securing the boat, we noticed that just across the dock was another (somewhat smaller) Island Packet sailboat. And after a night’s sleep, that Island Packet was joined by yet another one in the adjacent slip. We have yet to see or talk to the owners of either one, but we’re keeping out eyes open.

For this leg again, the ocean was unnaturally flat and, well, Pacific. The first part, in the light, was pleasant and scenic:

Then it got dark and foggy. It’s really weird sliding through the water with no external references. And cold, too.

Not enough wind to sail any portion of it. Motoring, we had to actually slow down in order not to arrive at Morro Bay before dawn.

At Morro Bay, we had a bit of an adventure finding where to dock to check in with the Harbor Master. And once we found it, the “normal” dock seemed a bit small for our boat, so we ended up on a Coast Guard side-tie. They were very friendly, and didn’t mind us using the dock space for a short time while we checked in. But we did get the impression we weren’t really supposed to be there, and they asked some questions which were either very vanilla idle curiosity (where are you from, where are you heading), or check-they’re-not-terrorists pro forma.

At present, we’re on a mooring ball in the anchorage. Here’s our view:

Now we’re both going to take naps…