05 | Cruising the Channel Islands - Sailing to Mexico

After arriving in San Francisco Bay, we spent some time resting, enjoying the fantastic sailing, and exploring. Ready for me to dump the jib? Yeah, get rid of it. But we were still cold most of the time, so we decided to keep pushing south in search of warmer waters. We're heading to Monterey. Finally got perfect blue skies, about 12 knots of wind on a close reach. It's the best sailing we've had yet. We used the dock in Monterey to repair a gunwale on the dinghy that had been smashed against a wharf in San Francisco. We liked Monterey a lot. It was the first time on our voyage down the coast that the weather was warm. The marina was a reasonable price, and the town had lots of interesting sights, including the famous aquarium. From Monterey, we had an uneventful overnight passage to Port San Luis, within striking distance of Point Conception. This cape marks a change in the direction of the coast, and is the entry point to Southern California. Winds and seas are often very rough near the cape, but once past it, the weather, and the culture, has decidedly changed. So tell me where we are. Rounding Point Conception, motoring in a calm, which is perfect. Oh my gosh, this is incredible. They're all coming towards us. On the offshore side of the Santa Barbara Channel, lie the Northern Channel Islands. We headed for the remote and challenging island of San Miguel. Only three boats were visiting the island, all of them hailing from Seattle. It felt like we had finally arrived in a proper cruising destination. White sand beaches lie at the base of stark cliffs, elephant seals and sea lions bask in the sun, and strange plants struggle to survive on the desert island. We were very impressed by what we found on San Miguel Island. This has to be my favorite place so far. It's a bit of a hike. I was going to do a really nerdy. Okay, carry on with your nerdism. This here is a coreopsis plant. Generation from now, this will be a pygmy forest. So good. Taking a long time to get to this place, but this all used to be sand and desolate after it was overgrazed by sheep and other animals. On the revival. Best interview ever. The short window between gales was closing and we headed out much before we were ready, seeking shelter in Santa Barbara. The wildlife in the Santa Barbara Channel was amazing, and it seemed we could hardly go anywhere without an escort of porpoises. When the storm abated, we headed back out to the islands. Before coming here, we didn't know what to expect, but we found the Northern Channel Islands to be a fantastic cruising ground, full of rugged beauty, lots of wildlife and adventure. The more remote or challenging anchorages were uncrowded, and though there isn't a truly protected cove in the entire group, we found the cruising to be very rewarding. Eventually, we had to leave the wilderness behind and headed to Marina del Rey to pick dad up from the airport. Catalina Island is located offshore from Los Angeles, and consequently is much more developed than the other Channel Islands. The popular spots have vast mooring fields, and I can't imagine what it is like during peak season when every mooring is full. From Catalina Island, we headed to Long Beach, dodging the huge backlog of ships waiting outside the harbor. Long Beach is a busy place, always something going on. We were here to collect the mountain of packages that we had shipped to a friend. Thanks Nancy! We needed to do a few projects to get the boat ready for the next thousand miles of cruising. Thus far, the jib had been hank on, but I found myself out on the end of the bowsprit in the dark of night trying to wrestle it down one too many times, so I bought a used roller furler and parts to modify the sail. Cutting the luff off of my very expensive jib was a nerve-wracking point of no return. It took me nearly a week of working on the dock, but eventually the new roller furler was installed, and the jib modified with a new luff tape and a UV cover. We headed down the coast on an easy series of day sails to Newport, Dana Point, Mission Bay, and finally San Diego Harbor. We had been within sight of Canada when we started this journey, and now we were within sight of Mexico. The U.S. west coast had some challenging conditions, amazing wildlife, unexpectedly good cruising grounds, and it provided our first offshore voyaging experience. So far, we were loving it, and ready to keep heading south on the next adventure. We had a new goal now, sailing the Sea of Cortez, some 750 nautical miles farther down the west coast of Baja, California. Ready? Yep! Cool pits here. Goodbye San Diego! But more about that next time.