Ahoy mates:

It occurred to me that I didn’t put any dates on our first e-mail.  We left Emeryville the morning of Wed., Sept. 20, arriving in Half Moon Bay that afternoon; into Monterey Bay Thurs., Sept. 21 for two nights and leaving for Stillwater Cove Sat., Sept. 23; leaving Stillwater the next morning at 5 a.m. for our trip to Morro Bay and staying there until Tues., Sept. 26 when we moved on to Port San Luis (Avila Beach) for one night on the anchor just off shore of our first home as a couple.  After dinner of shrimp scampi, the kelp rock fish Paul caught, asparagus and linguini with parmesan, we were in bed by 8:15.  Seems like bedtime for Bonzo comes a lot earlier than it used to back in Fair Oaks.

Attached photos show us at anchor in Stillwater Cove with Marilyn raising wine glass; leaving Morro Bay; leaving Avila Beach at 3 a.m. for the trip to Santa Barbara; Marilyn & Paul looking like dough boys as we approach Pt. Conception; rounding Pt. Conception; dolphins in our bow wake; dinner at Chuck’s Steak House in Santa Barbara; Ventura; on Renegade with Chris & Robyn of Robyn’s Nest enjoying wine and puu-puus; Catalina Harbor; Isthmus Harbor Pier during Buccaneer Days; cast of characters; and Isthmus Harbor overlook.

Wed., Sept. 27 came awful early when we crawled out of bed at 2:20 a.m., downed some coffee and left by 3 a.m. for the 15 hr. trip around Pt. Arguello and Pt. Conception (aka infamously the Cape Horn of California).  We rounded Conception at 10 a.m. under very benign conditions.  As you can see from the attached photos, Paul and I were certainly dressed for the occasion (look like a couple of dough boys).  Ah—shortly after that I stripped off half my clothes as I began to enjoy the “distinct change in the weather” from NorCal to SoCal.  Motor sailing along the Santa Barbara channel we saw a few oil platforms and occasionally streams and/or blobs of oil floating along which seeps upward from natural fissures in the sea floor.

I pointed out to Paul a couple of dolphins swimming along with us off our starboard beam.  Paul yelled at me to go forward to the bow and soon they and several others swam up to our bow and we watched them ride our bow wake for several minutes.  So neat!

We continued on to Santa Barbara Harbor and took a transient slip out in the Back Forty.  Ran into our friends Ed and Sandy who we met in Monterey and who are also Ha-Ha participants.  We took care of a few errands in SB, including grocery shopping, which has to be carefully planned since we don’t have a car.  Luckily there was a bus running from the wharf to downtown for only 25 cents a ride, so we were off with our handy dandy fold up cart.  Later we had dinner at Chuck’s Steak House overlooking the harbor.  What a gorgeous evening and great view of yachts, ocean, mountains and lots of palm trees.

Friday, Sept. 29 saw us off to Ventura where several hours later we tied up in front of our friends and fellow Ha-Ha’ers Chris and Robyn aboard Robyn’s Nest and stayed there until Mon., Oct. 2.  We had planned to leave Ventura for the trip to Santa Catalina, but shortly after leaving the harbor we discovered that our mainsail traveler was shearing off.  So, decisions, decisions.  Santa Catalina had to, for now, remain the ever mysterious island.  We continued on to Marina del Rey (billed as the largest marina complex in the U.S.) in the hope we could get parts for the traveler.  Once in our transient slip, we hotfooted it to West Marine (fugitaboutit) and then to a boat yard.  Bottom line, if we wanted same as we have (Lewmar, in the UK) it’ll be the end of November.  So-o-o, we’ve ordered an entire Harken traveler system.  Paul installed the new traveller on Thurs. and we departed MDR Fri., Oct. 6 for Catalina Island.  Gosh, we're going to make it to our island destination just in time for Buccaneer Days.  Ar-r-r-r.

And so we did arrive in Catalina Harbor Fri. afternoon just in time for the opening of pirate festivities along with several other Ha-Ha'ers.  Met several other cruising couples participating in the Ha-Ha.  Friday afternoon we headed in to see what was happening and ended up at Banning B&B for a social hour with wine and finger foods.  Saturday we dinghied ashore to make the rounds and check out the action.  Lots of pirates—some dressed very well and others hardly dressed at all.  After a couple of rounds, listening to the band and people watching, we headed over to enjoy wine and puu-puus aboard Raptor Dance with several other cruising couples and had a great time.  Today, Sun. Oct. 8 we're at the cafe for lunch and free WiFi service.  Tomorrow we plan to head out of Catalina Harbor (our home for the  last few nights) and work around the island to Avalon and on to San Diego.—Ar-r-r-h,  Paul & Marilyn