{"id":459,"date":"2006-10-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=459"},"modified":"2009-04-15T08:58:12","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T13:58:12","slug":"s_logs-dashew-dashew297","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/s_logs-dashew-dashew297\/","title":{"rendered":"Ventura, California: End of a Summer Romance"},"content":{"rendered":"
End of summer’s travels: Ventura, California.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

We’ve fallen in love with cruising in the high latitudes – but if you’ve been checking in on our travels, you already know that. Even though Alaska is our new favorite cruising grounds, it doesn’t mean we’re going to give up on another favorite, Baja California. We’re both already counting the days until we can head south after the holidays.<\/p>\n

In the meantime we are trying to adapt back to warmer temperatures. Where we used to think a summer evening in Arizona (80F\/27C) called for sweaters, we are now kicking the covers off in 65F (19C) conditions.<\/p>\n

We had hoped for a strong northerly gale on the trip down the coast. These often set up this time of year, if the Pacific high is expanding and a thermal low builds inland. Although we’ve been out in 50+ knots of breeze during sea trials, we’ve not had the pleasure of surfing down large open ocean waves in a real blow with lots of fetch for the seas to build. Sorry to report that the conditions were benign – with the maximum being 30 to 35 knots just north of Point Reyes on one evening, with short, steep seas. We did set a new record for surfing speed of 23.5 knots. But with short waves, the speed going downhill is usually offset by a slowdown climbing up the back of the next wave. For the passage, we averaged our usual 11.25 knots running at 1800 RPM most of the way; this is about 100 RPM slower than what we do in smooth water. Push from the wind, plus some positive current allowed us to maintain our speed with lower fuel burn.<\/p>\n

After rounding Point Arguello or Conception, one can usually count on things kicking up a bit, but on this passage all was quiet. We decided to spend a few days at the Channel Islands to get ourselves in the correct frame of mind for Southern California (although this might not be possible any longer).<\/p>\n

\"porpoise<\/div>\n

A huge pod of porpoises diverted from their lunch to come by and say "hello". Most of these porps were riding our stern wake, on the pressure wave off the stabilizers. Only a few tried for the bow – where the wave is so subdued they can’t get much push.<\/p>\n

\"fog<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

We’ve spent most of the summer in low cloud and rain, so we were happy to find lots of fog out at Cuyler’s Cove on Santa Rosa Island. This is a lovely spot, off the beaten path, with wonderful beaches. We were pleased to see that we had it all to ourselves- considering that just 80 miles from this deserted anchorage lie thousands of boats filling the coves at Catalina Island. OK, so a couple of boats joined us late in the day. But even with company, Cuyler’s is as lovely as many of the anchorages in BC and Alaska.<\/p>\n

\"breeze<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Being in the "jet" which comes off Point Conception, Cuylers can also be windy. We saw 35 to 40 knots – more wind at anchor than anywhere else during the summer. Note the heel on the boat above, and this was during a lull.<\/p>\n

\"full<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

We were honored with a full moon poking its way through the fog overhead. The combination of a moderate gale blowing off the land, fog, and moonlight was just what we needed to end the summer. It is nice to know that we can come back out here any time "civilization" becomes too much.<\/p>\n

\"Channel<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Southern California isn’t particularly well known for its sea life. But it has a surprising abundance. Thousands of pelicans and other sea birds, huge pods of dolphin, and there are even humpback (and reportedly blue) whales – several of which are said to be in residence around the Channel Islands.<\/p>\n

We’re not party animals in the classic sense, but every now and then there is one we really want to make. That’s the reason we returned in mid-September, rather than a month later. The occasion was the 90th birthday party for Stan Dashew (Steve’s dad).<\/p>\n

\"Deerfoot<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

The plan was to surprise him when he was out sailing on Deerfoot ll<\/em>. Using our stealthiest mode, approaching his stern quarter with our bow (so we had minimum visual cross section) we were able to get within a couple of boat lengths before we were discovered.<\/p>\n

Wind Horse<\/em> is bedded down now for the fall in Ventura Harbor. It’s quieter and more pleasant than further south. And our favorite Mexican restaurant, Ruben’s Burritos in Ojai, is just a half an hour away. We’ve got a list of things to fine tune, of course, but maintenance per se is minimal, especially considering the miles under the keel – now in excess of 16,000. Change the oil (a little ahead of schedule as we don’t like the diesels sitting with old oil), flush the water maker with fresh water, wipe down the engine room, change the various heat exchanger zincs, and pump grease into the half dozen grease nipples throughout the boat.<\/p>\n

As part of the engine room cleaning process we do a quick replumb of the saltwater washdown pump. The inlet side is disconnected from the salt water supply and a loose section of hose is inserted, which drops into the low point of the bilge (we have quick disconnect fittings to aid in this process). We then wash the engine room with a concentrated (biodegradable) soap. Once we’ve gone over things with rag and brush, there are about 5 gallons (20 liters) of soapy water swilling around. We turn on the pressure pump and pump this soapy water through a nozzle, squirting it into the areas that are hard to reach by brush. It works really well at loosening dirt (not that there is much dirt in the engine room to begin with). The 5 or so gallons are then pumped back into the bucket, leaving a dry, clean-smelling engine room.<\/p>\n

We’ll be working with our friends at Ventura Harbor Boat Yard this winter, as well as some of the other vendors in the area, on a couple of small projects. A bit of fine tuning and refinement here and there. And then we’ll be off again. <\/p>\n

Four months to go…We’re already dreaming about those lovely anchorages along the Baja California coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

End of summer’s travels: Ventura, California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}