Girls In-Charge when Storm hits & Our Dinghy’s Final Resting Spot…#17

Excitement is normal when we cruise in the ocean and change locations. Leaving San Francisco on a Thursday morning, a day or two later than we wanted because of the weather. Which reminded us who’s boss…Mother nature! We were excited to have Clark Nelson with us on our trip, just another set of hands is always good, but the best part is we enjoy being with Clark, he is just a joy to travel with and always jumps in to help on anything! Thanks Clark, YOU’RE THE BEST!!

Our plan was to have two stops along the way, North end of Monterey Bay and Morro Bay with our final location Oxnard, Bahia Marina in the Channel Islands. Our first stop was Santa Cruz on the north end of Monterey Bay. We arrived about 4pm with no issues and anchored in the bay. We had dinner and got ready for our early rise the next morning.

We headed out early the next morning for Morro Bay. As we headed down the coast across the miles of Monterey Bay south, the weather was a bit rougher than expected. A decision was made to anchor in the south end of Monterey bay and try again in the morning.

Next morning was much calmer and we headed down to Morro Bay Yacht Club. We had a nice side tie on the guest dock for 1 night. The boys, Dan and Clark, had fun visiting with the club members that helped us tie up. 

We again headed out in the dark of the morning to give us enough time to arrive at Oxnard, Channel Islands Harbor with daylight. We arrived at Bahia Marina Sunday late afternoon with a great slip big enough for our boat.

As Dan and I looked forward to the upcoming weeks we both had different feelings and anticipation.  Dan was going back to Portland to meet up with friends to go hunting, and I was going to have some alone time on the boat. This Girl was NOT spending two weeks alone…. THAT’s for sure. So thank goodness for girlfriends, I might have gone nuts with too much time alone. This was the first time that I was going to stay on the boat by myself and “in charge” of everything for 2 weeks. I’m sure Dan was a bit nervous, but so was I. I needed to paying attention to all the critical boat stuff to make sure my guests and I live comfortably, but also so I don’t ruin something and have a big mess for Dan to clean up when he returns. I needed to pay attention to things like; not running out of water, making sure that the power stays on and our holding tanks don’t overfill. Along with any unexpected items. Which there always is , when living on a boat.

Dan, Clark and I spent a few days visiting with the folks on the 3 live-a-boards that were next to us, learning about the marina, town and the daily dock visitors, the Sea lions. Then early one morning the guys headed to Portland and left me ALONE!

I had a few days before the first group of girls joined me for a long weekend. Molly, Emily & Kylie joined me on Friday night. We had a great day on Saturday in Santa Barbara at a couple wineries. We packed snacks and had a great time with each other and with the town and wineries.

We spent time on the beach and got some great sunset pictures, fun dinners on the boat, played cards, rode bicycles, kayaks, paddle board and lots of laughter! We even found the Sunday Farmers Market and got some fresh fruits and veggies. It was a long time since I had girl time, so it was really nice!

Girls had to leave on Mid-day Monday, I was then alone again, with a storm coming. I had to work on doing some more securing of our lines and closing everything down, all the hatches and portholes and tighten down the canvas so I didn’t have water where it doesn’t belong. When I got up the next morning I was surprised. That was no storm…. They really haven’t lived through a storm until they have lived through one one in the Pacific NW.  Everything looked good except I did have one injury that that needed attention. One of the lines we had as a spring line was rubbing and wearing and it could have caused an issue, so I needed to change the line and direction and stop the wearing and possible breakage. Which I did with no issue. TaDa!

A few days later my sister Julie joined me. She really didn’t know what to expect about life on a boat or what we would be doing. I think I blew her mind with how beautiful it is, so much down time and fun activities.

We visited nearby cities; Malibu, Santa Barbara & Ventura, we had fun dinners out and on the boat, beach time with beautiful sunsets and I took her on her first the wave-runner ride in through the canals and out towards the ocean. We had a great time and we definitely ate way too much ice cream, but it was sure fun!

But the most important activity is Julie cut and colored my hair for me. It looks so much better! Nice of Julie to spend some of her vacation working… but on a special client, her Sis!

After Julie left I had some more alone time before Dan came back. I was really happy to have him back but sure enjoyed my girl time!!!! THANK YOU LADIES, I appreciated your time with me! Hope you had as much fun as I did.

Dan and I planned our next move. I had stayed in Oxnard for 2+ weeks and was really ready to see something new. Our plan was to anchor out at Santa Cruz Island for a couple days and then head to Catalina & San Diego, our final destination before Mexico. BUT first we had to take care of our dinghy.

If you’ve kept up on our blogs, you know we had issues with our dinghy getting a hole (Blog #6, 7 & 8). Dan did a great job fixing it…. BUT it didn’t hold. We finally had to call the insurance company and put in a claim. The adjuster came and assessed it and said we did a good job with our fix. When the claim was processed the dinghy was totaled. So our final resting place for our old dinghy was to recycle her as a trade-in and get a new one. We were able to get one that is a little bit smaller and lighter in weight. The other one was too heavy and actually putting some stress on the ceiling of our boat when we used the crane. So we made more lemonade with our lemons with our new dinghy! We are happy!

If you have noticed, I haven’t written a blog in a few weeks. I took time off while I was with the Girls. I also had some time with no service too. Will try and keep up on my weekly routine.

Next up….. “Channel Island – Santa Cruz, Catalina and San Diego Mexico prep”

Cheers from Angelique