Monday, October 10
South of Port San Luis the coast of California bends to the east, rounding Points Arguello and Conception, notorious for nasty conditions in a blow. Charlie had been worrying a bit and wanted to take the turn when the weather was stable. Favorable northwesterlies, 25 knots, had been blowing every day and were forecast to continue. Figuring we’d sail the 75 miles to San Miguel Island in time to anchor in daylight, we took off at 4 a.m. in hopes that the rounding wouldn’t be tough. Of course we ended up with a double reefed main and half the jib for most of the trip. Unfortunately dense fog diminished our enjoyment of the scenery, entirely obscuring views of “Irene” our first oil rig!
As actual wind speeds of over 30 brought us to within 12 miles of Cuyler Harbor an hour ahead of schedule, our feet got colder and colder. Anchoring in foggy, unknown and possibly poorly protected conditions seemed unwise. Luckily the cautious skipper du jour, Charles, made the call to change course. We jibed over to a fast beam reach headed for the mainland.
It seemed that within a few minutes of re-entering the shipping lanes in Santa Barbara Channel the weather warmed, the fog cleared, angels began to sing and we discovered for dinner a very tasty packet of Indian curry that required us only to boil water. The only disconcerting element turned up close to shore where we powered into oily water. It actually smelled quite strong. Later we learned that just north of Santa Barbara the Coal Oil Point area has oil seeps. There was no room in the marina but with the big bright moon anchoring outside Sterns Wharf was no problem.
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