Escaping Oxnard

When I was leaving Morro Bay and looking for my next destination I first considered Santa Barbara, but the marina there was starting to undergo construction and didn't have room for me.  Then I considered Ventura, but the marina that had space available seemed pricey.  My third option was Oxnard, but I didn't think that I would stay very long if I choose this harbor as it didn't seem that there was very much here.

When I arrived and walked up to the marina office, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi, I'd like to stay in your marina for 3 or 4 days.
Them: That's like no problem! Welcome to Oxnard! You can definitely stay for 3 or 4 days, but you have to be gone within 30 days.
Me: 30 days! Woah. That's no problem, as I said, I'll be gone pretty quickly
Them: That's like awesome! Its just that you can't stay longer than 30 days. Have a great stay!
Me: 30 Days?!

Or something like that...  I was chuckling inside about the 30 day limit.  I just didn't see that there was very much to do here.  Tomorrow I'll have been here 14 days.  I had no idea I would have been here so long.

When arriving at a new harbor I try to find as much information about the area from different sources and plan my activities.  I quickly got access to wireless ($20/week, $30/month) and googled around for things to do here.  The swimming pool was far away, that was out. There was a small museum close by.  There were what sounded like a market down the road a little and a bunch of restaurants within walking distance.  There was a West Marine about a mile away.

So on day two, I walked to West Marine to buy some more zinc's and a few other things.  The walk to West Marine took me past the 'Market' and the restaurants I had read about.  The market was a food court with a general fish theme, a little run down.  The restaurants were mostly there, some were closed down.  It seemed quiet, not very much activity around.  Most of the retail building areas had chunks of closed down shops and 'For Lease' signs.  After day two, it seemed like my 3 or 4 day estimate was going to work out.

However, since there wasn't very much to visit or explore and the place seemed pleasant enough, I started to keep myself busy by working on my pending list of boat projects.  Luckness' hull hadn't been waxed since February and the topsides hadn't been waxed in much longer than that.  The non-skid decks had never really been waxed and I had a special wax-like product which was meant for non-skid decks.  There were also a bunch of other things that could use attention.  So I started into boat projects.

After a couple of windy days, the remaining days were beautiful.  Big blue skies, temperatures in the mid 70's or 80's.  Not very many insects flying around getting on your nerves (unlike some of my previous stays.)  I quickly fell into a pattern of getting up at the crack of dawn (9 am) and starting work at around 11am.  Then I would get out of the sun and surf the web for an hour around lunchtime, then get back to work. I would quit around 4:30 or 5pm so I could stroll over to a pub and have a couple of beers at happy hour.  I found two local restaurants that had decent beer and patio's so you could enjoy a bit of sun and watch the water for a while.  It was pretty nice.

The waxing was finished by Monday the 10th and had involved a few trips to West Marine to buy a new non-skid wax (Woody Wax) as the one I had ran out.  The Woody Wax seems to be a superior product, I started with Aurora Sure Step.  Anyway, with the waxing finished, I started a new pattern: pick a new boat project, stop in at the marina office and tell them that I would be leaving in two days, work on project, head over to pub for beer followed by dinner which pretty much was a wrap of the day.  I told the office I would be leaving by Tuesday the 11th.  Then by Thursday the 13th.  Then by Saturday the 15th.  I spoke with them yesterday saying I would be gone by Monday the 17th, tomorrow.  This time I might actually leave.  I've finished stowing the dingy on the deck, I have rerun all the sheets and have done what I hope is my final laundry and provisioning.  The other thing is that I finished all of my boat projects a few days ago.  I'll say that again.

I've finished all of my boat projects.  My boat project list is empty.  There are no known pending boat projects left.

For those of you who don't work on boats or around boats, never mind, carry on.  For everybody else: !! This 'empty project list' statement is true as of Sunday Oct 16th, 7:20pm.  I imagine this statement will have a short life.  But its true now and feels pretty good.  Since buying this boat there has always been a long list of things I wanted to do on her.  Things to install, modify, fix and maintain.  But no more.  I had doubts that it would ever be done!  This is not to say I couldn't find things to do, but there is nothing pressing.  For example, I'd like to add an AIS transceiver eventually, but not this year.  There are a few more things in that vein.

The things I worked on while I was here: had the zinc's replaced by a local diver, they both needed it; waxed hull, topsides and non-skid; re-attached the strong track which had slipped (*); applied sail-kote to strong track while climbing the mast and inspecting everything; replaced missing zip ties on anchor rode; replaced bow roller with a new one which may stop chain from twisting as its raised, this is an experiment; replaced most of the u-bolts on the boards I had attached to the stanchions to hold the gerry jugs on as they were rusting horribly, the new ones are definitely stainless steel; lubed various things that needed it; weighted my main propane tank (8lbs left from 20 in the main tank in addition to my secondary 10lb tank); clean out fridge as it had started to smell;  buy fuel and gas; fill water tank; go over engine; attach my nylon boarding ladder to port side; flush dingy engine with fresh water, trying to avoid salt buildup.  Nothing really major in that list.

The (*)'d item isn't really a permanent fix - the Strong Track has slipped before and the last time Terry (of YachtFitters fame) suggested that he drill/tap the mast and put a screw through the track to hold it in place.  That would have been a good idea.  However I thought re-attaching it would be ok and that's what I did.  After it slipped again on this trip, which was just before pulling into Oxnard, I thought I would drill/tap the mast but have again simply re-attached it.  It seems to be holding very securely this time...  If it slips again I'll do as Terry suggested, finally.


Looking back at my time here I'm having trouble summing up this place.  I loved Monterey.  Morro Bay was pretty interesting.  They are both real cities.  Oxnard is a little like the suburbs on water, or at least this is true of the parts I've seen - the parts you can get to easily from the marina.  Things are pretty spread out here, there is no real central hub that I can see.  But the thing is...living here is pretty easy.  Once I stopped walking to the distant destinations and starting using my dingy as my car, my experience improved.  Scooting around by water at four and a half knots and going to the local grocery store, pizza places, West Marine or donut shop the place seemed more interesting.  Going somewhere by water is superior to arriving in any other way, it changes the experience for the better, in my humble opinion.

So while I can't pinpoint what's good about this area, it does seem pretty good.  There is a local beach which goes for miles and is beautiful sand.  There is a beach bar 10min from the marina which is pleasant enough.  The food and beer are ok.  There is easy enough access to a Von's (Safeway's) for provisioning.  I'm not sure that I would come back to Oxnard, but if you find yourself here its an easy enough place to live in.

Here are a few photos:

Channel Island Harbor.  Entrance on bottom, beach on left.  Its a marine version of the suburbs.

A view from the dingy down the main street.

A side 'street'

On the way to Von's

Luckness in her slip.  Lots of empty spaces around.

I've decided to not go back to Port Townsend for a seminar I had signed up for at the end of October.  With that cancelled, I have no schedule pressure at all.  The America's Cup World Series is in San Diego in mid November, and I may be around San Diego for that.  Aside from the possibility of watching the AC45's race, and a general idea that I'll spend time in the Channel Islands, I have no more detail for my plans.  I had originally thought that I would follow the Baja Ha Ha fleet down to Mexico, leaving just after they did.  However my thinking on that has changed - I'll probably head to Mexico in November, but I have no date in mind yet.  When I'm ready, I'll head down.

In Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard

Date: Wednesday Oct 5th
34° 09.822' N  119° 13.553' W  
Log 1784.8, Engine Hours 1248.6, Batteries %100

First, a couple photos that belong to earlier posts.

Sailing between Monterey and San Simeon

Light playing on the water toward sunset

San Simeon sunset

I'm currently in slip B-11 at the Channel Islands Harbor Marina, Oxnard.  I left Morro Bay on Monday, Oct 3rd at 9:45am.  The winds were forecast as NW 10-15kts which would have made for a nice sail.  The forecast had the same winds for two days, followed by stronger winds for two days starting Wednesday.  Wednesday had a forecast for 20-25 knots with local gusts to 35.  Today at 6pm the wind was a steady 25 knots, so the forecast was pretty close.  Earlier this trip, I would have looked at 25 knots of wind with relief, as they would have diminished from stronger winds.  At this point, I'm glad to be in a marina where I can sleep soundly, not keeping an anchor watch or sleeping in 20min cycles.

Morro Bay exceeded my somewhat low expectations by a comfortable margin.  It is a small town and everybody I met was super friendly.  The weekend festival was pretty small, though there were two music stages and plenty of wine and beer to sample.  There was also lots of food to choose from, stuff to buy or not, art to judge, and so on.  It was a good time, enjoying a beer or three in the sun while mingling with the people.  I arrived on Thursday the 29th at 11:30am and anchored.  The anchorage area in Morro Bay is between the red nun markers 10 and 12 toward shore, and I dropped anchor close to the #10 marker.  There is a fairly strong tidal exchange in the bay and I ended up staying aboard for all of Thursday watching while the boat swung back and forth with the tide.  I ended fairly close to the #10 marker on an ebb, fairly close to what looked like an abandoned boat to my south on a flood, fairly close to the shore with east wind at slack, but my anchor seemed well set and I didn't see any need to adjust anything.  After watching the boat swing around for the day, I was ready to set out on Friday and start exploring.

Looking at Morro Rock from Luckness at anchor near sunrise

Same time as above, more east, toward the power stacks

My visit followed a similar pattern.  I explored by walking around most of Friday.  On the way back to the boat in my dinghy I spotted someone aboard an interesting boat two south from where I was and headed over toward her.  Desiree on Gia said Hi and Damon soon joined us.  I asked their destination, which was points south toward Mexico and they invited me aboard and we started talking about this and that.  Gia is a gaff rigged schooner with a steel hull, which is a pretty interesting combination - its a true cruising boat with no pretensions about going racing after work in a tight little fleet rounding the cans.  Gia has been to Hawaii and back, and these two have been cruising for 9 years on her - although they are still a young cruising couple.  It was cool talking to them.  I'm still considering my return trip to Seattle, if I make the return trip.  One route is through Hawaii but I was under the impression that my stay in Hawaii would be marina bound with only very poor anchorages in the islands.  These two put that idea to rest with stories of many excellent anchorages in the islands.  They recommended a good cruising guide for the islands (Cruising Guide to the Hawaiian Islands by Bob Mehaffy and Carolyn Mehaffy, available through Amazon) and highly recommended going to Hawaii and anchoring while exploring.  I was very happy to hear these stories and the possibility of going to Hawaii is going up in my mind.  Another piece of advice they passed along was to not plan too far in advance, which is advice I've read earlier on many occasions - you come across all sorts of possibilities while cruising.  So I'm not planning on a return trip via Hawaii, but its a stronger possibility than it was.  It was good meeting these two, and I hope to cross their path again somewhere south.

Sand sculpture at Morro Bay festival, Oct 1st

From the beach north of Morro rock, looking back at it

From Morro rock, looking back at the town across the entrance channel

After my festival day on Saturday, I spend Sunday exploring the town further, provisioning a little and doing a few boat projects for my starting to sail on Monday.  I left on Monday in the morning, as the tide was starting to flood to make the bar crossing a little milder.  Damon came out in their kayak to wish me Bon Voyage as I left and the bar crossing was barely noticeable with the swell only being 4 to 6 feet.

After leaving Monterey and thinking about it, I summed up my visit with: "I could live here."  Morro bay was interesting and friendly, but its not a place where I could live.  Its too small for me, I like to have more facilities, services and variety that a larger city offers.  But its a fine place to visit.

Leaving Morro Bay on Monday the winds were light, S 1 to 3 knots, so I motored toward Point Conception.  Point Conception is known as the last of the major capes in the trek south toward San Diego.  It has a reputation for having strong winds every day as the land heats up and you get a strong onshore breeze.  So I had a desire to round this point at around midnight, reducing the possibility of gale force onshore winds to a minimum.  As I was motoring toward the point I realized that I would arrive very early but that since the winds were so light, the chance of their increasing dramatically seemed slight.  At 12:40pm the winds increased to SW 6 knots and I started sailing on a close reach to beam reach toward the point - it was sweet.    The longer I sailed the later I would arrive at the cape and the more enjoyable my trip would be.  It was a win/win situation.  The winds varied between 6 and 8 knots until 5pm with the boat doing a little more than half the wind speed.  I could sail in these conditions all day, for weeks on end.  Its a dry ride, no salt spray across the decks.  The seas were calm, with the swell small and widely spaced.  It was mostly sunny and warm, and there was very little traffic to contend with.  At 5pm the wind diminished to 2.5 knots, and as the boat was barely moving I felt I needed to take action and started to motor.  Unfortunately I didn't sail again for the rest of the trip.  As I was approaching Point Conception after 10pm I was considering whether or not to stop in Cojo anchorage or to continue toward Oxnard.  In the end I decided to anchor for a while.  Cojo Anchorage is just around the corner from Point Conception, and entering it on a dark night was a little strange.  I had a GPS waypoint from a cruising guide I headed toward, avoiding kelp beds I had read about.  There was a offshore oil platform tender at the waypoint I could see visually as well as on radar, and I cleared him and avoided two other boats to anchor 1000 feet from shore.  I could hear the surf line toward shore from where I was strongly, but I never saw it in my stay.  I ended up anchored in Cojo Anchorage (lat/lon: 34 26.8N, 120 26.5W) with the winds varying between 2 and 5 knots mainly from the NW at 10:45pm and was asleep by 11:30pm after adding 10 gallons of diesel to the tank from my gerry jugs, the last of the diesel on deck.   The strong onshore breeze I thought might appear at Point Conception never appeared, although I think I would pass this cape in a similar manner if I cross it again.

I wanted to arrive at Oxnard on Tuesday, as if the weather matched the forecast I didn't want to be contending with entering a new marina and docking the boat in 25 to 35 knot winds.  Tuesday the winds were forecast as being benign for entering the marina all day.  Since it was 62  miles from Cojo anchorage to Oxnard, the longer I stayed sleeping the later I would arrive.  The marina office closed at 5pm.  I can motor at approximately 6 knots.

I got up at 4:15am as the swell started to increase and the boat started rocking.  My plan was to get up at 4:30 so I beat it by a little, and was underway by 4:45am.  As I was leaving the anchorage I came across a freighter that was rounding the point and was a little surprised by see me appear - we made passing arrangements on the VHF and everything was fine.  Heading toward Oxnard that morning I had another of those moments of peace that seem to occur fairly frequently on this trip, where everything seemed right with the world - motoring along in my boat watching a light show erupt around me as the sun started to rise and while I was heading off to a new harbor to explore.  Sailing would have been better, but the winds were 5 knots at my back.  I ended up motoring the whole way in order to get to the marina in time.  Toward the end of the trip the winds started to increase, eventually to 10 to 15 knots from the west - these were fine sailing conditions, but my agenda and schedule interfered and I continued to motor to my destination.

After sunrise, heading to Oxnard.  No wind!

I arrived at the marina and pulled into B-11 in the Channel Islands Harbor Marina at 3:45pm.  The slip is single width and there is plenty of space in the marina.

Before leaving Morro Bay I was phoning around the area trying to find a good place to visit next.  I had wanted to visit Santa Barbara as I have heard lots of good things about it.  However after speaking with the marina office I learned that they were starting a major construction project on Wednesday (today as I write) and were evicting all their transient moorage customers.  They are doing work on a finger pier and need to move all those long term customers to the transient slips. I was offered a nights stay, but no more.  The next marina along the coast was Ventura and that sounded good as well.  One marina was full and the other offered me a slip at $1.50 per foot, $60 per day.  My slip at Oxnard is $35 and is 46 feet long, with plenty of availability here.  I realize that I'm applying a different scale to what I pay for a night's moorage.  When traveling by car and looking for a hotel - given the choice between a $35 room or a $60 room, I would definitely choose the more expensive as $35 for a room in america just doesn't buy you a very good experience.   But my dock space in Monterey was $28 and it was an incredible location.  More on Oxnard in a later post.  Oxnard wasn't my first choice so I had low expectations coming in.  But Oxnard seemed to be a good distance along the coast and I have a bit of a schedule to keep to now, leading up to the end of October.

On a technical note, the alternative energy solutions I have onboard continue to please me.  The solar panels continue to be the main provider of power, aside from the alternator when I'm motoring.  One night while at anchor I was watching the last few DVDs of a TV series and got absorbed by it and ended up watching 'TV' from 7pm to 1am.  By 1am my batteries were down 61Ah, so roughly 10 amps per hour to run the boat (lights, anchor light, hand held VHF scanning and plugged in, inverter, computer, AIS and anchor watch, stray devices being charged.)  The next day, while still at anchor, it was cloudy part of the day and that evening at sunset the boat was still down 20Ah.  By the following day the batteries were at 100% by the early afternoon.  I continue to be able to, within reason, consume power without regard to its being a limited resource.  This will likely change as it gets warmer and my fridge consumes more power each day.

On a navigational note - I've now fallen down the coast by 14° 15'.  Since its 60 nm per degree of latitude, that translates to my being 855 nm south of Neah Bay.  The great circle distance between where I am now and Neah Bay is 880 nm, which is a route across land.  My boat has traveled 1087.5 nm since leaving Seattle.  I left Seattle 35 days ago and since then I've sailed on 20 days.  I've spent my nights: 15 days at anchor, 8 days in a marina, 12 nights at sea.

I slightly regret passing the Northern Channel Islands by.  I have this built in assumption that I'll be doing this coast again in the future and the next time I'll have more time to spend visiting more of these islands and ports.  This may or may not be the way it works out.  All I know is that I'm here now, enjoying life and looking forward to the islands and ports to come.

Luckness signing off, for now.

Anchored in Morro Bay

Lat/Lon: 35 22.113N, 120 51.400W

Sorry, no pictures.

My momentum has really taken a hit this week. I left Monterey on Sunday, arrived in San Simeon on Monday, left there for Morro Bay where I am now on Thursday. Morro bay is 22 miles south of my last stop. When I was in San Simeon calling around to the possible next stops I discovered there was a festival here this coming weekend. Music, food, drink and so on. So I decided to check it out. I may leave here on Sunday or Monday.

There was no wind today so I motored over this morning, four hours, timing my arrival with high water slack as there is a bar at the entrance. A sand bar crossing the entrance, not the drinks kind. The bar was fine, the swell is dying down today.

I have a little list of projects to do while I'm here. My knot meter has stopped working so I'll remove it and clean it out. There is probably some growth on the paddle wheel messing it up. I'd like to sail after leaving here and having the knot meter working is convenient but not essential - the instruments can give you true wind speed and direction if they know the boat speed which is where the knot meter comes in. Besides, it's useful to know how fast I'm going.

As people cruise I suspect one of the most common stories they gather are anchoring stories. Like that time I was in San Simeon... I arrived and there was one boat already anchored so I positioned myself between them and a dock, splitting the distance perhaps 500 feet on each side of me. There was a W wind, blowing off the beach which was 1000 feet away. The two cruising guides suggest anchoring much nearer the beach to avoid swell and wind but I was close enough I thought. Then another boat arrives, single handed (which is cool) and captain holding beer in hand (less so). He ends up moving between me and the dock with my thinking he was going to continue forward toward the beach - but he throws his anchor over with a little chain and the rest nylon about two boat lengths to my side and four or five forward. By the time things settle down and he sets the anchor he is pretty much parallel to me a couple boat lengths over. It's a big anchorage. So at first I just think that this is good practice for later crowded anchorages, but not feeling very comfortable. I tend to make an assumption that other people are more experienced than I am, although I'm getting over this. I like the situation less and less and I realize I probably won't sleep well. If we get a shift in the wind to the forecast NW we may well bump as I'm all chain and his upwind boat will move faster and farther than me, toward me. So I move. I go toward the beach making a triangle out of the three boats, 450 feet on a side. "Nice!" I think.

The next morning I get up, he moves on south and by 6pm that night the wind starts changing direction. By 7pm, sunset, the wind is a weak S to SE, making the shore a lee shore. But the shore is far away and the winds are weak. I thought about moving but didn't. I get up several times that night to check things out. By morning the swell is increasing, the winds are increasing and there is fog so dense I can't see my neighbor 450 feet away. I can hear the waves crashing on the shore behind me but can't see it. So I move the boat again, this time relying on my radar. I go back to almost my original location where I stay until I leave.

Still working out the moral of that story. Maybe there isn't one. I could have asked the boat arriving after me to move - but as it turned out it would have been fine as the winds didn't shift. I was happier each time after I moved. Perhaps the moral is that "if you think you should raise anchor and reposition the boat then you should do it". Similar to if you think it's time to reef the sails then it is time to reef them.

I realize that as anchoring stories go, that one is pretty dull. I sincerely hope that I do not end up with Really Exciting anchoring stories!

Heavily overcast here, and cool. I miss the hot Monterey days I had although it's cooled down there too. Looking forward to more heat as I move south.

Sent from my iPhone

Anchored in San Simeon Bay

Just a quick update. Luckness is anchored in San Simeon Bay which is about 85 nm south of Monterey. There is some weather developing south which I want to avoid so I may be here for a few days.

I have cell coverage but no wifi.

Its sunny here now and I'm starting to notice that the sun is feeling stronger that in Seattle. Might need to stock up on more sunscreen.

The sail here was uneventful. I left Monterey in light winds and started sailing in 4 or 5 knots just crawling along. The wind strengthened and weakened between 4 and 8 until 5pm when it started to fill in. The forecast was for 10 to 20 in the evening and I was sailing in 20 to 28 with the seas starting to develop but nothing serious. It was a dark night with highly variable weather. It would go from partly overcast to a clear cloudless sky in an hour. Then thick fog for an hour around 2am. Then cloudless/fogless again. The stars were amazing.

Monterey bay was teeming with sea life as I left. Lots and lots of seals, sea lions and dolphins. It was cool. Coming into San Simeon I saw a what I think was a blue whale, judging from it's fin.

My batteries are down 15Ah but the solar panels are working now - they were shaded by the sails all morning. They are putting out 10 amps right now. Subtracting what the boat is using I'm charging at around 8 amps. Will be back at 100% in a couple hours.

It's lunch time so I'll leave this little update at that.

Over.

Sent from my iPhone