November 7th (Saturday) through November 11th (Wednesday) Arrived in Santa Barbara CA

After two days of being at sea Jeff and I are beat.  Being at the helm at all times and trying to dodge the weather window create a pressure similar to a deadline we are all used to in our professional lives. Once we overcome the stress of coming into a new marina, fueling and docking, we can finally relax and turn off our engine. Though not ideal we arrived in Santa Barbara marina at 1AM.  Later that morning the weather was calm with 5-10kts of breeze and sunny with temperatures in mid 70s.  It was a perfect welcome after two days of toil we just finished. Heard lots of great things about Santa Barbara and they are all true.

The rest of the day was spent at the beach. 

Jeff was lured into the sea by the girls with promises of warm water but found the water not warm enough at 65F.  Compared to the 50-55F water in the Northwest, the water here is considered warm by the girls.  

They created another pool that is warmer than the ocean. 

Where are Anna's feet?  

Sunday, we visited the Old Mission Santa Barbara.  This is the 10th mission in California.  It sits on the mission hill and overlooks the rest of the town down to the ocean.  What a beautiful location.  Although our main purpose was to attend mass, its history and the grounds were a full day of education.

Front of the church.  This mission is run and maintained by the Franciscan monks.  More about Old Mission Santa Barbara

From its nave looking to the alter.  Flash photography is not allowed so a little blurry. 

The statue below the crucifix is the statue of Santa Barbara.  The Spanish landed on this land on December 4th, the feast day  of St. Barbara. I learned that among other things she is the patron saint of sailors.  Nice. 

The mass was beautiful and the homily carried the message of filling our emptiness with Christ's love instead of worldly things.  In the back of the church the professional choir sang in the balcony.  All the hymns were very familiar but sounds were of angelic nature.  After mass we hung around for free donuts and coffee. After the museum tour, we met the pastor of the church, Father Charles, who welcomed us so warmly and invited us back on our way back up the coast.  We would love to be back in Santa Barbara!

In front of the Sacred Garden. 

Sacred Garden is where the monks come to work, and contemplate.  One senses a definitive serenity, peace, and beauty here. 

 The Island of the Blue Dolphins   

It was serendipitous that we picked up a Newberry Award Book called The Island of the Blue Dolphins from a used bookstore in Eureka.  Not knowing that it had close ties to Santa Barbara, it was a nice surprise to read this book and be able to relate to a place we visited.

The following is Anna's summary of the book and the visit to Old Mission Santa Barbra:

Daddy, Sophia and I have just finished reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. It is about this girl who gets left behind on San Nicholas Island which is located off the coast of Santa Barbara in the Channel Islands. She lived there for eighteen years by herself.  The story is pretty much real. She finally comes to Santa Barbara when some people from Old Mission Santa Barbara  come and take her away to Santa Barbara. You can see where she is buried if you get a tour of Old Mission Santa Barbara.  But, people do not know exactly where she is buried because they did not use grave stones at that time.  She is buried in the cemetery of Old Mission Santa Barbara. You should really visit that church.  First, it is good to go to church. Second, the church is really cool because monks live there and after mass you can talk to the priest, who is a monk.  Sometimes there are some other monks walking around in their brown robes.  Also, they have a crypt in their church, but they hardly ever open it because it is so hard to open.  When you get a tour, you can see the Sacred Garden, which is very pretty, the cemetery, the museum, and you can also watch a movie about the history of Old Mission Santa Barbara.  
By Julianna Cross. 

In front of the Juana Maria's (name given to the girl in the above mentioned book) plaque.  

Sophia's treasures found in our walk through Santa Barbara.

Walking toward the historic Court House. Notice how Sophia carries her found treasures. 

Inside the courthouse full of Moorish architectural influences.  

It's great that Santa Barbara has preserved a lot of its historical architecture. For a moment, I felt like I was back in southern Spain.  

The highly decorated mural room in the Courthouse. 

At the top of the Courthouse a 360 deg view of Santa Barbara. 

November 4 (Wednesday), 2015 We finally made Kimchee on the boat!

We have been craving kimchee since departing Sandy Point.  It may be obvious that we eat a lot of rice with everything.  Usually, we have kimchee to go with everything, too, but we have been without it for so long.  Every time we have soup or stew (typically enjoyed in colder weather), we need to have kimchee.  We were able to secure some of the critical ingredients so I decided to try my hand at making kimchee on the boat.  If you are interested in making kimchee on your own, try the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sX_wDCbeuU

Washing the salted nappa cabbage.

Left is a mixture of ginger and garlic minced.  Right is a mixture of green onions and carrots.  These two bowls are combined with a rice flour paste, chilli peppers, and fish sauce to make the stuffing for the cabbage. 

I made too much stuffing on the left.  I only bought one head of nappa cabbage and it yielded a little over a pound of cabbage.  Finished kimchee is on the right. 

For those who know and tasted kimchee, can you just smell the yummy spicy scent of kimchee?

We had to have an entree for the dinner so I cooked up the shrimp that Jeff bought at the wharf.  I call it, "Cilantro Shrimp". 

November 2 (Monday) -3 (Tuesday), 2015 Hanging out in Monterey Bay, CA

Taking notes for the next paint job on Luninesce!

Walking along the Cannery Row.

The city of Monterey obviously trying to copy Eureka, with various rail cars scattered along the waterfront.

Practicing fake smiles.  Someone's tired from walking but obviously not the young 'ns.

The girls always check out berries and fruits on trees.  They love these palm dates.  

Ok, load up those backpacks girls.  Looks like we found dinner. 

Another pic of the boat in Monterey Bay Marina.

Why are coastal towns associated with so much salt water taffy?  Here is yet another Salt Water Taffy shop.  Check out the taffy puller in the window.  We broke down and bought.  Sooooo good. 

Cutip. Courtesy of her majesty's personal fashion coordinator, Sophia.  A rope craft gift from Sona.

Farmer's market in Monterey.  In this area, the farmer's markets move around through different towns in the area each day of the week.  Tuesday was a farmer's market in Monterey. 

We were able to color coordinate the parrots with the girls' jackets. 

You never know who you will run into.  As I was busy scrutinizing the quality of nappa cabbage for my kimchee, I heard screaming and giggling.  Carissa, the girls' old teacher's assistant from Pioneer Meadows, had recognized us in the Farmer's Market crowd.  She had just finished biking through Washington and Oregon with her fiancee and was hanging out with her parents who live in Monterey.  Sounds like she and her fiancee will stay in Monterey for awhile trying to figure out their next move.  Many blessings to Carissa and fiancee!

The girls were a little bewildered that they ran into their old teacher's assistant from school.  Carissa remembers Sophia when she was just 3 and Anna at 5.  The girls are growing too fast! 

November 1 (Sunday), 2015 Arrived in Monterrey Bay, CA

We left Bodega Bay, CA in the early morning.  Once again, the strategy of leaving on a rising tide paid off.  Sona waved farewell from her dock as the fog rolled in thick.  Soon we found ourselves straining to discern the next pair of channel markers in the fog while dodging a crab pot buoy and some logs floating in the water.  It turns out the "floating logs" were seals laying on a submerged sand bar and we were on the wrong side of a channel marker.  We quickly reversed kicking up some sand and mud.  Thankfully we didn't get stuck.  Fog's power to disorient is amazing.  Once we exited the harbor we quickly left the fog behind us and headed south.

This was the most we saw of San Francisco.  Jeff: "There's the Golden Gate bridge."  Anna: "It looks red."  Then all attention was focused on timing our crossing of the busy shipping lane.  The tanker in the photo passed in front of us about 20 minutes later.   Once across, the fog rolled in, dusk fell, and we continued on our way.

Our plan was to go into the Bay of San Francisco and to visit some old friends.  Unfortunately we had to pass, to make up for some lost time and take advantage of a good weather window.  A 6 knot ebb current at the SF bridge removed any second thoughts about heading into SF.

We celebrated Halloween on our passage with Sona's toosie roll candies.

Monterey Bay, CA

Heading into Monterey Bay, our next port of call on the coast of CA, we were greeted by these small dark lumps making lots of clacking sounds.  We looked closer to find they were the famous sea otters of Monterey.

They are content just floating on their backs in the freezing water eating their breakfast. 

We arrived in Monterey 7AM on Sunday.  This hustling and bustling harbor had lots of boat and kayak traffic on the weekends.

A narrow marina entrance with a blind spot, so everyone "honks" before entering or leaving.  When we entered it was busy with all kinds of boats trying to get out to the sea for the last day of the weekend. 

Another view of the marina.  Luminesce in the background.

San Carlos in Monterey is probably the closest church we have walked to so far. 15 mins from the marina.  This is the first church established by the recently canonized St. Junipero Serra.  He is very well known for establishing a total of 13 missions in the state of California from San Francisco to San Diego.

As we go further south, the historic architecture is definitively more of Spanish influence which tells the history of California.  First, the native, Chumas Indian, and Mexican population were occupied by the Spaniards where the missionary efforts began.  Then, the Mexico won its independence from Spain and finally the US government won California along with many other states in the US- Mexican war. 

Nave of the church.

Alter

One of the few Mary statues that has her looking up rather than looking down. 

After church we showered and headed out to see what Monterey has to offer...

Noticed this clever fender cover.

"A beach with real sand!" exclaimed the girls. 

Not a rock or barnacle in sight.

Playing in the waves.  Unfortunately, the beach was closed for the remainder of our stay due to high bacteria counts.

Never looked at a cormarant's feet before but don't they look like one of those toddlers who put their shoe on the wrong foot.  So funny!

These otters also hung out in the marina.   In the marina, they seem to prefer smacking clams against the boat hulls to break them open, instead of using a rock.