Hi,

I'm at a coffee bar on State Street in Santa Barbara, and they have 'puters for rent with telnet access!

As you know, we left Pete's on Sunday. The sky looked threatening (there WAS a front, but it was an early-season warmup) so we spent the night at Clipper Cove. Next morning, we went out the Gate. We passed Half Moon Bay around midafternoon, motoring in flat calm. It got flatter and calmer all night. We got to Monterey around 4am and drifted outside the busy part of the bay until dawn. No room in the marinas, so we anchored (we could have done THAT at 0400 and slept) and went to the aquarium. That was very good.

We slept well, and set out again after some morning organizing. We sailed out of the Bay, and for the next 28 hours, until just before Point Arguello. At times, we were running (the Monitor works great) at 7 kts. with just a double-reefed main in 25 kts gusting to 35 kts. Off Pt. A, the wind died (the seas didn't) and we dared to hope that we could sneak around Pt. Conception without too much wind. Ha! The wind came back at Pt. C, and we broad-reached the stays'l in A LOT of wind around the point.

Once in Southern CA, it was a lot calmer. We had some thick fog, but the radar and GPS did their jobs, so it wasn't too bad. We pulled into Santa B. and worked through a short list of boat features that we didn't fully care for. Now we're hanging out. Marc was an undergrad here, so he knows the little secret places. Tomorrow (Monday) we'll probably leave for Malibu.

Take care,

Rick

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