even more pics

More San Francisco To Catalina Island Pics

San Francisco To Catalina Island Pics

San Francisco To Catalina Island

Wow, we seem to have done so much since we left San Francisco, this is a lifestyle which is very full and busier than I had envisioned. Where is the lazy retirement I had been looking forward to??

We left San Francisco with the Blue Angels (US version of Snow Birds) flying over and around us in formation as we went out under the bridge. It felt like a farewell salute!! (I think they were there for the air show but I like to think it was us).

We sailed to Halfmoon Bay 21 miles away where we spent the night. It was a lovely, as the name suggests, long crescent shaped white sandy beach. Took a long walk on the sand and after purchased some tuna (more fish!!!!) from a fisherman for $3 a pound.

We were traveling with three other Canadian boats that were traveling down at the same time. It becomes a very “groupy” lifestyle where you join and leave various boats voyaging in the same direction. Appies or dinner with others is the norm. Our boat having the biggest cockpit as Judy had suggested has become the obvious choice if there are a number of people involved.

Next day onto Santa Cruz and then to Monterey where we had a few days. It is a great place, very quaint with old buildings on stilts over the sea. Lots of artsy shops to explore—too bad I have neither the money nor the space to be able to buy much!! There are lots of sea otters who are very cute as they lay on their backs with their paws holding their food as float around.

We took a bus with Peter and Marnie from Vancouver to Carmel for the day. It is where the truly rich and famous live!! It is a beautiful seaside treed town with gorgeous gardens. The stores are full of very expensive items. I was talking to one store owner who said that some of the stores were paying $25,000 a month for their leases!! Needless to say we didn’t buy anything there either. One older lady was nonchalantly trying on a diamond bracelet which was “only $9000” and would have matched the other glistening gems on her body.

There was some magnificent art and blown glass---no clay, I think it is regarded as not expensive enough.

Next stop was Morro Bay which was a welcome relief. It is a very blue collar town which has a dying fishing industry. They are working on building up tourism and it ,has a nice atmosphere. There is a great surfing beach and we had a great sunset walk. We biked around the great coastal marshy area which is full of all kinds of birds—our new camera is proving fun trying to capture them.

We took a bus with Marnie and Peter again to Hearst Castle. It was built by Randolf Hearst who was a newspaper magnate in the 1920’s. He had inherited money and then increased his wealth and built a number of different residences around the country. This was his favorite and he spent 15years building the castle which was designed to surround, in keeping, his amazing collection of Mediterranean marble statues and tapestries. It was bequeathed to the State a number of years ago and they maintain it. It was mind boggling. He had entertained many of the silent movie stars during their time. His parties must have been incredible. The comment made by the guide was that if it looks like silver it is and if it looks like gold it also is!! The tiles on the ground surrounding the outdoor pool were inlaid with gold leaf. He was a movie buff and had a theatre and even when they were building it he would hang a huge sheet up in the garden and have nightly movies. I can’t imagine in those days there would have been enough good ones to watch one every night!!

Our next challenge was to be Point Conception where the winds from the north meet with those of the south and can create some very hazardous conditions. We left Morro Bay in tandem with the other Canadian boats only to find the winds had gone and we spent most of the day motoring—another anticipated situation becomes a non event.

Next stop Santa Barbara, which has become one of our favorite places, they seem to have balanced the rich and poor and created a neat town which is very relaxed and low keyed. They close the main street off from 4 to 6pm on Thursdays for the local farmers market so we were able to stock up again. The last of the peaches, strawberries, raspberries, apples, oranges, lemons, limes and grapes were also available. I cannot figure out the seasons here. Mind you everything is in full flower so perhaps it is just one big long ongoing one.

We got our bikes ashore again and biked up the coast. There are great bike paths and lanes everywhere we have been so is easy. It is a beautiful coastline.

One last pot luck with the other Canadians and we headed off to Santa Cruz Island for a couple of days. It is an uninhabited nature reserve and it was really nice to anchor in a little cove alone surrounded by the cliffs and near a beach. We picked up about 50 dolphins that played in our wake and bow on the trip out. We explored a huge cave which is 80 feet high and you take your dingy in at low tide.

As I write this we are on a night crossing to Santa Catalina, we travel at night if we can’t make it in day light as we do not want to enter a new port in the dark. We will get in about 9am in the morning. It is a dark starry night – I do love the moonlit nights best—there is something magical about sailing when the whole sky is lit up.

We are meeting up with my school friend Jenny from NZ who is now living in Palm Desert on Catalina for a few days which I am looking forward to.

We will head to Newport Beach with her and later go to San Diego for the 28^th to meet up with Judy from Calgary who will be there and will show us her fancy new huge boat.

The weather is great, sunny skies and 70F or so. The seas have turned blue which is a good sign (those in Canada and northern US are dark green) so I guess the tropics cannot be far!!!

Hope life is treating you all well, keep warm and keep in touch!!! We love hearing from you.

San franciso pics

Here are the photos from the San Francisco portion of our trip. A little belated as we are now in Santa Barbara.
Anyway we will be updating that in the next week or so.

2 weeks in San Francisco

We have had a wonderful two weeks in San Francisco and it is with some sadness we leave this great vibrant city.
We were anchored for the most part in Sausalito which is one of the trendy suburbs of San Francisco and of course is one of the most expensive—why do I only want to live in the most expensive areas of any city I would choose!! Apartments are around $1,000,000 and houses $5 or $6million!! Oh well I guess I will have to be happy with Saltspring.
We were welcomed at the cruising club where we were given a key and could shower at no cost and attended their Friday evenings where dinner is $8 to $12 and they have live music and all cruisers in the area are welcome.
Managed to be here when the annual chili cook off took place where for $5 you could taste all the chili you wanted and vote with the 5 beans you had been issued. Much bribery from the cooks went on, usually in the form of tequila or beer so was hard not to enjoy. It is a laid back friendly community which is a 30 minute bus or ferry ride to downtown San Fran.
Had couple of trips downtown where of course we experienced Fisherman’s Wharf with its buskers and bustling tacky tourist trade, a lot of fun. Pier 39 is a focal point with the colony of resident sea lions entertaining all. Another day we went into Haight Ashbury which is really “out there”. The centre of the drug and gay lifestyles but also touristy and non threatening. Lunched at Cha Cha Cha’s, the tapas bar Kristen and I had gone to on our previous visit. We did walk by a “vapor parlor”?? Anyway the smell coming from there made us think that Ross Regliati (sp?) was justified in saying he just hung around the marihuana guys and must have inhaled their 2nd hand smoke. The rest of the day I dragged Ken all day for miles exploring across the city ending up in China Town where the fruit and veg prices are super cheap.
We had a couple of great bike rides on our new “Bike Friday” bikes which are working out very well. We biked to Tiberon one day which is a nearby, perhaps even more expensive area than Sausalito and on another over the steep hills to Point Bonita lighthouse which we had sailed past on our way from Bodega Bay so was very cool to see it from the land side.
We had met Julia and Jim on Papillion, a 50 foot fancy cat in Canada and enjoyed meeting up with them here. They were moored in Vallejo and came over to Sausalito with their rental car a couple of times here joining us at the chili cook off and driving us up to the redwood forest area. We sailed up to Vallejo which is at the bottom of the Napa Valley and had a day driving up the beautiful valley and tasted many wines—felt like the actors in “Sideways” with the pinot noirs!!! We forsook buying any of the wines at the winery’s as our budget is feeling a little strained and instead went to the amazing discount markets where all wines are cheaper than anywhere else I have ever seen. Julia and I had a great “shopping day” where we hit Costco and various other eclectic markets. She being a gourmet cook was fun to shop with and also of course eat the great dinner she made for us.
We then came back to Angel Island, which is a state park and had a great walk to the top of hills to a panoramic view of the whole of the bay area.
Then back to Sausalito where we are now readying to leave. We will take one more day in San Fran to purchase a new camera. Ours is frustrating us with its lack of a decent telephoto capacity, anyone who has been following our blog site and saw the orca pictures; I have to confess these were taken by Kristen with her awesome camera. We found a great price on the same one and now have decided to “suck it up” and get one too. Can’t be outdone by a daughter!!!
We also have to sample some of the burritos which are apparently famous and a local reporter did a best 10 of the 100 or so he tasted so will seek some out.
Our next stop is Halfmoon Bay which is 20miles down the coast where apparently the tuna are running and Ken hopes to try his luck!! Oh boy more fish!! We will then go on to Monterey for a couple of days, then Morro Bay and down to Santa Barbara and the islands in that area.