Letter 8
Sept 20, 2000

Monterey Bay to Newport Beach

We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and really enjoyed it. Not like the
tour I got with HP and the Biosphere, but nice. We walked around downtown
Monterey and Donnie and I went to a maritime museum.  It was nice too.

Judy, Al Donnie and I took the city bus over to Carmel By The Sea. We walked
around the shops, had an expresso and then walked out to the old Spanish
mission. Judy and Al  had never seen one before. It was interesting. It was
a long walk. My feet have been bothering me some and this was just too much.
We took the bus back. Trinda shopped while we were gone.

We left late the next day for San Simeon and Herst Castle. It was to take 26
hours to get there. Donnie and Trinda watches the 'light show' of
luminescent jelly fish and plankton.  It was about 4 am when we arrived at
San Simeon Bay, so we anchored in the dark.  We slept till 8 and then
started trying to figure out how to get to the castle. The cruising guide
book said that there was a ladder on the pier. But it had fallen off! We
took the dinghy up to the beach, but the surf was breaking. We had no
choice, so I started the dinghy toward the shore, killed the engine and
lifted it up so it wouldn't hit the bottom. Just as I did, the waves turned
us sideways! Trinda jumped out and got a little wet, but se got us stopped
before the waves turned us over. Quite a thrill. Donnie got a little wet
too. I was the only one to escape the water. We dragged the dinghy about 30
feet up the shore and tied it to a post in case the tide came in.

The parking lot for the tours of the castle is across the highway and a
coupe miles up the hill. Another walk. I was afraid that it would be crowded
and we would be too late for the tours, but in fact we were early, They
start at 9 and it was only 9:15. They have 4 tours now ant $10 each. We
chose the upper floors, kitchen and pools. It was nice but a little quick,
and lots of stairs!

We walked back to the beach and the dinghy was still high and dry. Now, how
to launch it back through the surf with out getting wet again? Trinda got in
and Donnie and I timed the waves and made a push. Down with the engine and
it started with the first pull. We made it. There has to be a better way.

It is just 26 miles on to Morro Bay, where Judy and Al went, they skipped
the castle, so we took off at 1:00 PM. The autopilot has a steering oar that
hangs down in the water behind the boat. It is held in place by a bungee
cord. There was so much kelp floating in the water that it tripped the
steering oar up 3 times. The wind was less than 4 knots all the way so we
motored across flat calm seas all afternoon. We got to Morro Bay and tied up
to a yacht club dock next to Al at 5:00 PM.

Morro Bay is a nice quiet little tourist town. Al & I went to the library to
try for e-mail. Trinda and Judy went for groceries. They bought too much and
the store was too far to carry the groceries, so they took the shopping cart
back to the dock, like we did in Canada all the time. Part way back, a cop
pulled slowly by looking at them, then went around the block. He came back
up behind them and told them that they couldn't take the cart. They lied and
said that they had permission. He finally let them go. I pushed it back to
the store in the afternoon.

We met a family on a boat that looked just like ours. It was a Petterson 44,
not a passport, but it was finished in the same boatyard in Taiwan at about
the same time as ours. It is the first Petterson I have seen that was a
ketch (two masts). They were on their way to San Francisco from Florida via
a year in Mexico.

The yacht club let us stay because we had joined the Canadian club, the
Bluewater Cruising Association. It was a really neat place to stay.

The next run was to be a long one, 12 hours to Coho Anchorage. Just a bend
in the coast about 2/3 the way to SNTA Barbra. We left at 7:00 AM. Around
noon, while I was napping, Donnie and Trinda saw several big fins a ways
away. Then a real whale came up right beside the boat. Trinda saw a giant
flipper come up and yelled at Donnie, then his tail came up and he dove for
the last time. And they didn't even wake me!

At 3:00 we put up the main and the jib, and at 4 took the main back down,
because the wind came up too much. We anchored at 6:00. The anchorage was
not protected from the swell, so it was a really bouncy night. The next
morning, Trinda pointed out that the swells were breaking on the beach much
too close to us. Al and Judy had anchored a little further out that I did.
We were nervous, so we left early for Santa Barbra.

We motored all the way, no wind again. Al went into the marina, but we were
trying to save a little so we anchored just out side the marina, and bounced
all night again! I was tired. It was only 23 miles on to Ventura so we
didn't leave until 10:00 AM. It was another long noisy motor trip, no wind.

We stayed 2 nights in Ventura. Donnie and I did the laundry then we went to
the beach. Trinda bought us kites, the kind with 2 strings. You fly them
just like model airplanes. Donnie and I have flown models some so we took
right to it. Trinda had a little more trouble keeping it in the air. The
beach was fun. It was really the first time we just goofed off all
afternoon.

We next went to Oxnard. It is only 8 miles away, but supposed to be a little
cheaper. It was nice. Trinda got the machine out and sewed up Judy's kayak.
It had torn in the same place Trinda's had. She also fixed one more of the
dodger windows. Donnie and I fixed several things on the boat. Trinda bought
some foam to make more comfortable cushions for the cockpit. Judy and Al had
their boat hauled out of the water to fix the bearing on the propeller
shaft.

We realized that we weren't going to make it to the airport, so we started
looking for a way to get Donnie there. A captain of a big power boat was
tied next to us and offered to take him, as he was driving to San Diego on
Sunday anyway and going right by the airport. We were sad to see Donnie
leave, but his vacation was up. Another couple gave us rides to the marine
store to buy 6 gallons of oil and took Trinda and Judy to a big laundry mat
in town. It was another nice place to stay.

On Monday the 11th, we left for Marina del Rey. Another 6 1/2 hours of
motoring. There is a West Marine here so we bought some more boat parts and
a dock cart to haul them in! Trinda ran out of sunbrella canvas again, so we
found that too, for $16.50 a yard. Trinda had been getting it for $10 in
Seattle! We stayed several days. We called and had our mail forwarded to
Newport Beach. We figured it would take several days to arrive so we had to
find some place to go to wait.

On the 14th we motored out to Catalina Island. We went around to the back
side away from the tourist areas. We anchored in a well protected harbor,
Catalina Harbor. Al and I hiked half way to the top of a mountain next to
the harbor. I finally got the camera out and took a few pictures. They may
be on the web some day. We all hiked across to Isthmus Harbor, or Two
harbors, and went for a swim. The water is finally getting warm! It was 72
degrees. Trinda sewed a lot, we painted the shower again and worked on the
boat some more. We stayed 3 nights.

We went around to Avalon, the tourist area of Catalina Island. We got a
mooring buoy for the same price we had paid for a slip with water and
electric in Marina del Rey! It was a strange afair. It had one float, but
there were two ropes. We tied one to the bow and pulled up the other and
tied it to the stern so we wouldn't swing around and hit the other boats.
There were over 200 boats in the harbor tied this way!

There was a Marlin fishing contest going on, so all the crazy fishermen from
the Los Angles area were here! I was confused until I found out that the guy
who caught the biggest one, 226 pounds, got just over $200,000 for the fish!
Now I see why they were so crazy! We shopped and swam and snorkeled. Trinda
and I took the dinghy out to a place that was supposed to be good
snorkeling, but it had lots of kelp. She didn't want to swim with the kelp,
so we 'power snorkeled'. We leaned over the edge of the dinghy with our
masks on and watched as we drifted along at an idle! Trinda and I both got
haircuts for only $8 apiece!

Today, we motored back across to Newport Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles.
Only 15 miles from Disneyland. We will try to find the post office where our
mail is and an e-mail place to sent this tomorrow.

Larry Trinda and Muffy