On January 6, the Morro Bay Harbor was buffed by a rain storm with blustery winds. We measured wind speeds of over 30 knots, with a peak wind speed of 38 knots!
In the morning, we awoke to find absolute calm. We took another look at the weather forecast, confirmed that we had a window of favorable weather to sail in before the next storm, and decided to set sail for the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard.
On the morning of January 7, we set sail from Morro Bay to the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard. We exited Morro Bay Harbor with a 6-8 foot swell at the harbor entrance. We let the Harbor Patrol know our plans to depart the harbor, and we were also hailed by the local Coast Guard station. Both said it was safe for us to exit the harbor, but encouraged us to be cautious. We made it out of the harbor in the rolling waves between the breakwaters without trouble.
The journey is about 130 miles, so we motor sailed all day and all night to Oxnard. We had mild seas with a westerly swell, until we approached Point Arguello, where we also encountered a southwesterly swell with a short period between the waves, as well as southerly wind waves. It was a bit of an uncomfortable ride. We were motor sailing into mild southerly winds. When we headed off 10 degrees, and let the boat sail close hauled, the motion of the boat improved.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
We both stayed on watch until we made it around Point Conception, which was an important landmark for us, since in general the weather is much better south of Point Conception. As we entered the Santa Barbara Channel, we heard the Coast Guard on our VHF radio warn all ships that blue whales and humpback whales had been spotted in the channel. The Coast Guard asked all ships to watch for the whales and limit their boat speed to 10 knots.
Once we rounded Point Conception at about 10 PM, we took turns taking three hour watches. During both of our watches, we were visited by dolphins who played alongside the boat. The dolphins were clothed in bioluminescence and looked like glow-in-the-dark torpedoes as they approached the boat! At one point, one of the dolphins leapt into the air and the glowing water streamed off the dolphin in iridescent colors!
In the morning, we saw a group of hundreds of dolphins swimming between us and an oil drilling platform in the distance! It’s hard to see the dolphins in this picture, but they are there! 🙂
We arrived in Oxnard in late morning, and were able to secure a guest berth at the Channel Islands Yacht Club.
