On January 20, we awoke to a beautiful, sunny day. We left Channel Islands Harbor and motor-sailed 28 nautical miles to Santa Barbara. We were thrilled to finally have good weather and to be on our way after 10 days in Oxnard. The seas were very calm and the northerly wind was mild, so we motored most of the way.
On the way we encountered lots of flotsam and jetsam that had been washed into the sea from all the rain storms, including this mysterious floating island of grass. We had to drive the boat attentively to make sure we did not hit sticks, logs and other debris.
At one point, Robert was on watch, and Nina was resting. Nina smelled burning oil, leapt up from her berth, and told Robert that we needed to check the engine immediately. We checked the engine and discovered that it was fine. It turns out that we were smelling either burning oil from the oil drilling platforms off of Santa Barbara or the odor of asphaltum – a naturally occurring form of petroleum that seeps from the land and from the ocean floor in the Channels Islands. Asphaltum was used by the native Chumash people for a range of purposes, including as an adhesive, as body paint, for water-proofing baskets and for caulking boats.
As we neared Santa Barbara, we sailed the boat in light winds. Katannu averaged about 3 knots of boat speed in about 6 knots of wind. We also rigged our new Monitor wind vane and used it to steer the boat.
We arrived in Santa Barbara at about 4:45 PM, just in time to register with the Harbor Patrol and get a slip. The light in the harbor was beautiful, the sun was setting and a full moon was rising as we tied up at our new slip.
