Santa Barbara to Marina Del Ray - Where are the Movie Stars?

With the new autohelm installed, our last day in Santa Barbara was a tourist day.    We visited Santa Barbara Mission built in 1820 and largely rebuilt after the earthquake in 1925.  There are 21 Spanish missions in southern California established by Catholic priests of the Franciscan order between 1769 and 1833.   The Native Americans were converted and moved to live in settlements working for the missions.   Our tour stressed the positive aspects of 'civilizing' the natives but the real story is not so positive.

Then we ended up in the Funk Zone again to enjoy wine, food, and high speed WiFi so Greg could complete some software navigation updates.

It was a nice sail to Ventura - no motoring at all.  No sea life but 4-7 oil rigs along the way. Ventura Yacht Club is a friendly small club and luckily it was the weekend so it was open.  Many yacht clubs along the coast are closed Monday and Tuesdays and definitely lack the 7 day-a-week lunch and dinner services that we have come to appreciate at Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.

We got to know some of the locals over breakfast and helped them move their boats to alternate slips.  This paid off later in the day as I joined them for Sunday afternoon appetizers and was treated to a complimentary Gin and Tonic.

Monday we slipped lines at 6:40 AM just as the sun was rising.   It was a long day - 47 miles of motoring.   It started out very lumpy and I quickly went for the sea sick meds.   It was again hazy and overcast.   We had 2 wonderful displays of up to 70 Common Dolphins feeding and frolicking, jumping high in the air.   Just as we passed them, the dolphins rammed a sea lion that was also feeding.   It gave out a big yelp and jumped half out the water.

We cruised into a very quiet Marina Del Ray.    You would expect that with 5,246 boats, there would be a few out in the water on a beautiful day as today.   We saw 3 sailboats and had no traffic to contend with entering the largest man-made small craft harbor in the world.

We signed in as guests at Del Ray Yacht Club.   This is great as most Yacht Clubs accept us on reciprocal privileges and give us from 1 - 3 nights free stay.  They all have showers, laundry, and some food services.

We met Greg's nephew, Joe, and Paola for a lovely dinner.  

Yesterday was a much needed grocery shopping day.    We were down to drinking horrid coffee from some instant packages that were more than 2 years old and left over from the Vic-Maui Race.   The cream and milk had turned sour.   Yuck!!!!      After the grocery trek we sat by the Yacht Club pool and we prepared a lovely boat dinner.

Santa Barbara homes.

Santa Barbara homes.

Santa Barbara Mission.

Ventura Beach - Note the smoke from the Santa Barbara fire.

Ventura early morning.

Leaving Ventura at sunrise.

Dolphin display.

Entering Marina Del Ray.    Venice beach.

Marina Del Ray - boats as far as the eye can see.

Yumm.    Boat cooked dinner.    Grilled veggies, mango salsa, and tuna that Greg caught.