| October 16, 2002 Greetings now from Ventura Boat Harbor. We arrived Friday, October 11, around 3:15 p.m. We are presently moored in Ventura West Marina. The sail from San Francisco to Ventura can be summed up in one phrase � motoring the entire distance. We had absolutely no to little wind � and when we did have any wind for a few hours, it was always coming from the southerly direction we were headed. Thus, we just kept motoring. To recap briefly, we left San Francisco Tuesday, October 8, on a beautiful blue-sky day. We anchored that night about 20 miles south of San Francisco in Pillar Point Harbor at the northern end of Half Moon Bay, departing the next morning for Ventura. The rest of the passage from Half Moon Bay to Ventura was under overcast skies but fortunately no deep fog. We arrived in Ventura a little over two days later. Fond memories of this passage were being entertained by a pod of California gray whales and a large number of seals off the coast of Monterey and being escorted through the Santa Barbara Channel by a group of dolphins. Our present plan is to leave Ventura Monday, November 4, driving our car cross-country to our condo in St. Pete Beach, Florida, where we will be spending the holidays with our family. We will be flying back to Ventura on December 26. Sometime in January we will depart Ventura and continue our cruise down the coast to Mexico. |