Ventura Harbor &

Marina Del Rey

We left Santa Barbara when we knew that the prevailing Santa Ana winds would be blowing in order to gain a little more practice and a great sail. Our efforts were rewarded with an amazing day of sailing and a great stay at Ventura Harbor.

 


It took a bit of a walk but we made our way out to the beach south of Ventura Harbor. The boys got their chance to try out their new surf board. Those 25 - 35 knot Santa Ana winds create some big waves for sail or surf. Those waves were a bit big yet for the boys to stand up but great for a quick boogie board ride. You can't quite make out Bruce's head buried back in the waves there somewhere as he helps to launch the boys on their board.
We spent most of our time in Ventura walking the town to do our chores and errands. Our biggest trek yet as we walked two to three miles to reach the grocery store. We did have some fun following the clues to a geocache, a treasure hunt with our hand held GPS. We found the treasure, left one for the next hunter and were on our way. The boys are hooked.

Off to Marina Del Rey

The word is out that we are the new safe bird haven. Bruce called us up to see a bird bearing down on the back of the boat. It looked more like a turtle flapping in mid air. On closer look it is an exhausted owl trying hard to catch up to us. With each flap of it's wings it looked like it could fall out of the sky. He landed and tucked himself under the traveler and behind the dinghy for the remainder of the day.

He always looked a little perturbed with us but we know he was happy for the safe haven as he did stick with us for over 8 hours. He took his leave in the middle of the night, long after we docked in the harbor at Marina Del Rey.

The best we could tell from our bird book is that he was a burrowing owl. At first we thought he was way off course, maybe blown out there by those Santa Ana winds. We eventually saw a few more cross our path though none of the others stayed. We think they were migrating from Catalina Island back to the main land. We will keep investigating.


Marina Del Rey shops

Marina Del Rey jetty

We pulled into the slip in Marina Del Rey and were immediately greeted by a man off a boat two slips down who happened to be from Poulsbo and traveling with his wife and daughter. You are never far from home. A few more boaters introduced themselves and were from Seattle or Oregon. The most interesting find was meeting a crew on a boat from Japan. Retired they are going to circumnavigate by traveling East on a boat exactly like ours. It took them 32 days to travel from Japan across the Pacific to get to Midway and Hawaii. It gives us all the more confidence in our boat. We exchanged gifts with them of fresh fish for Miso soup and soy milk. Very kind.

Hookah system

Diving down

A curious thing had been happening around the boat. In the last 2 or 3 anchorages we had been hearing this incessant snapping/crunching sound around the hull. We have heard a few theories about shrimp that make the sound with their tail or barnacles but Bruce decided to investigate. I have to tell you the noise was so loud that you would think mice were eating through the bottom of your boat. He donned his gear and hookah system (continuous underwater breathing system) and found nothing. We did realize that we needed to change the zincs under the boat though. The boys were thrilled to watch dad swim under the boat and so again school is called on account of excitement. We moved the classroom outside and continued studied some science and nature that was clinging to the docks.

Science under the dock


Burrowing Owl - aka Hootie