Mellow to Mosh Pit, Part II

Location and Moorage: Channel Islands Harbor (34 10 417N, 119 13 412W); two nights dockside

The sail from King Harbor/Redondo Beach up to the CI Harbor was sporty (see Shakedown Vid #1). When we departed Redondo, the sea surface was glass and the sea state was more like a lake on a calm quiet morning. Then, like that, we saw some pretty stiff breezes while beating upwind and ended up putting a reef in the main and a bit later also reefed the genny. By the time we reached our guest slip, Free Luff was covered in salt spray and we were starving! All that reefing and stuff — we forgot to eat. We settled in right behind Rum Doxy, but they were out of town. So we had a snack, scrubbed da boat, and went on a walkabout. We managed to connect with Mary and Jer’s niece, Christina and her husband, Chris, and son, Jacob. Super sweet family.

The next day, we took a tour of the canal network north of the harbor (see Shakedown Vid #2). It seemed reminiscent of Venice, with extremely large homes, docks, boats, and tons of Duffys (so probably not much like Venice after all). One difference was the age of the homes; in Venice, they’re all older than dirt — in Oxnard, they were all built yesterday. We wended our way through the canals to the Vons — yes, grocery shopping by dinghy. It was awesome.

That night we had dinner with Jody’s coworkers, Ray and Connie, and watched the Warriors get beat again in game 6. Met Ray’s daughter, Tara, who is a super fun, confident kid. In the morning, we rinsed the ash from the Sherpa fire (one of several wildfires burning in so. CA) off of Free Luff and headed to Santa Cruz Island via a tacking tour of Anacapa.

CI Harbor — what did we learn about ourselves and/or observations: Eat while underway. It may be a bit uncomfortable to prepare food, but the risk is hangry, grumpy sailors. No bueno. Also, Rand is more tolerant of salt spray sitting on da boat; Jody, not so much. May be a bone of contention later.