We stayed in Santa Barbara for additional week to catch California Offshore Race Week – a series starting in San Francisco and ending in San Diego. Some friends raced down onboard Oaxaca, Wildcard, and Destin, and others followed to help with race committee. Seeing familiar faces and swapping stories from the coastline was fantastic. We were happy share our recently acquired knowledge of Lilly’s taqueria and State Street, and accidentally order the large margaritas to celebrate Wildcard’s low wind finish into the harbor.
When two crew dropped from Wildcard, Scott hopped on board with a few minutes notice. They had a low wind race down to the offset mark west of San Diego and headed back north when the wind died. Highlights include: orca sightings, croissants, and bioluminescence. Brandon wrote more about the fun for SF Gate here.
I had the boat to myself for a few days and promptly used every available surface to advance some long languishing craft projects. Started: scrap quilt, sandals, and sweater from Bayron Handmade pattern. Finished: a pair of overalls from a Seamwork pattern.
Here in Ventura, we tagged along with Quincey from Q+M Travels to race on a Kernan 44 sailboat named Funatic. This boat has a unique tabernacle mast that allows it to sneak under bridges and is super fun to race. Scott worked the mast position and Quincey showed me the lines on the running backstays on the Wednesday night race, and I joined again Saturday for a longer race around the oil platforms. Dusting off my spinnaker trim skills on such a big boat was super fun. Here’s a picture of another boat of the same make – the activity of the race, waves, and open transom kept us from snapping a pic of Funatic and the crew:
Inshore races usually rely on volunteers to set buoys for sailors to race around. Offshore races seem to get scrappier by using coastline infrastructure. In San Francisco, our courses went around markers denoting the shipping container channel.
This week we’re “packing up” to head to San Pedro and on to Catalina Island. Our departure list includes deflating the paddle board, situating stow-able items, and the not-so-minor task of upgrading our fridge from AC to DC power. We’ll miss the dock neighborhood in Ventura harbor and look forward to seeing them on the water again one day.
Sailing Azimuth 