Boat work, week 1

The weather has been swelteringly hot in San Diego. The cockpit cover has been up, the hatches have been open and our fingers have been crossed in hopes of a cooling breeze flowing through Monsoon. We can see the Coronado Islands of Mexico from here, and we know that the time is coming for us […]

Catalina Part 3: Avalon

Truth be told, we were not looking forward to Avalon. True, it is the main town on Catalina Island, but we also heard that it is overcrowded, expensive, and without any good anchorages; all the viable spots have been filled with mooring balls. So with that in mind, we planned to stop by to see […]

Catalina Part 2: Little Harbor

“Ahoy Monsoon! You might want to have a look at this!”, the captain of our neighboring boat; Pearl called out to us in a measured way one afternoon. We were still anchored in Catalina Harbor, procrastinating on sailing off to our next destination since we had been enjoying this comfortable anchorage so much. Travis popped […]

Catalina part 1: Two Harbors

Having left Santa Cruz Island, we made a pit stop in Redondo Beach to resupply, as we knew that groceries would be expensive at our next destination; Catalina Island. There we met the friendliest and most helpful harbor masters we have ever encountered, who chatted with us and offered travel tips every time we saw […]

May/June 2018 roundup

As of June 30th, we have been cruising for a month and a half. Every day has been memorable, and time is gradually slowing down for us, as we strive to live each day more deliberately. There have been the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows, but as we like to say, even […]

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands is a group of 8 islands 20 miles south of Santa Barbara, known as the Galapagos of California. It is home to a huge variety of plants and animals that have evolved in isolation and thus can only be found here, and are especially vulnerable to competition from invasive species. The National […]

Santa Barbara

Sometimes it takes the simplest things in life to make you happy. Our departure from Refugio came courtesy of an aggravatingly rolly night at anchor, waking up from storm nightmares at 1am to be greeted on the radio by a foreboding 3 day long small craft advisory/ gale warning from NOAA, followed by a confusingly […]