Log 4 - San Francisco to Santa Barbara See Photos Here After spending some time in Alameda visiting with Jim and Diana Jessie, and doing some provisioning at the Albertsons, Trader Joes and Longs that were available, we hopped on an Amtrak train bound for Sacramento. It turns out that the "Capitol Corridor" Amtrak ride is quite a bargain. For $15 each way, you can ride the rails on a very nice coach and watch the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway as you sip your wine and cruise along at 80mph. We arrived in Sacramento and were immediately treated to a wonderful Thai dinner by Bob (Nancy's brother) and Linal (his wife). The following days we spent visiting with Kurt's mother, Nancy's mother and Nancy's other brother, Todd. We also attended the 50th birthday party for our good friend, Susan Horton. It was great hanging out with all our "old" friends. We took the train back to Alameda on a Sunday and the next morning, after having our autopilot repaired by a local technician, we took off for Angel Island - an island in San Francisco Bay located near Sausalito and Tiburon. We originally intended on just spending the night there, but, since the weather forecast for the coast didn't sound too good, we ended up spending three days there, during which time we climbed to the top of the island's dominant peak (Mt. Livermore) and hiked to one of the garrisons that were used during the civil war to defend San Francisco against the Confederate army. Finally, after getting a good weather forecast, we took off for the first leg of our trip to southern California - a 25 mile trip to Halfmoon Bay. It was an uneventful daysail that ended with us anchoring in Halfmoon Bay, where we spent the rest of the day re-organizing our foodstores. The next morning, we took off for Santa Cruz. As we departed Halfmoon Bay, we noticed another sailboat leaving at the same time. As they got closer, we realized that they were "Otter" - a boat we had last seen as we were leaving Neah Bay, Washington. Nancy called them on the radio and found out that they were skipping Santa Cruz and sailing directly for Monterey. We had alittle excitement midday when the oil low-pressure alarm went off on our engine. We quickly shut things down and checked over the engine. Turns out it we had blown an alternator belt (which also runs the oil pump). After quickly replacing it with a spare we were back underway. Soon, the wind built and we no longer needed the engine. We were sailing fast, in the company of a whole school of dolphin and a couple of humpback whales. Great sailing! We arrived at Santa Cruz Marina at 3:15 pm and our docklines were taken by a local lady who claims to have attended Gumbo Ya-Ya music sessions in Mexico back in 1995-96. After spending a day wandering downtown Santa Cruz and cruising the boardwalk and beach, we decided to skip Monterey (a tourist trap and "money hole") and sail directly for Morro Bay. We departed Santa Cruz at noon and had a great sail across Monterey Bay. The wind then died and we motored past Point Lobo, Cypress Point, Point Sur, Cape San Marten and Piedros Blancos. We saw alot more dolphins and whales on this leg and then spent a night motoring through dense fog until arriving at Morro Bay in the early morning. Morro Bay is a favorite of ours because the Yacht Club there is very friendly to cruisers. They offer low cost moorage at their dock and have great facilites (including showers and laundry). We spent a couple of days there exploring the town and becoming acquainted with some fellow cruisers (Gary and Dayle from the Canadian boat "Forever and Ever". After waiting for a good weather window for that all-important next leg - the rounding of Point Conception - we finally left Morro Bay on Kurt's birthday (September 24) at 1:00pm. We started off motor sailing but, as we approached Point Arguello, at about 10:00pm, the wind started to build and we were soon sailing fast in 15-20 knot NW winds. Kurt enjoyed about 3 hours of sailing fast downwind, until the wind finally died near Point Conception. He then went off-watch and had no sooner hit the sack when Nancy called him up again due to building wind. We then had a great reach (wind over the side of the boat) for another couple hours until the wind finally died completely. We then motored the last few hours to the Santa Barbara Marina where we got a guest berth. We spent the day wandering through the beautiful (and expensive) shopping district of Santa Barbara. Now that we have rounded Point Conception, we are in an area of relative light winds and smooth seas. During the next month, we plan on visiting Oxnard (great name!), Marina Del Rey, Long Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point and San Diego, before heading to Ensenada to have our boat painted.