Back to Our Own Backyard!

Whhooohooo!
Back to OUR islands ~ the four off the Coast of Ventura!From left to right, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa.

We had a smooth easy motor up from Santa Barbara Island with loads and loads of wildlife.
Lots of dolphins cruising by.Some leaping and jumping.
Lots of sea lions 20 miles from nowhere.
Birds diving.
More dolphins.
More sea lions.
Two southbound ships.

We headed to the Southeast anchorage at Santa Rosa and dropped the hook.


All good.
All lovely.
All beautiful.
Jim went fishing.
Then the wind came up right into the anchorage.
Uh oh.
Not so good.
Not so lovely.
Still beautiful, but we headed down the backside of Santa Cruz for a better protected anchorage.

Ah Willows!

Another favorite.
All good.
All lovely.
All beautiful.
Dinner, sleep.
Next day here comes the wind from a different direction, but yes, right into the anchorage.
Uh oh.
Not so good.
Not so lovely.
So we headed further down the backside of Santa Cruz considering either Albert's or Yellowbanks.

One boat in Albert's, let's keep going.
VHF call: "Meerkat, Meerkat, the is Phoenix"
Us to ourselves: Who the hell is Phoenix?
Us to VHF caller: "Phoenix, this is Meerkat, go to 69"
We both go to channel 69 and then:
Phoenix: "Jimmy Donnell, Jimmy Donnell, this is Mike Stanosek!"
Oh yea!
Mikey!
A long time friend from Ventura!
So then we knew who the hell Phoenix was...
So he was the boat in Albert's so we went in and anchored.
All good.
All lovely.
All beautiful.
Time for happy hour, so we had Mike and his two buddies, Matt and Derrick over.We made Matt take the picture...
But I did take a picture of Matt's shirt!Catching up, stories, hugs, beer, wine, popcorn, cheese and crackers.
And a Jim promise to take them fishing in the am.

So the four boys took the two dinghies the next morning in search of halibut.
Yea ~ I had some time to myself on my boat!
And they came back with this!A 38" halibut!!
Back to the blood everywhere thing...

Phoenix headed in to Ventura and we headed further down island to Yellowbanks for our last night before heading in to Channel Islands Harbor for a few days.
Time to do laundry.
Wash the boat.
See family.
Borrow my Dad's car from my Mom.
Hit the grocery store.
See friends.
Find a permanent slip.
Oh yeah... find a permanent slip.
Now the headaches start...