The Blue and the Gray days of Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara was our first stop in the Southern California coast. It is different from the places we had visited thus far on this journey, due to a generally warmer weather pattern as compared to the rest of the US West Coast.

We did in fact get warm days and spent time playing in the water. For two days. Then the cold weather caught up with us again …

We arrived in Santa Barbara after crossing the notorious Point Conception – very likely our last complex passage this year.

Right upon arrival we could see we had gotten to a different place – palm trees, white sandy beaches, people in the water, a pleasant warm breeze. It felt like, well, cruising.

The marina also had more of a cruising atmosphere – a marked difference from the more commercial marinas we had stopped up to then.

For the first two days after our arrival, warm weather prevailed, and we took advantage of it:

 

Then the weather turned bad. An incredible succession of cold fronts started hitting the coast just after the Thanksgiving holiday:

 

Ultimately culminating with the strong storm that hit us there last week, as reported on my previous post.

 

With the new, cold weather pattern settled, our attractions changed – it was now the large breaking swell and the surfers it had attracted that caught our attention for the last few days there before our departure to Ventura:

 

As soon as we had a weather window, we cast our lines yet again and pointed Pesto’s bow towards Ventura – a short 4 hour passage away. From here we hope to be able to do our first pure cruise of this journey in the upper channel islands – it’s all up to the weather now.