Ventura lies some 40 miles southeast from Santa Barbara. We spent just over two weeks there, including Christmas.
We stayed at Ventura’s Island Marina, inside the excellent and super-sheltered man-made Ventura Harbor. Despite its daily rates – the highest we had so far – the place was ideal for living aboard and we fell in love with it. As customary, I will let the pictures do the work for me here:
We left Santa Barbara on a Sunday early morning. The passage to Ventura took just a few hours, with no winds and calm seas. Ideal, were it not for the low temperature.Along the way we sailed by some of the many oil rigs that populate these waters – quite an odd sight on what is otherwise a very nature oriented place.The super calm waters of Ventura Harbor, which we fell in love with.Close to the Marina there was a beach, which we accessed by dinghy, walking, car and paddle board. Going there became our daily pastime, whatever the transportation method employed.From there, we could watch the attractions on water …… and in the sky.But above all, the kids enjoyed the volleyball nets on the beach.I took the opportunity to catch up on paddle boarding.Oh, there were Sea Lions as well. And this time the kids were a bit too daring, and touched one of them while it was in deep sleep.We gazed at beautiful sunsets, which precluded bad weather …… which in turn provided for some spectacular swells breaking on the beach for few days (and kept us inside the harbor through Christmas).We also gave Pesto some TLC, both in the form of Christmas Decoration …… and new parts to solve our first mechanical problem on this voyage – a failed water pump on the generator, which I luckily caught on time.And while I toyed with Pesto’s mechanical problems, Paulo played with a toy of his own, which dear Santa kindly brought to him on the morning of the 25th.
What we failed to capture in pictures was the fact that Ventura is a farming town, and the harbor we stayed was surrounded by strawberry fields. We went a couple of times buy berries direct from the farmers – the largest, most beautiful, sweetest and least expensive strawberries we’ve ever had. For a few days it was strawberry-frenzy, as we filled Pesto’s fridge to the top with these fruits.
And like this, our two weeks there flew by. As covered on my previous post, our departure from there was a bit out of tune, which caused for some uncomfortable sailing, great learning, and took us to a new exciting cruising ground – Santa Catalina. Which I will report about soon. Stay tuned.
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2 Replies to “What did we do in Ventura?”
Alexandre, nos conhecemos no México. Quando me disseram sobre sua jornada pelo mar não pude evitar o sentimento de admiração e curiosidade pelos momentos que iria encontrar. Assim com Amyr Klink que buscou seus sonhos e compartilhou eles com o mundo, você também está fazendo. Desta maneira, nós que estamos em terra podemos também ter uma parte da sensação que sua família encontra em cada experiência. Tenha uma feliz jornada… o seu destino final é surpresa no seu blog ou tem ele definido?
Oi Edison – obrigado pelas palavras e por nos acompanhar no blog. Tem sido um grande prazer escrever sobre a nossa jornada por aqui. Quanto ao destino final, o que se diz no meio náutico eh que os planos de um velejador sao escritos em areia, na mare baixa … e ja tivemos varias provas de que esse ditado eh verdade.
Como diz o cabeçalho do nosso blog … “because there is so much discovery in the Journey”
Um abraco
Alexandre, nos conhecemos no México. Quando me disseram sobre sua jornada pelo mar não pude evitar o sentimento de admiração e curiosidade pelos momentos que iria encontrar. Assim com Amyr Klink que buscou seus sonhos e compartilhou eles com o mundo, você também está fazendo. Desta maneira, nós que estamos em terra podemos também ter uma parte da sensação que sua família encontra em cada experiência. Tenha uma feliz jornada… o seu destino final é surpresa no seu blog ou tem ele definido?
Oi Edison – obrigado pelas palavras e por nos acompanhar no blog. Tem sido um grande prazer escrever sobre a nossa jornada por aqui. Quanto ao destino final, o que se diz no meio náutico eh que os planos de um velejador sao escritos em areia, na mare baixa … e ja tivemos varias provas de que esse ditado eh verdade.
Como diz o cabeçalho do nosso blog … “because there is so much discovery in the Journey”
Um abraco