Harmonica Hello all,

Pt Conception (which our cruising guide calls The Cape Horn of the North Pacific) was flat and almost windless when we rounded it on 30th Aug. Jan & I sailed Monterey to Santa Barbara in 51 hours on 3 hour watches. Sometimes the conversation got minimal as we crossed in the night and one form scampered into bed as the other yawned up the companionway, but all-in-all our first passage with 2 on watch went fine.

We were treated to a spectacular view of humpback whales on day 2 off Morroy Bay. They approached and were obviously all around us. Then one breached out of the water, followed by 2 breaching together. After the humpbacks left, we found ourselves in a pod of common dolphins which darted over to investigate us in 2s 3s or 4s.

Quite a lot of shipping traffic, all well organised & very polit on the radio. We approached Pt. Arguillo just before dawn and the oil platforms provide a fine light show. From a long way off one of the masts had 3 lights which looked just like the lights of of tow and had me puzzling for some time. Suprised to see oil slicks in Santa Barbara channel but were told that these are from natural seapage, and there is no sign of tar on the boat or the shore, so maybe bacteria have evolved to disperse these?

Cycled round Santa Barabara on Thursday, and found nothing left wanting! Beautiful Spanish-style architure, enjoyed the art gallery and book shops. I think though that compulsory reading for all visitors might be The Tortilla Curtain. Just too many yuppy cars and cadilacs!

Santa barbara Harbour sounded official on the radio, asked us to dock at the head of th harbour and report to the office with the ships papers! I was keen to see whether we have all the right papers before we get too far away from home, so I was actually dissapionted when the girl did not want to look at them, then when I pressed the registration on her she said something like "This is Canadian, I don't know what it is supposed to look like". Everybody is actually nicer than life and goes out of their way to be helpful.

Now anchored off Santa Cruze Island (National Park). Had my first swim an hour ago and cleaned the bottom of the boat while I was in the water.

Have listened to the radio some evenings and talked to other Canadian boats following us down the coast. We are the first of the fleet this year.

Next major stop is San Diego. We hope to find some knowlegable meteorologist in the Scrips Institute who can educate us on tropical storms and feed information about current humidity and sea temperatures before we head into Mexico.

Dave & Jan are well. The galley is producing excellent food.

Love from Harmonica