Maiden Voyage!

The voyage of Gaviota officially began on the morning of December 6th as Gaviota pulled out of the Santa Barbara harbor!
It was a mixture of emotions leaving Santa Barbara as we headed for the channel Islands. We had a nice sail out to Santa Cruz and anchored up at Pelican for our first night. We ended up staying at Santa Cruz longer than expected due to some nasty weather. Our third night out at Santa Cruz we were anchored at Prisoners on the front side and at one in the morning had to make a mad dash to the backside of the island when the wind switched from southeast to Northwest. Having never sailed at night it was quite a thrilling experience to sail in strong wind and huge swell around the east end of the island. Our friend Tommy, the captain of the Vision, was out their at the same time and told us that at times all he could see was the top of our mast in between swells as we went around the east end. Lets just say it was a good learning experience. The next two days at the island we were pretty miserable rocking back and forth in the huge west swell that was sweeping through. So maybe we did not pick the best time to leave but it was a good challenge that has only made us more confident.
After almost five days at Santa Cruz we left and headed to Catalina. Our first overnight passage! We had good wind on and off but their was still a good amount of swell in the water that made it difficult to get good speed. Arriving in Catalina was such a wonderful feeling for both of us. With our first big crossing on Gaviota out of the way we pulled into Avalon harbor at about one in the morning and were escorted to a mooring. I have never been so grateful to be in a harbor in my life. After five days of rocking in the swell we were in heaven to be tied up to a mooring. The next few days in Catalina we went diving and hiking and cruised the town. We were pleasantly surprised the first night by the towns local Christmas parade. We are still kicking ourselves for forgetting the camera because it was so beautiful. We also went on a really beautiful hike with awesome views of the island. We decided to hike off the trail and while bushwhacking we came face to face with a buffalo. I don't think we were supposed to get that close because all the tour buses started honking their horns at us but it was awesome to see an animal that big.
After four days of fun and relaxation in Catalina we headed off on our second overnight passage to San Diego. The passage started out as mostly motoring but the last six hours were great sailing under the assistance of our windvane. Arriving in San Diego was quite an eye opener after the quiet quaint harbor of Avalon. Their were warships,aircraft carriers, helicopters and even a submarine as we pulled in. We tied up at Harbor island and had a great stay in San Diego. Our friends, Alex and Jade who live in San Diego were more than generous and showed us good restaurants, bars and most importantly surf. It was a really fun few days! We were back in Santa Barbara for Christmas and then a few days in San Diego doing last minute provisioning before we leave for Mexico!

Christening Party!

Christening Party

The champagne was smashed the first time and it is now official. GAVIOTA is here! We had such a great time christening our boat on Saturday. Thank you so much to everyone who came to share in on the celebration. We could not have asked for a better group of people to share the day with. With the exception of a few close friends who we really missed! We truly felt surrounded by everyone we love and will miss greatly!
Jacob, the person that has been there from day one of our relationship conducted the ceremony. Everything went just the way we wished and it was so much fun! It was such a treat to be escorted out of the harbor by our neighbors Bill and Jill. Thank you!
We are leaving one day late due to Brandon being a little under the weather and a few last minute to do's. Tomorrow, Dec 6th Gaviota will leave Santa Barbara and head for the first stop of her journey, Santa Cruz Island. We will see all of you for a few days at Christmas before we head for Mexico. Once again thank you so much to everyone who made time to share in the celebration of Gaviota. You don’t know how much it means for us to be able to see all of you before we leave. The biggest thank you of all goes out to our parents! This journey is dedicated to you!

Thanksgiving Island Trip

Thanksgiving was a great time to try out our cooking situation on the boat. We had an amazing trip with great food provided by Jamie's parents John and Janet. We left the harbor a little before 5am headed for the east end of Santa Cruz Island and motored out about 3-4 miles before the wind started up. This morning was also the the first time we were able to sail with our new mainsail! The wind was great for the next 3 hours and while we were sailing through the separation zone between the shipping lanes we spotted something. We could tell they were whales because of the spray, but there were a lot of them, really close together. Soon after we had a jaw dropping sight. ORCAS!! There were well over a dozen of them, all in their own little groups. We took down some sail and turned the motor on to keep up with them. They were all over the place and were jumping and feeding on something. They were hard to keep up with in the swell, but a group of them came right up to the boat and took a look at us. We considered it a good omen and continued around towards the east end of the island. The weather report was calling for 15-25 knots gusting to 35 both days we were out there, but it never materialized to more than 15-20 at best. The backside of the island was dead calm and sunny so we motored up to Alberts anchorage and dropped the hook for a thanksgiving feast. We roasted a chicken in the oven and had the works to go with it. After a great night we woke up at 6 to Tommy and the crew on the loud speaker of the Vision dive boat looming about 20 feet over us...thanks. The sail on the way back was great and nothing broke. We all conisdered it a great shakedown trip. Thanks again to john and janet for the food!

Provisioning!

Let the fun begin! We are almost officially moved onto Gaviota for good. We have cleaned and provisioned almost every square inch of her and she is now almost ready to take off. We will be going to the islands this weekend for one last trip with jamie's parents to test everything out and celebrate thanksgiving. We are so excited to go see the world with Gaviota and would love to share her and our excitement with all of our friends and family. You are all invited on Dec 2 to come and participate in the christening of our boat. It will be at our slip in the santa barbara harbor (Marina 4A-37). The christening will start at about three and go until all the champagne is gone. We hope to see all of you there so we can say our final goodbyes!

We are about three weeks away from setting sail out of beautiful Santa Barbara. For the last two years we have been outfitting Gaviota so that she could safely take us cruising. On December 5th we will be heading south twords Mexico and hope all of our friends and family will follow our adventure. We would like to thank our parents for all of their support. They are truely the ones that made this dream become a reality. We will miss our family and friends but promise to keep you posted with all the adventures we encounter.