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.