STUCK IN SANTA BARBARA

August 3, 2019

It was nice waking up in the slip on Saturday morning and even nicer to be able to go for a shower.  My friend, Midori, came to visit from Paso Robles.  She stopped by to see the boat and then we took off to do some shopping and have lunch.  It was nice to get off the boat.  We went back to the mesa to purchase electrolyte solution at Lazy Acres, eat a leisurely lunch at the Rose Café, and shop at the Von’s.

Motor Mount Too High

Rick stayed behind to construct a new mount for the outboard motor.  Rick’s daughter, Tracy, and her son were joining us for a barbecue.  Rick bought four (!) pounds of swordfish and shrimp on the way back from the lumber yard.   Our guests were originally due at 16:30 but arrived late and it soon became apparent that dinner would be late.  Midori had a long drive home and left us when she ran out of things to clean while waiting.

We eventually convinced Rick that even half of that fish was too much.  We nixed the barbecue idea, saved the shrimp for another day, and made some beautiful swordfish with lemon and butter sauce in the oven.  We gorged on fish and salad.  Davy helped Rick move the motor to the new mount while Tracy did the dishes.  Unfortunately, the stanchion supporting the motor mount was not strong enough to support the weight with such a high center of gravity.  It was clear that we couldn’t leave the motor there while underway.

It had been a tiring day and we were ready for bed by the time Tracy and Davy left us alone.

August 4, 2019

Foggy Morning in Santa Barbara

I got up early on Sunday and walked up State Street to a Starbuck’s for a cup of coffee.  It was cold and foggy.  I probably walked five miles, but I needed the exercise.  The madness of Fiesta seemed to have passed and Santa Barbara was quiet.  Hotel guests were loading their luggage into cars or heading for the train.  I wandered through the train station to check the schedule and it was very tempting to get on a train going anywhere.

Santa Barbara Amtrak Station

Rick was up when I returned to the boat and we spent the remainder of the morning doing our laundry.  Our slip was over a quarter mile from land and three quarters of a mile from the marina laundry.  We got more exercise lugging our clothes all the way there.  Dock carts were nowhere to be found.  When laundry was completed and stowed away, I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing the guitar.

Tasty Shrimp

We still had two pounds of shrimp to cook.  Rick barbecued about a third of them for appetizers, which we ate in the cockpit as soon as they were cooked.  He basted them with two different butter mixtures.  It was windy and they took longer to cook than shrimp usually do.  I cooked the remainder of the shrimp in a broth of white wine, butter, basil, cayenne, and garlic and served them with sourdough bread, pretending that I was at my favorite restaurant, Killer Shrimp.  They would have been better with a wine less sour than sauvignon blanc, but the flavor improved as the garlic permeated the stew.

I went to bed by 10:00 but I was out of melatonin and stayed up reading until 2:00.  It became clear that I needed to replenish my supply ASAP.

August 5, 2019

It was nearly noon before we managed to leave the boat on Monday.  Our goal was to walk to the Santa Barbara Library to use their WiFi.  We stopped at a Rite Aid for me to buy melatonin and then had frozen yogurt for lunch.  The library turned out to be at least three miles from the boat, so our walk was longer than expected. 

I worked on my blog posts and analyzed the upcoming weather for each potential leg of our journey.  It looked as if we might be able to head for Cojo on Sunday and round Point Conception on Monday, but it was really too soon to tell.  Weather prediction beyond three days was always a fantasy to some degree.  There did appear to be a change in the weather pattern approaching.  I hoped it would materialize.

By 17:00, we were both hungry so we left the library, stopped at CVS for Rick to buy allergy medicine, and then stopped by the Ralph’s for fruit, garlic, and ginger beer. We dropped by a pizza restaurant and split a slice of pizza to give us the energy to walk the three miles back to the boat.  

Back at the boat, we ate the leftover swordfish and shrimp for dinner with a side of salad.  I took my melatonin and went happily to sleep.

August 6, 2019

Most of our chores were done.  I walked up to shore and bought a few bags of ice for the dead refrigerator.  I analyzed the weather, again, when the forecast updated at noon.  There was no real change.  Then I worked on my blog.  I was going stir crazy and decided to take the Amtrak bus/train home for a few days.  The bus would depart Santa Barbara at 22:00 and arrive in Martinez the next morning.

The bus left at 22:00.  The shocks were bad and it was very bouncy.  I was sitting over the luggage compartment and the driver called the stops in a loud voice and slammed the luggage compartment door about once an hour.  We stopped in San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Salinas, San Jose and, even though I had a ticket for Oakland, Emeryville. 

August 7-9, 2019

Burned Out Pier in Port Costa

We arrived in Emeryville about 6:00 and I caught the Capitol Corridor train just after 7:00 to take me two more stops to Martinez.  At Martinez, I called an Uber who somehow got Ferry Street confused with the Vallejo Ferry and went there.  After waiting in vain for half an hour, the driver called me.  His English was so poor that I couldn’t understand him over the cell phone.  We mutually agreed to cancel the ride and I got a nice young woman who knew what she was doing to drive me home.

I spent Wednesday through Friday at home, doing chores, catching up on my blog, and dealing with correspondence.