Santa Barbara, California

We day trip from Two Harbors to Santa Barbara (80NM) in some bouncy water and were happy to be able to get a side-tie in Santa Barbara Harbor when we arrived. We were going to anchor but at the last minute Larry called to see if the harbor had room and due to a small craft advisory forecast for that night, they agreed to take us. We moved the next afternoon to the Santa Barbara Yacht Club’s guest dock - thank you SBYC! We will wait here for a few days, as the winds are still pretty strong around Point Conception. Larry is checking and rechecking the weather sites and it looks like this Wednesday could possibly be a good departure day…we’ll let you know!

Calm water at sunrise before the winds picked up

Entering Santa Barbara Harbor with Stearns Wharf off starboard

Stearns Wharf was originally built by John Stearns in 1872. He owned a saw mill in town and was frustrated with the existing rickety pier so he built his own. Originally he tried Eucalyptus pilings but found them to unstable and eventually replaced them with creosote treated Douglas Fir. Some pilings today are steel with polyethylene covers but a majority of the 2,230 pilings remain Fir. The wharf is 2,250 feet long and in 1888 it was linked to the Southern Pacific Railroad. This wharf is a true phoenix…it keeps rising from the ashes, as it burned in 1973, 1986 and again in 1998.

Always a challenge to navigate these busy harbors

Happy to be on the dock this evening

A beautiful Santa Barbara sunset

The active fishing fleet at the Santa Barbara Harbor and the busy dinghy dock

Thank you Santa Barbara Yacht Club for your hospitality. From the guest dock (pictured here) you can see the clubhouse at its amazing location right on the beach under the palm trees in background. SBYC is the second oldest yacht club on the west coast (est. 1872) second only to our SFYC (est. 1869).

The Independence at the SBYC guest dock

A gorgeous mosaic on the walkway heading to town

Still enjoying our new hardware and the wildlife at the end of the dock

This sculpture ‘Boy on a Seahorse’ is a gift from Puerto Vallarta to Santa Barbara, they are sister cities

An evening view of the fleet

Smart choice to keep a representation of the fleet here in Santa Barbara Harbor

An all wood fishing boat…wish I knew when this one was built and some of the great stories they must have

Thank you Lauren (MVP Gumby Grant’s daughter) for dropping by to say hey!

Last night at SBYC…looks like tomorrow is the day to make the jump around Point Conception and the move toward home (San Francisco Bay). Whether we do it in one long haul (35 hours - plus or minus) or anchor along the way, remains to be seen.