Ventura

The family drove down to Santa Barbara Saturday and we spent two more nights to explore the town and some time Sunday to drive around Montecito while we had the car. We visited 3 open houses and found Montecito to be very much like Hillsborough in its style and feel with the exception of Cacti everywhere  instead of Oak and Eucalyptus trees. Sophie found 3 Yoghurt shops in Downtown Santa Barbara and found one that allowed you to take any amount of yoghurt and toppings and then just pay by weight, even Dad liked the taste.
Tuesday morning we got an early lunch and cast off for Ventura harbor about 25nm to the south. We wanted to make our way to Catalina Island and decided to do it in a few steps until Ali and the kids got their sea legs.
We pulled into Ventura about 6pm but not until we caught our first fish! We had put out a second trolling line on the stern pulpit that had a purple cedar plug I had bought on Sterns Wharf. I didn't expect to catch anything after zero luck with my squid lure, but within an hour of putting out the cedar plug we pulled in a 3ft long Pacific Barracuda! It was the biggest we had ever caught. After consultiung the fishing book and finding it edible, we quickly filleted it on the dock at Ventura and pan fried it for dinner.

Our first trolling fish, a Barracuda!

I was hoping to spend some more time at Ventura as its a nice looking port with some great restaurants, but we decided the next morning to push onto Catalina as the kids only have a week before they need to be back home. We left shortly after breakfast the next morning initially thinking to stop at Marina Del Ray, but after consulting the charts and the distances, we decided to do one long passage and make it to Catalina by nightfall. I had decided to do all our trips during daylight with the kids as they are not up to doing watches yet and also the winds in SoCal drop away to nothing overnight and make for a very rolly passage. Luckily there are plenty of ports in this area allowing us to make port by nightfall.