You can't go very far down the West coast without being warned or told many a tall tale about sailing round the dreaded Point Conception. The merging of wind and currents making it the most infamous patch of water within 1000 miles. To the crew of Indian Summer it posed an extra challenge, in that due to the distance between Port San Luis and Santa Barbara, our next anchorage, the journey would take around 18 hours! This being the case Conception would have to be navigated at night – dah dah daaaah! A very thorough checking of the weather was done in preparation for the voyage. In fact we delayed ourselves a day due to gale warnings around the point. The plan was to set off at 8 pm, doing 4 hour shifts through the night, sailing with the wind at our backs we should be at Santa Barbara by tea time the next day. Unfortunately as has been the case with almost every long journey we've attempted, the weatherman got it wrong again and instead of brisk North Westerlies we had a strong Southerly that eventually petered out into nothing. In the end Point Conception far from making us shit ourselves could have just as easily been called Point Constipation. Not a breath of wind meant motoring round in glassy waters! Arriving in Santa Barbara we were a bit bemused and jet lagged but most importantly in one piece! A very welcome surprise was still to come before putting into port when, in the words of Sir David Attenbourgh "the largest animal to have ever existed, the mighty blue whale", paid us a visit at very close quarters.
There was no doubt in the ID department this time with the huge blow and grey/blue colour, Johnny had finally ticked this one off his list. On anchoring we were all happy to see some clear skies and for the first time were able to sit out and watch the sunset without shivering!
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