Sunday, October 30, 2005

October 29th...Finally


This the view from our backyard in Ventura. We enjoyed much of the summer here taking in beautiful sunsets, biking all over Ventura County and meeting lots of great neighbors.

We are all set and ready to go. We are leaving today and I am literally killing time waiting for the delivery of our Spectra watermaker. The delivery is many days late and as soon as we have it in our hot little hands we are out of here. Our first port of call will be Santa Barbara Island. Then on to Santa Catalina for a few days before visiting friends and following up on any loose ends. Then we really are leaving the country.... As soon as we get going we will have stories to tell right now it's just in our imaginations. Keep in touch. Liz

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Cruising the Channel Islands

Thousands of seals and sea lions off Point Bennett, San Miguel Island. A 7 mile hike one way to see these guys.
Mark communing with the seagulls on Santa Rosa.

The New Dinghy (the name is still being debated) on the beach at Santa Rosa Island.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Big Sur & Hwy 1 Roadtrip

Cannery Row, Monterrey




Camping in the Ventana Wilderness







Waterfall, Big Sur Point Sur Beach







Sunday, October 02, 2005

Welcome To Our Journey!!


Well it's one more month and counting until we leave for Mexico and parts beyond. Welcome to our blog. I gave up on the website. The connection was always slow and frustrating. As we go on our journey all we want to do is keep everyone up to date and post a few pictures.

First all little bit about the Rouge Scholarship.

"Rogues' Scholarship" is the name of our vessel. It is a spoof on that bastion of higher learning the Rhodes Scholarship, intimating a more low brow education. She is a 1976 Out Island 51. She was originally, so the story goes, delivered to a doctor in California and soon after stolen. How do you steal a 25 ton Ketch? (Probably not too hard, I know that we always leave the key in it.) Subsequently, Scholarship was found up in Oregon was given a salvage title. The next ten years she was out of the water for a major refit. She went from a ketch to a cutter and grew by 6 feet in the process. Whoever did the work had one thing in mind and that was blue water. She was owned after that by a marine biologist at UCLA who did some more internal conversions and used her for research in the South Pacific. He moved up to a 64 foot boat and that's when I moved in.
Liz and I have been sailing her together now for over 4 years. She weighs nearly 30 tons, half of which I'm sure is shoes. This puts her into the category of Slow and Heavy. While not always the traits we look for in women, she suits us just fine. How many other sailboats can boast a bathtub and a washer/dryer ? . After a few more Southern California shakedown cruises this summer we plan to join the yearly migration south into Mexico and beyond...
Welcome to our blog and please stay in touch.
Mark & Liz