12.30.2012. 13:00 PST 66F
Originally, we planned to stop at Turtle Bay after Ensenada. Tomas recommended Isla Cedros instead. We were skeptical, as the anchorage looks fairly exposed on the chart, but decided to check it out.
It is about 240 NM from Ensenada to Isla Cedros. Most of the trip was gorgeous — blue sky and following sea — Gray Matter averaged 8.9 knots the whole trip. We spotted several humpback whales on the way — they are HUGE.
2012.12.29. 7:23 PST 65F
We had a very positive experience at Ensenada. Based on other cruiser’s recommendation, we planned our stay the Cruiseport marina. The staffs here are very professional, not only process the majority of paper works for custom clearance, immigration etc, also drove us to the immigration office and assisted the entire immigration procedure. It took us about 2 hours to get everything done, much faster than we had expected. After that, we got a ride to the TelCel, MX mobile carrier, to get a prepaid sim card and 3G data plan. Cruiseport even arranged an English-speaking lady to help us at Telcel.
Marina office
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Redondo Beach was our last stop in the US. We anchored at King’s harbor — no guest slip here was big enough to accommodate Gray Matter. Harbor patrols here are also the fire department, observing an impressive 24/7 schedule even during Christmas — very professional and friendly staffs. After doing some shopping and catching up with friends and family. we left at noon today for Ensenada, Mexico. We plan to run overnight and arrive Ensenada tomorrow morning.
We anticipated rough seas as small craft advisory was on. It turned out to be no drama. We do have some big swells rolling from NW, but GrayMatter handles them no problem. It is going to be a nice ride to Mexico.
Dinghy fully-loaded with grocery
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12.24.2012 9:08 PST 58F
This is actually our third Christmas at Catalina Islands. First time was in 2007, we chartered a Beneteau 10R (32ft), “Arrow”, from Long Beach. We had so much fun, and decided to bring our previous sailboat, Blue Moon, down here. We sailed Blue Moon to Channel Islands the next year and brought it over the Catalina on Christmas Eve in 2009. One side effect of that whole California offshore trip: the passage was brutal on our 40ft sailboat, and we decided we needed something else for our cruising dream. Well, here we are, on a Nordhavn 62 for our third Christams at Catalina, on our way to Australia. All very logical. 
Being the third time at Catalina, this is actually the first time we moored at the Isthmus. We love it. Some infrastructure (thanks to the FAST wifi from the USC marine center across the bay), but still very quiet and peaceful –- 5-6 boats even on the Christmas holiday weekend, although it’d be a completely different story in the summer. We went on a hike yesterday, and took some beautiful shots of the Two Harbor
Christmas holiday “crowd” 
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Diving at Cherry Cove, northwest of the Isthmus.
From a couple days ago.
12/20/2012 17:00 PST 62F
We estimated 8 hours to cover the 70 NM between Santa Cruz island and Santa Catalina island. Left early in the morning, dialed 105 in the autopilot, GrayMatter started the passage towards Santa Catalina Islands.
Riding into the sunrise. Beautiful, but the wind and swell were running directly into us. GrayMatter was only doing 7 knots with such head sea.
The condition became calmer and calmer as we got closer to Catalina.
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12/20/2012 17:50 PST 58.7 F
We spent our last night at an anchorage on the south side of Santa Cruz Island, Coches Prietos, apparently means “Black Pig”. It is a really charm anchorage, cliffs on both sides and a sandy beach in the middle. We even managed to pull off our first dive, off the cliff on the east side. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality –great visibility (for california), colorful coral, kelp forest and lots of fishes. Will take our camera in the furture.
12/18/2012 18:08 PST 58F Forecast was spot on. NW wind howling pretty much whole day, gusting up to 40 knots. We re-anchored twice, finally got settled down in 20 ft water, with 200 ft chain out. The day was gorgeous, just windy like hell. The wind finally calmed down a bit around 5pm, to only 25 knots or so. We are happy that our anchor system held on pretty well in such windy/gale condition, while we enjoy the heat and comfort inside Gray Matter, Nodrhavn 62. 
We retracted our flopper stopper half way during re-anchoring. Seems to work really well. 
Yellow Bank Anchorage. Gorgeous anchorage. Wild cliff, beautiful beach. But it was too windy to go ashore.
12/17/2012 16:00 PST 62 F Settled down at Yellow Bank, east side of Santa Cruz Island. This is a refuge anchorage for N-NW winds. We chose it in anticipation of the NW gale warning starting tomorrow morning. 
Anacapa Island 
A spectacular sunset, but can definitely see the storm forming in the distance.
