Laboring to Keep Warm : Holiday: Gray skies, drizzle and fog deter beach-goers and send vacationers home early. Businesses dependent on the sun report a disappointing season.

Gerald Ladosky, 39, of Santa Paula lay on a lounger at the beach near the Ventura-Santa Barbara county line, fully dressed in a pair of jeans and a cotton shirt. His bathing trunks lay unused in his recreational vehicle, and he hadn’t bothered to break out the suntan lotion.

“You don’t worry about a tan in this weather,” Ladosky scowled. “No sun.”

The skies were as leaden Monday, the last day of the three-day Labor Day holiday, as they have been for most of the summer. Gray skies, a slight drizzle and fog deterred beach-goers from coming and sent vacationers back to the comfort of their homes early.

Steve White, chief lifeguard at San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura, said the holiday weekend was one of the few times he had seen so many vacant spaces in the parking lot. About half of the 1,300-space parking lot remained empty throughout the day.

“This is usually one of our largest attendance days of the year,” White said. “If it was sunny, it would be full.”

Out-of-town visitors who abandoned their homes to seek relief from the inland heat were surprised to encounter a slight drizzle, Harbor Patrol Officer Rick Morton said.

“A lot of people are coming in from the valley, and they can’t believe the temperature difference,” he said. “They’re coming down here in T-shirts and shorts and they’re caught off guard.”

Gray skies will be the norm through the rest of the week and probably the weekend, said Steve Burback, a meteorologist for Weather Data Inc., which provides weather forecasting for The Times.

“Right now the jet stream isn’t bringing any storms this way. It’s keeping the stagnant pattern entrenched over California,” Burback said. No storms are expected until at least October or even November, he said.

Some businesses that depend on the area’s sunny reputation to lure vacationers to the shore have had a disappointing season.

Jose Ruiz, a clerk at the bait and tackle store at the Ventura Pier, said he hadn’t rented out any of the store’s 14 boogie boards by midday Monday.

Only about 50 people a day came into the store this summer, compared with nearly 100 a day last year, he said.

“Last year, we were very busy. Very busy,” Ruiz said. This year it was “ very slow.”

Out on the pier, people who had arrived early in the morning to fish remained bundled up in jackets and parkas by midday. Some blamed the weather for their poor catch.

“If the sun were to break out, the fish would come out,” said Robert Ramirez, 30, of Ventura. “That’s why we’re leaving.”

Maria Xavier, 40, of North Hollywood dressed her two sons in sweaters and jackets for their first fishing expedition at the pier. She said she learned her lesson last weekend when she arrived in Ventura dressed in a T-shirt only to find a chilling 60 degrees.

“I nearly froze to death,” she said.

Along the Rincon beach near the Ventura-Santa Barbara line, most of the campers remained out of the water.

Jack Griffin, 54, of Sunland and his wife, Betty, 53, were dressed in sweaters and long pants, as they had been since they left their home in the San Fernando Valley to camp out along the beach four days ago. This year was the cloudiest it’s been during the 25 years they’ve been coming to the beach, they said.

Some of the other RVs packed up early Monday morning because of the weather, Jack Griffin said.

“For a lot of people, this is their big weekend,” he said. “They’re probably disappointed.” About the only thing roasting at the Griffins’ camp were the blueberry muffins inside their recreational vehicle.

“This is what you do when it’s cool,” Betty Griffin said, holding out a pan of muffins. “It’s not something you’d do when it’s hot.”