Warmer Waters

The light house on Point Conception

We rounded Point Conception with a good wind and calm seas, left the fog behind us and looked forward to warmer weather. This is where we saw our 1st seamonster, a dead giant squid floated by with tenacles that must of been 6-8 feet long. Spent what started out as a peaceful night at the Cojo anchorage. We were woken up about 2am by a 35knot wind which swung around and started blowing out of the east putting us on a lee shore. We were surfing 6' breaking waves in the anchorage which caused our snubber to snap, sounding like a gun shot going off. Kind of made it hard to get any sleep after that, the guys on the 120' oil platform tender didn't get much sleep either. It eventually calmed down and we did sleep for a couple hours, woke up to perfectly flat calm waters, with no evidence of went on the night before.

Pelican Bay on Santa Cruz Island

This is where 'Diary of a Sea Captain's Wife' took place, from about 1908 until the 1930's, they had a camp here where they catered to wealthy Easterners and the Hollywood studios filmed many movies near here .

They say that as soon as you pass Point Conception, you can take off the wool sweaters and breakout the swim suits, well not exactly it turns out. We sailed next to Santa Rosa Island, saw a couple male humpbacks about halfway there, compeating for best tail and fin slap and highest breach, quite amazing. When we got there around 4pm it was nice, sunny and warm, and we thought, we're here, we've made it. But, it was not to last long, wind picked up during the night and blew a steady 25+knots for 2 days straight. We decided to give up on Santa Rosa and headed for Santa Cruz, put down an anchor in Pelican Bay, and finally found what we had been hoping for, we'd still be there to but as we were running low on fresh water, propane, fresh food and been completely out of beer for several days, we decided we better make a run in for civilization, go find a grocery store, and let people know that we were still alive.

We headed for Ventura Harbor, passing 100s a dolphin along the way, large pods were congregating coming into one area from several different directions, it was quite a sight. We went into Ventura, called the marina at Ventura Isle for a slip, pulled in, met some cool people and then found out that they wanted $75/night. That sounded a little pricey just for access to a hot shower and so we headed down to Oxnard Harbor, about 8 miles away, and got a slip from the Harbormaster for $40. We found ourselves in the mist of a West Wight Potter's club, a group of people who get together with their trailerable 24' boats at different locations, do a little sailing and a lot of partying. Anyway, they invited us over for a bit of pizza, beer and Jim got to tell everyone how great he is.

We spent the day doing the laundry, restocking the frig, filling the water and propane tanks and topped it off with a nice hot and spicy dinner at a Thai restaurant. We'll probably head out in the morning for one of the islands, either back to Santa Cruz to check out some of the other anchorages or maybe Santa Barbara. With all the smoke in the air, I don't know that we want to go into Newport Harbor just yet. I remember what it was like during the fires when we lived in Costa Mesa a few years ago, the air in the LA basin is bad enough without adding wildfire smoke to it.

The fires around the LA area are turning the skies gray.
The plume from one of the largest fires looks like a volcanic eruption, it's gotten a lot bigger since taking this photo.

Avila Beach

I'm writing this from the anchorage in front of Avila Beach, which is near San Luis Obisbo. We pulled in yesterday after spending the day motoring from our last port, San Simeon, didn't have a drop wind during the whole seven hours it took us here.

This place is full of sea lions, must have over 100 swimming around the boat feeding and playing

Zero likes watching the sea lions.

We sailed out of Pebble Beach last Wednesday and had a pretty rough couple days getting to Point Lopez. No Small Craft Advisory had been issued, yet we found ourselves in 6-10' seas at about 3-4 seconds apart coming from 2 different directions. We spent an extra day hanging out waiting for the seas to lay down and recovering from the trip. On Sat we could no longer see white caps or rolling breakers out there and so decided to move on despite the Small Craft Warning that had been issued and found ourselves in flat calm, smooth as glass seas and no wind as we headed into San Simeon. Guess you can't trust the weather reports, just got to go out there and see what's going on for yourself and be prepared for anything.

Small Craft Warning for this day called for 25 knot winds and 6-8 foot seas at 4-5 seconds.

We liked the little bay there, well protected from the N and NW swells, neat little general store there that serves lunch. We took a hike out on to the peninsula there, awesome views from the point there and it was amazing feeling the waves coming from the north crash under you and emerge with some force through the network of caves on the other side.

Hearst Castle sits on top of the hill overlooking San Simeon Bay

We took a side trip up to see Hearst Castle, pretty amazing the time, money and workmanship that went into building that place. The architect was a woman, Julia Morgan, which I thought was pretty amazing for the time.




We've spent the day here in Avila Beach getting the laundry done, taking a real, long, hot, shower for the 1st time in a few days and did a little grocery shopping at the local market. Unfortunately, all the real supermarkets are up in San Luis Obisbo or over in Arroyo Grande and there's no public transportation out of this place except on weekends. We have enough food on this boat to last us a good year, but it's nice to stock up on fresh meat and veggies when you get the chance, guess that will have to wait.

This kinda makes doing the laundry and grocery shopping a bit more adventurous than it needs to be.

Tomorrow we will be filling the water tanks before taking off for Point Sal, where we'll stay just long enough to make sure we have good weather to get around Point Conception. Then we're off to spend a few days exploring Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands.

Pebble Beach

Sitting here in the fog at Stillwater Cove in front of the Pebble Beach Resort waiting for an old friend from back home to stop by, she lives in Monteray now. Haven't seen her in what, must be over 20 years, got in touch again after all this time on facebook.

Nice anchorage here, glad we didn't skip it. Several people told us that it's a dangerous one to go into and don't do it if you've never been there before, Charlie's Charts doesn't even mention it, so we elicited the help of Google Earth. Wonderful thing Google Earth has been for us, we take advantage of Internet connections while we have them and save images of all the anchorages we plan to go into.

As you can see from the picture, the kelp lines and rocks are clearly visible and it gives you a good idea of what the land marks you are looking for actually look like. And as an added bonus it also provides the Lat and Lon.

We took a walk out on the golf course a couple days ago, after the last rounds had been played, beautiful green grass everywhere, nice views of Carmel Bay, surrounded by multi-million dollar mansions. Went around to check out the shops and restaurants to see if there was anything that looked good and in our price range, decided to skip it when the appetizers on the menu started at $25, so we opted for a couple cold beers from the Gen Store. We were making our way back to the beach when a security guard offered us a ride off the premises, guess it was obvious we didn't belong there. Nice that they've been providing us with free Internet though.

Monteray

Sea lions on the breakwater of Monteray Harbor

When we got into Monteray we decided to get a slip for the night for a couple reasons, one was so Jim could change the oil, another was so we could get some sleep and of course hot showers are always nice.
This one of the many jellyfish that seem to have infested the harbor, this one was particularly large when compared to the rest, maybe like 16" in dia. I missed getting a photo of an even larger one that was of another species, it had bright purple spots and was even cooler looking than this one. After missing that photo opp, I decided that I wasn't going to leave the boat without my camera, that's when I came across the sea otters.


One of our neighbors on the dock at Breakwater Cove Marina was this sea otter and her pup. They had their own film crew that followed them around all day.

She was a very attentive mother.

And with the orange, purple and pink starfish on the rocks all around the marina, we decided that we really wouldn't mind if we skipped going to the Monteray Aquarium, besides, isn't it better to experience nature in a more natural settings with out all the screeming children?


This really doesn't look comfortable, do you think harbor seals get bad backs?

San Francisco to Monteray

Well, we did it! We have finally graduated from live-a-boards to cruisers! It all happened on Aug 1st. We were even able to get a few people to come out to see us off, they really weren't sure if they believed us when we said we were actually leaving now and they better come out and say goodbye.

Our 1st day out was spent getting reacquainted with our boat since it had been quite some time since we had actually sailed her. It was a windy day, we had 20+ knot winds which made for a fast and exciting ride. We soon reached our destination, Paradise Cove, didn't want to overdo it on the 1st day. We spent the evening sitting on the hook in 40+ knot winds and visiting with a wee little Irish man who told us grand stories of sailing in the English Channel.

The following morning, after visiting with Simon, Lenard and Wilma, who came out to see us off, we hauled anchor and set off for Half Moon Bay. I was beginning to think that the day would never come, that we would pass under the Golden Gate and leave the bay behind.

Had nice sail down the coast, winds were much lighter once we got outside the gate. We arrived in Half Moon Bay amidst a feeding frenzy, the sardines had come into the harbor, followed by the seals, sea lions and pelicans. It was amazing to watch, the sea lions would bring the fish to the surface, the pelicans would dive down and scoop them up just as the sea lion would breach the surface, sometimes with a fish in his mouth and sometimes I think the pelican got to it first.

How many pelicans are in this picture?

The next morning we got the dinghy out and went to see what there was to see. Met a couple guys, Tim and Las Vegas Mike, who had boats there at the marina. They were nice enough to offer us a ride into town so we could do some shopping and lend us their shower key. We later treated them to beers at the local brewery.

One of the people we met at Pillar Point Marina was Jerry, he's a retired aerospace engineer, who wants to be the 1st person to sail to the North Pole. He's made several attempts so far and has almost died trying. The contraption in the rigging is part of a wind generator that he invented that will give him the power he'll need to help keep him warm and alive on his next attempt.

We met another couple who spent 29 years building a Gloucester schooner in their back yard. It was beautiful inside and out, an amazing work of craftsmanship. They hope to begin cruising sometime next year.

At one point there were a couple hundred pelicans surrounding our boat.

The next leg of the journey bought us to Soquel Cove at the North end of Monterey Bay. We anchored off the Capitola Pier. Here again we found ourselves in the middle of a wildlife park. We had prime viewing of sea lions, harbor seal, cormorants, pelicans and dolphin, who had all come into feed on the sardines. We even had a sea otter feeding under the boat, he would surface every few minutes with a shellfish in his hands, eat it and then dive back down for another, he hung out with us for several hours.

The anchorage itself was very uncomfortable, a large swell was coming in, between that and the wind it made it hard to sleep and even just to move around on the boat, we were bouncing all over the place. We took the dinghy over to the dock, just about had to crawl on hands and knees to get over to the stairs leading up to the pier, the whole thing was bouncing up and down like a floor at an amusement park fun house. Took a walk around town, it smelled like they were having a problem with backed-up sewage, the whole town stunk, we didn't stay long. We didn't want to leave our pour dinghy at that dock for too long either, it was getting beat to death between the dock and the other dinghies.

As soon as we decided that we had enough, the swell stopped, the wind stopped blowing and sea was calm and looked like glass. We had to motor all the way across the bay to Monteray.

We're Off! Finally!

Rainbow during a rare July rainstorm

I am getting pretty tired of making plans to leave only to have them delayed once again, I bet you all are getting pretty tired of hearing that we were leaving only to find that we hadn't gone anywhere. I have decided that since almost everyone that spends time on boats and works on boats is mostly living in the land of manana, for most boat projects, take the estimated time and multiply that by at least 4, so the next time someone tells you that it should only take 2 weeks, think 2 months and so on.

At long last we are finally underway. After all the delays caused by missing parts, trying to located parts, replacing things that either didn't work out as planned or didn't work at all, adding new systems we had originally decided to go without, and working the bugs out. Then the rest of the delays caused by the procrastination, lack of motivation and the frustration caused by all of the previous reasons. Of course there were also the delays caused by the time well spent at, and recovering from, all the bonfires, dock parties, dinner parties and various other social events that seem to be constant and unescapable around here. And looking back, it was time well spent. We made some good friends and had a great time doing it.

Now, on to the next adventure....well, as soon as we locate the cat and get him secured onboard.

Zero hiding out on the neighbor's boat, he knows something is up