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.