Journal 7

October 6-8, 2005

Sunny and Cool, two Bluewater Cruiser (BCA) members, Caretta crewed by John and Margo and Chavelita skippered by Frank arrived in Half Moon bay last evening and had anchored out, upon seeing “Blue” stopped to say hello. We had met them earlier this year at the May BCA rendezvous on Saturna Island.

Maverick Beach holds the dubious reputation as a surfing mecca, and here we are only moments away from it. Each day we pass by there are a number of surfer dudes/dudettes demonstrating their skills and possibly practicing for an upcoming event that Maverick beach holds.

Half Moon Bay has a Pumpkin Festival next weekend, and this little community of 12,500 will explode to accommodate ~120,000 visitors. Every store, farmyard and most of the homes are decorated with pumpkins, scarecrows, bails of hay, and corn mazes for the occasion. The influx of all this traffic leaves this wee town in gridlock, and local cab drivers ‘closed’ for the weekend.


October 9, 2005

Sunny, and cool as we leave the comfort of Pillar Point Marina and our friend Dennis who has continued to chauffeur/tour guide us around, and just hang out with his “Canadian friends”. We’re continuing our journey south to Santa Cruz. A lumpy start for the day that required us to motor sail most of the day.

We arrived in Santa Cruz to the sounds of thrill seekers enjoying their day at the beach and fair grounds.

We anchored within a few hundred feet from the historic roller coaster and as the sun set the grounds were artificially lit up. The sound of the surf on the beach had its usual comforting sound as it rhythmically rocked us in the safety of our cradle. It also had a discomforting quality knowing the you are that close to shore and only held to your position by a length of chain and a chunk of metal at its end.

October 10, 2005

A sunny and cool day as we head out for a short trip across Monterey Bay. This was the second time I was “close” to Pebble Beach. The first time about 10 years ago, I had the ability to sneak in the club and use the “facilities” and this time I got a good look at the hole at the end of Black Point, one I’ve seen numerous times on TV. Ah well, I guess that’s as close to a game of golf as I’ll come anytime soon.

When we arrived in Monterey, a short 20 miles later, it was down right hot. We secured a berth in the municipal harbour with little difficulty. Though the fingers are narrow ~11ft. and not particularly long we fit snuggly in our berth, with no room for fenders with our 10.6 beam. The surge that was present in the harbour required some creative thought to tying up so not to be rubbing Blue’s topsides on the pier.

We discovered Caretta docked across the alley from us and they were planning their departure, after having spent the past 3 days in Monterey. They were planning to head south in a few hours with their buddy boat Chavelita. As Caretta pulled out another BCA member, Nuage, pulled in crewed by Dave and Carol.

October 11-12

Sunny and cool, for our daily adventures in the city. We hopped on the local transit and checked out the neighboring communities. Seaside is similar to “Langford”, as that is where all the big box stores are located. Certainly the cost of housing is less than Monterey, similar to Victoria, but there wasn’t the concern or dedication to the landscaping/beautification requirements in Langford.

Monterey has a Farmers Market every Tuesday from 3-8:00 p.m. year round. They close a 6-8 block section right smack dab in the centre of town. The market has an interesting mix of goods and services available as well as the local foodstuffs and art/crafts. Some of the restaurants on the street provide samplers from their regular menu for customers to try as they cruise through the market.

October 13, 2005

Rick drove from Redwood City to join us for breakfast prior to our leaving Monterey. It was great to see him again. Dennis was going to join him as well, however, Dennis found a boat of his own the day before and was busy getting her in shape for his live aboard status in Pillar Point.

We prepared for an overnighter to Morro Bay. The day had started out sunny and warm, and within an hour we headed directly into a fog bank. I didn’t even get another peak at Pebble Beach.

I continue to be ever so grateful for radar to navigate around the obstructions that lay in wait. The fog lifted ever so slightly to let us know that night would soon be upon us.

We had big following seas and some light winds. We were actually able to sail for about a third of the time, a third of the time motor sailed, and the rest of the time we got to listen to the drone of the engine.

No birdies on this overnighter and I did miss them as it was a starless and thick night. However, I did have the company of a couple of dolphins or maybe they are porpoises leaping into the following seas. The first one scared the bejesus out of me as he exhaled as he popped out of the water. Dick had the pleasure of the companionship of a dolphin on his shift. He couldn’t see ‘him’ as they are very dark in color but he could see the phosphorescence streaming off his back as he dove under the boat and did U-turns, and generally just entertained him.

The sky cleared and my final night shift rewarded me with a beautiful sunrise. The seas had calmed and Dick was able to make coffee, what a wonderful treat, as he took over for his next shift.

As we approached Morro Bay, we saw a couple of humpback whales playing within a mile from shore. This is the first time we’ve sighted any whales. I’m surprized that they come so close into shore, I had always thought they would be a lot farther out.

We made arrangements with the Morro Bay Yacht club for a mooring buoy and slept for the rest of the day and night.

October 14-16, 2005

Sunny and warm

We were invited to the club’s Friday night meet and greet. We met some more Canadians, Dave and Judy from Daju Too. They are from Vancouver and are heading to Mexico in their brand new cat that Dave had built. I’m sure we’ll have them talked into joining Bluewater Cruisers by the time we leave Morro Bay.

We continue to meet the most amazing people. Neil and Judi on Twilight are another couple that has been an interesting find. They deliver boats up and down the coast, laugh lots, play cards and do improv. They invited us for a car ride to get a different perspective of Morro Bay, the bar and the town.

Headed into town to the local Internet café and met up with the crew from Nuage. They arrived the night before and had missed the meet and greet, as they needed the rest from their overnighter.

We, as well as a number of other folks are waiting for “the” weather window to go around Pt. Conception. And, just as a reminder of how important ensuring you’ve got that weather is, the wind picked up and howled up to 30+ kts. this afternoon in this quiet well protected harbour, folks including us, were busy securing, retying, and ensuring we would not be coming off their moorings or doing any damage to themselves or anyone else. The weather broadcast had the winds 45+ around the Pt. a good day to be in the harbour.

October 17, 2005

Sunny and warm as we prepare to leave for our journey around Pt. Conception (billed as the Cape Horn of North America). We spent the early part of the day shopping for supplies and enjoying a cultural event in the town centre (belly dancing).

Deju Too, another Canadian boat crewed by David and Judy are planning to head out as well. Their brand new catamaran was built by David and is on her maiden voyage. We left at the beginning of slack tide and headed out about 4 miles when the winds out of the south started howling directly up our nose at ~25 kts. that combined with the 7-9 ft. in 8 second swells from the northwest encouraged us to return to port and wait for another weather window. Deju Too returned to port about a half-hour after us as well.

October 18, 2005

Sunny and warm as we head out from Morro Bay. Calm seas and mild winds predicted for this leg of our journey. A friend of ours, Peter Hammond, a marine engineer and who has spent a great deal of time on the ocean in both huge container ships and small sailing vessels, had told me it was OK to be afraid when I’m out there. As he explained it heightened your senses and ensured you didn’t miss any potential problems. Well, I’ve heard Pete’s words repeated in my head many times on this journey and preparing for Pt. Conception and its notoriously bad reputation I was “heightened”. Fortunately, the fear I was anticipating was wasted as I wore sheet sleeves, took pictures, and generally “waited” as we made our way around the dreaded Point. I’m still not that excited about doing overnighters, but at least this leg was merely a tiring and chilly experience as we look forward to entering Santa Barbara.

Dick has suggested that we must have earned our karma points on past passages and that this leg was our bonus round.

The California coastline appears different to me from the coastline of Oregon. The hills somehow look softer and the outcroppings, though just as dangerous don’t have the same menacing look. It just doesn’t look as rugged. There is also a lot of kelp growing, 3-5 miles out, and in water that isn’t even being registered on the depth sounder. So, we know that it has to be over 400 ft. deep. The harbour seals and the sea otters make what I would describe as a kind of nest out of the kelp and they lay on it, resting between fishing expeditions!

There are oil platforms out here as well; they have a ugly/beautiful kind of presence. It’s curious, they are huge and are very well lit so they are easily navigable but it’s so foreign out here.

Happy 24th Bday Lane!

October 19, 2005

We arrived in Santa Barbara, to the sweet sounds of being hailed by our buddy boat Veleda. They were moored in Santa Barbara for the past 6 days and were heading out the morning we arrived. After we fueled up and set Blue into her berth we had a quick chat and coffee trying to catch up on the events of the past month with Jens and Alice.