WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2007 – San Francisco to Half Moon Bay
The morning dawned clear, sunny and calm. It was a spectacularly beautiful day for us to begin our journey and transition into cruising. Yesterday, we had taken Mom and Dad out for a Bay Cruise, and while it had been sunny, it was windy. We had ended the day with a lovely salmon dinner at the dock aboard Mystic Moon with them and the Maizels from AnnaRuth. It was a most enjoyable evening and everyone was in high spirits in anticipation of setting out (and Mom and Dad in anticipation of finally getting us out of their hair!).
By 0805, AnnaRuth and Mystic Moon were leaving the dock at Emeryville. The Bay was incredibly calm – the calmest we had experienced during the entire summer. There were no white-caps at all; it reminded me of some of the beautiful waters on the Inside Passage.
At 0920 we came under the Gate for what, we hope, will be the last time in a very long time. There were a few swells over the bar, but a very comfortable ride. Forty-five minutes later, we made the turn south around the first buoy and couldn’t contain ourselves any longer – we did our Margaritaville jig up on the flybridge J. Warm water and weather here we come! Woo-hoo!!!!
The run down to Half Moon Bay was very, very pleasant. We spent a good portion of the ride up on the flybridge in the sun. We did have some large swells on our beam, but the stabies did a good job and, in any event, the swells were long and well spaced. There was virtually no traffic either, with the exception of a whale that surfaced on our starboard bow. He must have been on a mission, though, because as quickly as he was there, he was gone again. We arrived at Pillar Point at 1200, and took on 350 gallons of diesel @ $2.88/gallon, much cheaper than the fuel in SF. While we fueled, we were enthtralled with the pelicans on the breakwater – there were literally hundreds of them.
After fueling, we joined AnnaRuth at the dock and ventured ashore . It was a lovely afternoon, so we decided we’d have an early dinner (or dunch, as John & I call it) and found the Half Moon Bay Brewery at the top of the hill. We sat outside and had cheeseburgers in Paradise and toasted our first passage after the summer sojourn in SF. The warm weather and wine relaxed us and we ended up heading back to our boats and making it an early evening. John & I were in bed by 2000 – all those hours of prep and getting Dave off to school wore our butts out! Sometimes I really hate getting old…….
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 – Half Moon Bay to Monterey
The forecast for today was for NW winds 12- 15 knots, with NW swells 4-6 feet and a SW swell running 1-2’. It seemed very doable to us, and so we set out of HMB at 0750 to do the 83 mile run to Monterey. All was well for the first hour and a half, and then it was like we hit a wall. We could see the fog bank in the distance, and right off of San Gregorio, we entered it. The winds went from East at 8kts to South at 24 knots in minutes, and visibility of less than ½ mile. It was really strange how quickly the sea state changed. It actually looked angry to me.
At any rate we radioed Jake and Susanna, and agreed that things were still okay, and we would stick it out. By 1100, the fog had become high marine layer and the winds and seas had moderated somewhat. There was still lots of chop and confused seas, but it seemed to us that conditions were improving. By noon, we knew we were very mistaken. Swells built to be very close together and steep, with chop breaking on top. Curiously, the wind continued to die out, but the seas continued to build. We were doing a lot of pitching and rolling, even with the stabes working their little hydraulic hearts out. It was not comfortable at all and we played with several tacks trying to find a more comfortable heading. It didn’t seem to matter which way we went, the seas were coming from every direction, and unfortunately, we were committed to Monterey.
We ended up having a very uncomfortable ride all the way into Monterey. Washing machine is an extremely apt description. The winds died out to 5 knots, but still the seas were steep and confused. We took several 30 to 35* rolls, and even had some green water over the bow. Yuck!!!! The boat did great – John & I subsisted on ginger snaps and gingerale and focused on hanging on!
We at long last arrived in the protected waters of the Monterey marina at 1700. The salon was a mess. Books on the floor, chairs slid across the rug, and countertop items askew. We had things go that had never gone before. The only casualties, though, were a couple of glasses in one of the lockers, so all-in-all, not too bad, considering. We did find 2 leaks, one of which we’ve had before and thought we had cured. Will have to take a hose to the flybridge and try again to isolate it.
We docked next to the headwalk and although the slip was plenty large, we had winds blowing and current running and had to take an extra go at it to get into the slip. Sealions were on every unoccupied dock, and even on some of the occupied ones, too. They were barking like crazy and making a racket! Another boater had to even shoo one off our dock before we landed. It was pretty amazing to see so many together like that!
Jake and Susanna invited us to their boat for a drink, so after we got the boat tied up and things resettled we headed across the marina to AnnaRuth, who was tied on one of the endties near Fisherman’s Wharf. We were all a little ragged around the edges after our rough passage and thoroughly enjoyed our drinks, reliving the day’s events. Dinner at one of the seafood restaurants on the wharf pretty well finished us off and we fell into bed to the symphony of sealions honking.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 20007 – Monterey
Neither John nor I slept well and were both up early due to the noisy racket outside our portholes. Those guys had kept it up all night long! Sheesh!! Don’t they need to sleep??? The waiter last night had said it was mating season and that’s why they had all congregated here and were so noisy. I don’t know if that’s true or not – my books say mating season is earlier, but I don’t think the sealions have a library to checkout and read the books. It sure looked like mating season with females in a group and males jockeying to get near them!
The other thing we heard last night at dinner was that the big swells we encountered yesterday were from the hurricane in Mexico. John and I had talked about that while underway, but it seemed incredible that the swells could travel 800 miles north and still be so big. We have so much to learn……and even NOAA and our weather service, Buoy Weather hadn’t predicted them either. Still, in hindsight, I feel like we should have taken this into account. Like I said…….. (So..…Jerry……do you ever think we’ll get past the Grasshopper stage??? ;)
Well, lessons learned and experience gained, I suppose. At any rate, we spent the morning cleaning up the mess in the boat, and John washed the encrusted salt off of her. It was incredible how much salt we were carrying!! Later, he tested our watermaker in anticipation of cruising the Channel Islands, and sure enough, it wasn’t working – the thing sounded like it was farting – not good! After talking with Mary at HRO, we were pretty sure we had another O-ring failure(s) on our ETD and would have to change them all out again, just like we did in Alaska. Aaaaarrrrgggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fortunately, we had a spare set of (the 40) o-rings, but taking the thing apart and putting it back together was daunting. We did find a guy who was “good at taking things apart and putting them back together” and he agreed to come to the boat tomorrow to lend moral/practical support.
That settled, we met up with Jake and Susanna to do the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We have been here several times before, but it was a few years ago, and we had heard that they had added more and better exhibits. We always thought the aquarium was world class before, so were anxious to see it now. It was great!!! IMHO, it is a do not miss on this itinerary! The aquarium was extremely well done, and the time spent there was well worth while. Do see it if you come this way.
Leaving the aquarium in late afternoon, we wandered the streets of Monterey and stopped at one of the shoreside restaurants for a drink. We were not enticed by their menu, so walked back to the harbor and had dinner at the Sandbar and Grill near our boat. It was excellent, and so had a delicious dinner. Jake and Susanna joined us back at Mystic Moon for port and wine, and we had a very nice day in spite of our watermaker issues. As they were leaving the boat, we noticed a sealion on our dock very near the boat, and I went out to shoo him off (after picking up the camera in order to get a picture). He hissed and then barked at me so aggressively, that I was startled and forgot all about picture taking and used my MomVoiceForBigBoys to address him, and he jumped off into the water. So much for the pic, although I think Susanna may have got one. He was one big dude (almost as tall as me)! But the nerve!!!
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2007 - Monterey
This day was a work day on board. Jake and Susanna had work to do on AnnaRuth for a scientific seminar they’re doing on the web, and we had our boat issues to tend to. John and David (the “handy” guy) spent the better part of the day taking apart and rebuilding the ETD. I resecured everything on the flybridge, finished inventorying and stowing our medical supplies and a few other items that seemed to be questionable. David had to leave before John could resinstall the ETD, so after the reinstallation, John realized that the ETD still had leaks. He took it apart yet again, and found more, and deeper, scarring of some of the metal parts. We can’t seem to get away from metal shards getting into the ETD. Personally, I think we got a “lemon” from the factory. They build these things to such fine tolerances because of the pressures involved, that any little bit of debris or metal burs will put a big gouge into the device and render it unable to hold pressure and thus, unusable. There has got to be a better way? Whatever, we are without a watermaker until this is resolved. John is afraid we will have to replace the ETD – ouch!!
Needless to say, our day was long, as was Jake and Susanna’s. They ended up staying aboard to eat, but we needed to get off the boat, so went to the Japanese Steak House by the docks for dinner. It was good, and we had enough food to have lunch tomorrow, as well.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2007 – Monterey to San Simeon
We knew this would be a long run, so wanted to get up and out early, and also to avoid those afternoon winds, so at 0630, we were untied and leaving the Monterey docks. The morning was very grey and damp, but calm. We saw tons of birds – pelicans, gulls, cormorants, all sorts of seabirds. I just don’t remember there being so many birds around in the past. I think that may be a good thing in that they are finally recovering after the years of DDT and pesticide pollution. There really are hundreds of them. Very, very cool!!!
We had an unbelievable run to San Simeon. As awful as our run was to Monterey, our run to San Simeon was that wonderful. It was oily calm. I haven’t seen waters like that since the Inside Passage of BC! It was gorgeous!!! The seas were lake-like, and we saw whales, huge moon jellies, dolphins feeding off our bow, sealions frolicking (I think the mating thing may have been correct ;)) more whales, a sealion leaping out of the water doing flip after flip (John & I decided that he must have had his way with the princess-sealion of his choice J). It was interesting on the whales…..they appeared to be humpbacks, but I guess I wasn’t expecting them……I was thinking we’d see Greys…..but these guys definitely had the dorsal fin and did the tail flip characteristic of humpbacks. The last few guys we saw had groups of small sealions racing overtop, apparently cleaning up any leavings of fish left behind. The sealions were remarkably small, though, so I wonder if they are a separate species or if they are the yearling pups left behind to feed for themselves while there mothers go to mate again. I could really use a good, long internet connection!!!
Anyhow, we made it to the anchorage at San Simeon, in spite of all the traffic J and found one other sailboat at anchor, We set our anchors, and invited Jake and Susanna to MM for tacos (my specialty – sorry, Sandy) and they were going to come over after Jake took JP (their dog) to shore in the rowing dinghy, with the 2 hp motor.
San Simeon has a bit of a reputation amongst cruisers…..that is, its shoreline always has breakers on it, and there have been many who have been dumped from their dinghies as they attempted to land/depart the beach, so we had our binocs trained on Jake and JP. They made it to shore just great, JP did his stuff in record time, and the 2 of them loaded into the dinghy to head back and then, I heard an “oh sh**” from John. Sure enough, the dinghy had been flipped by a breaker! We were so worried because we couldn’t see Jake or JP. Pretty soon, we spotted Jake and shortly thereafter, spotted JP in his yellow PFD. Whew! In the meantime, we tried to get our dinghy ready to ashore (after 3 months of being idle) in case we needed to get ashore to render some assistance,
Long story short, we were in contact with Susanna, and by the time we got our dinghy ready to launch, Jake had gotten things squared away ashore and managed to row beyond the breakers with JP, and all was well, although a bit wet and cold. We were just so happy that no one got hurt and everybody made it back to the boat safely. It was very scary not being able to see Jake and the pupper after they were dumped by the wave; come to find out later that they both were trapped under the dinghy for a bit, but Jake said they had an air space. Still…..Jake did some quick thinking and major physical stuff to get them out and back ashore and back into the dinghy to row back out to the boat (the motor was fried). He’s my hero! Good job, Jake!!
Needless to say, the Maizels didn’t make Taco night and had soup, hot showers, and fluffy towels aboard AnnaRuth. John and I had a bite to eat and then called it a night, relieved that what could have been so awful turned out to be just wet and cold and, as I understand it, so very sandy.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 – San Simeon
We had intended to go to Hearst Castle today as we had heard the visitor’s center was nearby and that they ran buses up to the castle from there. We radioed Jake and Susanna to see how they were feeling this morning after all the excitement yesterday. They said all was well, except AnnaRuth was a big sandy mess and then there was also the matter of the dinghy motor. They decided they’d go today to Morro Bay to try and get boat, dog, and motor cleaned up. We opted to hang out in San Simeon another day because we really were intrigued with the big white castle up on the hill above us. Checking tides, we figured if we left straight away, we could get in and out on the rising tide.
I went below to get a quick shower and noticed that there was some standing water outside the forward head. I glanced and then stepped into the head – and into a good inch of cold water on the floor. Yikes! Water in boat – not good!! Calling John, I tasted the water and realized that it was fresh, so at least we didn’t have to be concerned about imminent sinking!
We found the leak pretty quickly – a hose under the sink carrying freshwater to the head had chafed on some rough fiberglass beneath it. It was a pinsize hole, but the water was coming out in a solid stream. Having no ballvalve on this hose, we shut down the freshwater pump and began trying to find a repair. Long story short, none of the repair products we had on board worked worth a darn. Luckily, there was plenty of hose to work with, so John eventually just cut the hose and reattached it to the fitting. He also applied some chafe guard around it.
By this time, we were almost at high tide, but decided what the heck, we’ll just get dressed and spend the day at Hearst Castle, have a bite to eat and then return this evening when the tide comes back up. I was pretty nervous about beaching the dinghy, but off we went.
We landed the dinghy just fine – didn’t even get too wet – and dragged her up on shore and secured her with the anchor. It was a pretty long walk down the beach to the group of buildings I had surmised must be the visitor’s center, and I nervously watched the breakers we’d later have to negotiate. Approaching the buildings, we realized that they were all private homes and a campground. Oops! We walked up to the road and saw the sign pointing up the hill to Hearst Castle. We thought we could just make out the visitor’s center about half way up the hill. The café and little store were no where in sight, but were probably down the road and around the corner.
Well, it just seemed like it wasn’t meant to be, so we gave it up and high-tailed it back to the dinghy to get her launched before we were stranded for hours. The surf line had already started receding, but we were able to rock, drag, rock, & drag Moonshadow into deep enough water to float her. We pulled her out, struggling to keep her bow into the surf, waiting for a good time to hop in start the motor and take off. We had decided that I’d hold the dinghy while John got the motor started and then I’d jump in and off we’d go. Getting drenched from the breakers, we finally found a good interval and John got into the dinghy and cranked the motor. No joy. The motor wouldn’t turn over. By this time, I’ve had several breakers wash over me, taking my breath away, but still managing to keep Moonshadow from going broadside to the waves. After about 4 more tries, the motor finally turned over, and I belly flopped into the dinghy while John gunned the dinghy through the swells. No, it was not pretty, and I was drenched, but at least we didn’t flip her.
Getting beyond the breaking swells, both of us looked at each other and had a serious fit of the giggles. Geeze, are we the Youngbloods or what??
Beings that we were out in the dinghy anyway and had the rest of the afternoon, we took a little dinghy tour of the bay and found numerous small overhangs and even a good-sized blow hole. There was a small otter sharing our anchorage and he was busy catching mussels and cracking them open on his chest. Eventually, I did start to get really chilled, so we brought the dinghy home and spent the rest of the afternoon puttering around the boat. We had popcorn for dinner and John watched Monday night football while I read for a most relaxing evening.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2007 – San Simeon to Morro Bay
We upped our anchor at 0800 to get an early start as the winds were predicted to rise this afternoon. The seas were swelly, and we had about a ½ mile visibility due to fog, but the ride was not uncomfortable. We called the Maizels to see what the mooring situation was like in Morro Bay, as we had heard that things are pretty loose and that you tie up wherever you can find a spot. Jake confirmed this and told us there was room behind him on the dock at Morro Bay Yacht Club.
By 0930, the fog had lifted to be just a high marine layer, and the swells were only 1 to 2 feet. I worked some on the logs, and it was very quiet. We saw only a few fishing boats and one motor yacht going north. John put a line out to troll (he’s hoping for tuna), but no luck thus far.
We pulled into the dock behind AnnaRuth at 1115. Morro Bay is a very cute town: lots of fishing boats tied up to the docks, and cute restaurants and stores lining the waterfront. The Morro Bay Yacht Club is simply one long dock, some mooring balls, and an adorable building out over the water. There was no one there, and the harbor patrol had said there probably wouldn’t be anyone there until 5pm or so as this is the off-season.
We spent the afternoon getting settled in. Zephefre, a sailboat, came in and our 3 boats filled the dock at MBYC. John called Mary at HRO to try and make a plan to fix our watermaker. She seems to be very busy and difficult to get by phone. Finally, they connected and she recommended two boat yards in Ventura that are authorized to work on their products. John got a hold of one them and they said they didn’t have time to do the work. Finally, he was able to talk with the second one, and Mark there recommended that he ship the unit back to HRO today, in hopes that they could get it done and back to him to reinstall during our time in Ventura. John tried to get ahold of Mary to let her know what we wanted to do, all to no avail.
In the meantime, we found a UPS Store up in town and got directions to that over the phone. The guy said it was only about 7 blocks, so John took the ETD in the cart to get it on the shipment today. He finally got Mary on the hike to the UPS (it was closer to a mile – all uphill!) and she was not happy at all that we were trying to send in a unit without the proper RMA. After a few words, she agreed to give John the RMA so that we could return the piece of crap to be worked on. SHeesh! Can anyone say Customer Delight????? What do you think the odds are that we will get our unit back in a timely fashion??
With the ETD sent off, John returned to Mystic Moon, and we went over to AnnaRuth to visit with them. Susanna had bought several wines from the area, and we had a delightful winetasting in their pilothouse. Everyone seems to have recovered nicely from their spill, with the exception of the dinghy motor, and Jake was still working on that. They were eating in tonight, and John had noticed several restaurants down the street that looked good, one of which offered all you could eat Dungenous crab on Tuesday night, which sounded really good to us.
The restaurant was just down the street, and when we went in, it was full. John and I waited at the bar, chatting with the bartender, who was very entertaining. After not being seated for a while, we asked if we could eat at the bar, and the bartender said he’d be glad to serve us. The food was very good, and while the crabs were not quite as good as catching fresh ones in Alaska, they were still delicious and we had a bit of a raucous evening, with the bartender telling stories and bringing crab until we were ready to burst. Then he decided that what we really needed was to taste more of their local wines, so he proceeded to open several bottles for tasting. It was fairly late when we made our way back to the boat. Fortunately it wasn’t far home, as we fell into bed, asleep before our heads hit the pillow.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2007 – Morro Bay
In watching the weather for our passage around Pt. Conception, it looked like Friday would be a better day for rounding the point than Thursday, so we opted to stay in Morro Bay another day. It really is quite picturesque, with big sand dunes protecting the harbor from the Pacific Ocean. There are lots of otters here, and they would come drifting in and out with the tidal currents, laying on their backs, munching their shellfish of choice. I just don’t get tired of the watching them. There are way more otters here than I have seen in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. And they are huge! There were two hanging out in the Monterey Bay marina that were absolutely immense.
At any rate, we spent a very leisurely day in Morro Bay, calling dial-a-ride to take us up the Albertson’s to pick up a few items. John was really excited because he managed to get our Satellite phone working again. (The sim-card up in the radome was loose and corroded), plus, he and Jake found a website that tells you the times the satellites will be available, so we might even be able to make a call!
On the downside, we discovered that the sliding door to our television had somehow come off the pulley and was binding up. We talked with Brad by phone and he explained the method of taking off the side panels to access the pulley and counter weight. This is the drawback to being in heavy seas, I guess – not only is it hard on the people, but the boat takes a beating, too. Anyway, it was fixable, but the TV would have to come out in order to fix it. We decided to tackle that one another day.
We had a late lunch with Jake and Susanna at a BBQ place downtown that was very good and a lot of fun. Later, over a drink in our cockpit, we discussed our plan to go to Port San Luis tomorrow to be in place for an early morning departure to round Pt. Arguello and Pt. Conception on Friday. We were all watching the weather very carefully.