07/01/2009, Back in Palo Alto
My favorite stops/events were (in no particular order):
-San Blas Jungle Tour -- seeing birds and HUGE crocodiles
-Isla Isabella - hiking near boobies and frigate birds in the volcanic caldera
-Isla Grande/Ixtapa snorkelling
-Manta and other rays jumping in Baja
-new friends
-girls sailing trip on Elainium
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Love, Carolyn, Eric, Trevor and Colin
07/01/2009, San Francisco!
The sun started to peek out as we passed under the Golden Gate. We turned off the engine to 15+ knot winds and hit about 7.5 knots as we rounded Yellow Bluff under reefed main and #4 headsail. So after 5,100 miles sailed over 7 ½ months, we've crossed our return path!
We were happy to be back in the marina in Sausalito by about 4 pm and to pass M/V Quan Yin, who we had first met at Isla Isabela, berthed less than 100 yds away!
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Love Kathi and family
07/01/2009, En route- Monterey to SF
We watched weather (on Kirk's blackberry!) and found that wind and wave conditions had settled enough for a comfortable trip from Monterey to SF. We departed at around 5 am on a highish tide to make sure we had the depth to leave the marina without going aground. Kirk and I departed without waking the kids and made our way out through the channel and out into Monterey Bay. The fog accompanied us (as did some Risso's dolphins with the tall dorsal fin) as we motored our way north. With mild waves, we were able to cross the San Francisco bar and enter the bay near the Cliff House and Ocean Beach.
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06/29/2009, Moss Landing
Since our arrival on the 21st, the wind had picked up a bit and the waves were a little bigger, so we had an official lay day (ok, we'd gotten a bit spoiled and didn't want to go out if it was a bit bumpy...) We saw Western Flyer depart (not an insignificant feat since there's about one boat length (i.e. 120 ft) aft before there's another dock and WF is almost square (think driving a large tennis court), so departure can take about 15 minutes! We give the crew a "10" for a difficult maneuver (although the controls are with a joy stick and the thrusters, rudder/propeller controls computer integrated so the driver doesn't have to try to control them individually).
We spent some time at the internet café and enjoyed watching the sea lions, seals and otters. There's a large group of sea lions that have taken over the dock across from south harbor- the three nights we stayed there were LOUD! For unknown reasons, one of them starts bellowing (often between the hours of 1 - 5 am when we're sound asleep), which then sets off the rest to bark, snort, and probably fart. We were relieved to return to the south end of the harbor where the harbor seals look at you with limpid dark eyes but say nothing!
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06/29/2009, Moss Landing
The MBARI Western Flyer (named after John Steinbeck's boat that voyaged into the Sea of Cortez in the 1940's) is truly out of Jacques Cousteau. The area between the hulls is a moon pool with a crane for the remote operated vehicle (ROV or submersible) launches, and a huge ROV operations room with space for the ROV operator, the ROV arm manipulator, scientist and some first class airline seats for the viewing audience (the kids were most impressed with the potential to watch Disney Channel on about 4 different big screens in the ROV operations room). The ROV is named Doc Rickets after Steinbeck's sidekick (and some say primary source/author) of the Log of the Sea of Cortez.
We learned that pink yard flamingos are used to mark locations on the ocean floor- sadly, these flamingos are no longer in production, no doubt resulting in a crushing blow to marine research.
We also saw crews quarters, the galley (had a little snack), the bridge deck (not a wheel to be seen actually, steering is done with thrusters and remotely operated rudders - Bay Wolf is an incredibly simple boat!), and the generator rooms in the hulls. Propulsion is by diesel generators that power electric motors!
After our tour, Miya and Romi enjoyed playing with the other kids who were around for Memorial Day Weekend while we got to know better some of the members of the yacht club some of whom had cruising dreams. We enjoyed a yummy chicken cacciatore dinner!
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06/17/2009, Elkhorn Slough/Moss Landing
The sun peeked out a bit and warmed up on Sunday to make a beach walk enjoyable. We saw the raft (group) of about 26 sea otters across from the Yacht Club! It's thrilling to see so many of a species which has neared extinction in California (there are about 2,750 although the population could have been in the hundreds of thousands in the early 1900s). The resident harbor seals that hang out on the sand bar are nice and cute and VERY quiet when compared to the sea lions!
We hung out at the Elkhorn YC, the kids watched a little bit of cable TV (!) and started a marathon Monopoly game with their new friend Logan who lives on a boat. Somehow, we wound up at the bar (again) and met Brian, who's the skipper of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) 117 foot small water-plane area twin hull (SWATH) vessel (aka motor catamaran) that launches remotely operated vehicles (submersibles). He offered a tour of the boat on Monday, so what were we to do but to stay another day!
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