Adventures of Bliss
| Vessel Name: | Bliss |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Pearson 385 |
| Hailing Port: | Berkeley, CA |
| Crew: | Jolanda de Boer, Tod Flak |
30 September 2010
Wine tasting in Napa
Some times a change in plans is the best thing ever. In this case: taking a car with A/C and not a bike to do a wine tour as the weather was still in the lower 100's, and wineries are located on hills. I'm not a kind of person that wears butt padded shorts when I bike, so we'll take that tandem another [...]
28 September 2010 | Napa, CA
Leaving the Delta
We've enjoyed the delta, and were glad we checked it out. For us, September was a good time to go, as it was a quiet during the week, but not so much during the weekend, and we can imagine that the summer can get pretty busy here. It's a place where motor crafts seem to rule, and with that comes a certain [...]
26 September 2010 | Eden Isle
An adventuresome day
Jolanda: Tod wanted to spend some time fishing today, taking the dinghy, so we came up with the plan that we would tow the kayak 2 miles down the river to Paradise Marina, and he would go on his merry way into a more remote slough. Now, 2 miles might not be that much if you walk , however ½ [...]
25 September 2010
Eden Island
Down the Potato slough, up the Disappointment slough, you will find Eden Island, a small private island bought by some members of the BYC decades ago (principally motivated by microcomputer designer Adam Osborne) . Steve and Maureen [...]
24 September 2010
On the hook in the Delta
Friday 9/24: Time for some fishing and trying the tree tie. Three River Reach came up as a good location to anchor, but luck and weeds were not on our side. We approached from the river, and saw a couple of fishing boats close to shore. Ah, times you wish you had a retractable keel....The center of the [...]
23 September 2010 | Bethel Island, CA
Relaxing on pretty Bethel Island
As we sailed under the Antioch bridge on Wednesday and down the San Joaquin River to go to Bethel island, we both were not immediately warmed up to the scenery. Not much hills left, and surrounded by power lines. However, the moment we went up False River, we were more surrounded by tule, and pretty [...]
Cojo anchorage
[For our non-sailing readers, "Point Conception" is well known to anyone who cruises along the California coast as a most unpleasant little area. It is at this point that the California coast turns from lying NW-SE, to take an abrupt eastward turn over toward Santa Barbara; thus is forms a natural dividing line between central CA and southern CA. Since the nineteenth century it has been called the "Cape Horn of the Pacific" (which may be a bit overly dramatic). Here the land sticks out a little bit, interrupting the N-NW winds and swell that have travelled over open ocean for thousands of miles. The effect of this is to cause big wind and waves, and really unpleasant travelling! A standard strategy is to wait at the little Cojo Anchorage just east of the point, then get up in the middle of the night to make the rounding at the calmest possible time.]
Santa Barbara Channel was quite calm for most of the day, with moderate waves, so the motoring part wasn't too bad at all. We listened to the buoy reports and forecasts several times when we got closer to Cojo, and it all seemed quite doable. So, when close to Cojo, (we were 5 miles off shore), we decided to continue, and grab the chance to round the cape in moderate conditions. But after passing Cojo, those buoy reports seem to come from another planet.... while the weather buoy just 6 miles to our south was reporting light winds and small 6-ft waves, what we hit was more like gusts to 30 knots and 10-foot waves! By the time we decided to go back to our original plan and head over to Cojo Anchorage, we had to travel with the waves on our beam (sideways to the waves) for about 5 miles, during which time we took a couple of very, very impressive splashes! We spent quite a while drying out the inside of the boat after we dropped anchor. After we dropped the hook, we were surprised by the beauty of this anchorage, it reminded us of Forneys on Santa Cruz island. The two boats washed ashore on the beach reminded us that this is not always a restful place.
