Day Five

We sailed out of Morro Bay past the big rock headed for San Simeon in lite fog but still with a half mile of visibility.  We have radar so it was not a problem.
The winds were lite but built up to 23 by the time arrived. We dropped the hook in the center of bay at San Simeon Bay at 3 pm. When we arrived we were the only ones but by sun down we had two more sailboats and one fishing boat.  Three dolphins came to welcome us.

Two more first times for me.

The last time I was here there was a little store on shore.  I launched the dink and rowed in to get some bait.  It was an easy row to the beach and I road a small wave in to shore.  I have done this on a surf board but never in a dink.  I have seen this done on TV and in the movies,  I got lucky and almost bailed as a second wave pushed me up onto the beach.  I walked about a mile up the beach to where the store was, the store is no longer there!  The nearest store is 2-3 miles away and closed at 4pm.  It was 4:30.  Double bummer.

Back to the dink and now I have to time the small waves to get back to the boat.  Looks easy, right!  TV stars do it all the time.  I pushed the boat out counting the waves.  I missed counted and launched on the sixth one.  I pushed out into the surf, jumped in and started to row like crazy.  The seventh wave came in and I just barely made it over the top and out to sea.  That was close!
I  rowed back to the boat, wet up to my knees and decided OK that was the last time I would do that.

We had BBQ on the boat, watched the seals chasing their dinner and settled in for the night.  We will stay here tomorrow, do some fishing and leave for Monterey Bay in the early morning.