Monterey and Pacific Grove Photo Gallery


Classic Pacific Grove view.

Hello from the beautiful Monterey Peninsula! We had been looking for some place to stay for a couple of weeks and finish up some more boat projects before heading to Mexico (fixing depth-sounder once and for all; installing 2 more solar panels; finishing installing the water-maker...among other things.) Monterey seemed to fit the bill for inexpensive moorage (off-season winter rates!) and close proximity to West Marine and other marine services. Plus the fact that we know the area well and have family friends here made it easy to stay. We've now been here two+ weeks and plan to leave this coming weekend, weather dependent... but wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves...

We spent the first few days in Monterey exploring old haunts. We've both spent a lot of time on the Monterey Peninsula, visiting Heidi's grandmother Wini. Heidi's mom grew up here, Heidi went to kindergarten in Pacific Grove, and worked on the Monterey Wharf one summer in college, so she has lots of roots here.


Grandma Wini's old home is now an Air B&B! (Check it out here: http://bit.ly/1SHH3fB.)

Wini's house, just one block from the beach in Pacific Grove, was sold a couple of years ago and much to our relief has been nicely renovated as an Air B&B rather than becoming the expected mega-mansion. Nice that it's still possible to stay there, although the house looks completely different on inside now, they kept the same general look outside.


Shopping the Monterey Farmer's Market with Sheila.

It has also been fun to visit our dear family friend Sheila who's known Heidi all her life. Sheila and her cute dog Bodhi have been our "taxi service" to the farmers market and the vet, to Costco and Home Depot, and we've shared many lovely meals and conversations together as well. Sheila even treated us to a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.


A visit to Monterey would be incomplete without a stop at the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

The Aquarium now stands on the former home of the Hovden Cannery where Heidi's grandfather Oxy was the comptroller in the heyday of Cannery Row in the 1930's. Even though he worked in the cannery offices and not directly with the fish, he apparently stunk of fish so badly that grandma would have him strip down outdoors each night when he came home, before coming indoors. We can only imagine! There's a saying here: Carmel By the Sea, Monterey By the Smell, and Pacific Grove By God (as it was a dry Methodist town in years past.)


An old Hovden Cannery Sardine label.


Old Cannery Row History...

It's been 2+ months since our last haircuts and our long "to-do" list of things to get done in Monterey included haircuts. Getting a haircut by someone you don't know is always a scary proposition, because hairstylists fall into that category of trusted people like doctors and dentists! We Googled and looked at Yelp and finally picked a place that had 4-stars and was medium priced and crossed our fingers as we walked in the door. As it turns out, Heidi got a good haircut (but not like Joe Carling's cuts!) and was done long before Kirk. Unfortunately, the gal who cut Kirk's hair--although touted to be the best stylist in the salon--just didn't get it. Kirk initially showed her a photo of him and just how he wanted his hair -- you all know the "Kirk Hackler look": all sticking up on top -- amazingly she just didn't believe that's what he really wanted (possibly her Ukrainian language was a barrier?) she soon had Kirk looking JUST like Darrin Stevens on Bewitched, hair plastered flat to his head and tucked behind his ear! Yikes!


Kirk's bad haircut temporarily turned him into Darrin Stevens from Bewitched!

From the waiting area Heidi hear a YELP for HELP and came running. She tried to explain to the stylist: "Like Rod Stewart", "sticky-upy-spikey on top", "like a porcupine!" "PUNK", we showed her lots of photos. No avail... the stylist even said "Maybe he WANTS to wear his hair this way now!" Really?! After both of us insisting she take more, and more hair off the sides and top, Heidi finally took the hair gel and hair dryer out of her hands and finished up Kirk's hairstyle herself. The woman was in shock, shaking her head in disbelief at how it looked, but we were finally happy enough with Kirk's hair that we got the hell out of there quickly! Kirk: "Heidi Molina where are you?!" [His hairdresser in Seattle was also named Heidi!]

Back at the marina, we met up with new cruising friends we'd first met in Santa Cruz: Maryalice and Rick on Notre Isle, and their friends Mary and Keith who are headed up to the Pacific Northwest to a new sailboat there. We have really had a great time with all of these guys and look forward to spending more time with Maryalice and Rick as we all sail to Mexico together. Currently they are a week ahead of us in Santa Barbara, but we will be catching up soon. Hoping our PNW friends meet up with Mary and Keith up north, they are super fun peeps!


Sailing Pals: Mary, Keith, Maryalice, Rick, Heidi, and Captain Kirk.


Inge, Heidi, Sheila and Bodhi.

We also met up with long-time family friend Inge, for a tour of Carmel By the Sea, a walk on the Carmel Beach, and delicious organic meals at Carmel Belle. Kirk's bare feet couldn't resist splashing in the Pacific Ocean on the Carmel Beach.


Carmel By the Sea.


The houses in Carmel are eclectic and organic; including this Frank Lloyd Wright designed Walker House, which looks like the bow of a ship, and this Fairytale-looking cottage, all in the multiple-millions.


It turns out that Inge's daughter is a holistic veterinarian (that Sheila takes Bodhi to!), so we took Tosh and Tikka to get their pre-Mexico check-ups. Sheila and Bodhi gave us all a ride to the vet, and Tikka and Tosh didn't even seem to realize there was a dog in the car!


We know we're biased, but can these two get ANY cuter?! ☺

Back aboard Due West our projects began full-tilt-boogie. We rented a dehumidifier for a week to help dry out the boat. The damp PNW air, combined with having 5 bodies + 2 cats breathing down the coast of Washington/Oregon, two pesky water-hose leaks, and cooking has all taken it's toll on the humidity level inside of Due West. Luckily Kirk did some fantastic sleuthing and finally found and fixed both water leaks--one little drip-drip-drip in the freshwater hose under the galley sink, and another in the salt-water intake hose for the head.


Due West dwarfing all the boats on F-dock in Monterey Harbor.


Heidi LOVES going aloft, the view from above is always incredible.

Kirk hoisted Heidi up the mast to replace our flag halyard that gave up the ghost in the last windstorm in Moss Landing. We also ordered and received our new Monitor Airvane to replace the one that was lost between Santa Cruz and Moss Landing. We now have a lanyard tied to it, and don't intend to lose it again!


Due West looked like the Clampetts (Beverly Hillbillies) for a few days while we aired out the damp insides including our sail inventory.

Our depth sounder battle continues on... we bought a new one and in the process of hooking it up and attempting to use the cable from the old one (thinking that the transducer had gone bad not the cable)--we discovered that it was actually a bad cable. So now we are wondering if the old transducer actually still works?! We'll find out tomorrow when we try to hook the new cable to the old transducer... We are hoping we'll end up with a spare (new) transducer and can continue to use the old one in place.

As for the other boat projects, we need to get our AIS transmitting to Marianne which involves checking more wires... AGAIN... feeling like we may still have some electrical gremlins aboard that we need to exercise. Two days of pouring rain, thunder, lightening and HAIL in Monterey put a damper on the outdoor projects, but we know how badly they need the water here so were happy to work indoors for a couple of days. We now have the new brackets to finish installing two more solar panels on the stern rail, so we'll finish installing the side solar panels before we head south this weekend. Still need to finish the water-maker, but that will likely wait until San Diego at this point.

In the Safety Department, we also purchased Personal Locator Beacons (personal EPIRBs) for each of us, as an extra back-up safety precaution. When activated, these PLBs send a signal including GPS coordinates to two different satellite systems, which then relay to the nearest local rescue agency. Along with our EPIRB, life raft, and ditch-bag we hope to NEVER have to use these devices, but it's good to have them just in case.

Heidi has been busy writing content for the Chopra Center and working her NYR Organic business port-to-port. She even welcomed a new consultant while in Monterey and continues to grow her sales team. Unfortunately, Heidi's Dad Verne continues to have a few health issues related to his stroke, so we are trying to get the boat south to a location we can leave her for a week or so (and find a cat sitter?!), to go visit him. We plan to stop and visit Heidi's mom and step-dad en-route at their new home near Tucson as well.


Captain Kirk met up with Captain Hook in Monterey!

In the Small World Department, Monterey is a hot spot! Captain Kirk met up with Captain Hook again! We also met fellow cruisers Ruth and Randy from Portland, and it turns out that Kirk and Ruth both used to work at David Evans (Kirk at the Bellevue office, Ruth at the Portland office) 15+ years ago and they had many colleagues in common. And Heidi noticed a woman kayaking by Due West who turned out to be one of her colleagues, Laura, from Aldus days-25 years ago! She now lives in Monterey and we plan to get together and kayak tomorrow--so far weather, boat projects, and to-do lists have stymied our kayaking ventures, but kayaks are going in the water tomorrow and we're excited to paddle around Monterey Bay.

Cool Animal Sightings:
The plethora of marine mammals that frequented Monterey Bay for the past few months has mostly migrated south and we hope to catch up with them in Baja next month. We've had lots of harbor seals, sea otters, and sea lions inside the marina. Plus lots of pelicans to keep us entertained as they fly and swoop and dive and fish!

We're on to Morro Bay and Santa Barbara next week...