Nov. 8

We had a great daysail covering the 60 nm from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz - sunny and 15-25 kts, however with the days getting shorter and the old girl's plodding gait it still took all of the hours of daylight we had.
We are getting better and better at sailing Picara downwind in the big swells but it seems that she can really only maintain 6 kts - when she's at 7 she starts feeling a little crazy-rolly, so we reduce sail.
Marni thinks she saw another blue whale on this leg - a really huge tall blow and big light-coloured tail -- but with the swell at 8-10 and wind waves 3-5, even a whale tail is hard to keep your sights on!
This is a beautiful section of coast, amazingly unpopulated for large stretches, with farmland stretching right down to the sea cliffs.
We anchored for the night in Santa Cruz, right in front of the amusement park that some people may remember from the '80s classic vampire movie 'The Lost Boys," then the next day motored in rolly but calm weather across the bay to Monterey.