Morro Bay to Santa Barbara
30 September 2011 | Santa Barbara Harbor
Our plan was to leave Morro Bay at 9:00am. At 8:30, we called the local Coast Guard to get the current conditions at the bar. They gave us a report of 5-7ft swells with the occasional 8 footer and building to 9-11ft as the day progressed. About the time 9:00am rolled around, so did the fog. A thick low cover of fog rolled into Morro Bay and made the visibility around 50 yards. Not good conditions for leaving a high breaking water bar area. So, we decided to have a good breakfast and let the sun do it's job of burning off the fog. After listening to Channel 16, we heard other boats coming into the harbor and reporting 5-7 ft swells. Feeling comfortable with that, we just need to wait for the fog to pull back.
Around 11am, the visibility was about 200 yards and we felt good about leaving Morro Bay. NOAA predicted 9-11 foot swells at 13 seconds apart and 10-15knots winds for the day. These are the normal weather conditions for Central and Northern California. We had no problems leaving Morro Bay and once we were about 2 miles outside of the bar area, the swells and fog grew heavier. We could feel the mist on our faces. We motored across the bay to Point Buchon and continued to head south.
The seas were confused for several hours. At times, it felt like the swells were coming from 3 different directions; from behind, across the starboard beam and right on the bow. We were in a washing machine; rocking from side to side and front to back, with the bow slapping down at times. Still under motor, Ethel ran great throughout the washing machine cycle! For the first time, we had a bottle of wine, nicely stowed in our wine rack, fling 7ft across the salon and land on the floor. Thank god for thick glass, because the bottle did not break!
Somewhere around Point Sal, the seas calmed and we had mostly following seas at our stern, with the occasional swell on the beam. Before sundown, we had our first visitor; a small bird, don't know what kind but it was fun having him around. He moved around the boat, checking things out and eventually flew right down into our cabin area and sat right on our paperchart. Since we were about 10 miles off land, we think this was his way of telling us to steer closer to land. With Tom at the helm, I immediately followed him down the cabin area, I needed to chase him out of the cabin and back outside! Armed with oven gloves, I was ready for a chase. For the next 5 minutes, I ran after him from stern to bow. Eventually, he flew out of the companionway and back to the cockpit. Shortly after, we were greeted to another, smaller bird, making our total visitor count of 2. We eventually closed our companionway, because the word was out and they both continued to try to get to the cabin area. At dark, both birds found a sleeping area in the cockpit and stayed the night with us. To our delight, a 3rd bird (a cormorant) joined us at dark and stayed on the mizzen all night long.
Right before dark, came thick low fog. Very dense, low visibility fog. I was at the helm and I think the visibility was at 40 yards. Kinda spooky and earie. Mist on the face. On my feet, constantly looking around for other boats. Always having an eye on AIS. Nothing out there. Fog turned into dark, mist on our face, wet droplets on our head. No rain, just condensation from the fog. The farther south we were, the dryer we became. Around 10pm, we rounded what is known as "The Cape of California." Point Conception is known as a point of extremes; either with little to no winds or a great deal of it. For us, we had no winds and following seas. The remainder of the night consisted of following seas and light winds. We passed about 4 oil rigs and no other vessels.
As the sun came up, we were approaching Santa Barbara. Welcome to Southern California!!! We were tied to the Harbor Patrol dock at 7:30am, and waited for their office to open so we could check in. After moving Tanga to our endtie and still feeling awake, we treated ourselves to breakfast before climbing into our cozy warm bed for much needed sleep. We woke back up around 1:00pm to the views of beach, palm trees and mountains! Again, welcome to Southern California!!
On a side note, our 3 visitors stayed the entire night on the boat and flew off after sunrise. They all left behind their bird poo. The cormorant is now fondly called "the crapper". He left behind a 2 1/2ft spread of poo all over our mizzen sail. Big bird equals big poo!
Trip Stats:
Total Miles: 120 nms
Average speed: 5.6 knots
Max Speed: 9.0 knots (surfing a wave)
Total time: 21.4 hours