11/06/2007, San Diego, CA
After 2500 miles of trying to make decent speed, we found ourselves trying to heave to at less than one knot. Yup, that was us, hove to twenty five miles outside of San Diego. We tucked in about 4-8 miles off the coast waiting for daylight before entering into San Diego Bay. The idea of entering this busy harbor in the dark was about as appealing as sailing into a hurricane! When the sky lightened, we were confronted with fog. Luckily, we had our trusty radar and a mile of visibility. The channel was well marked so we had no problems finding our way to the Shelter Island Harbor. We are now tucked in at the Police Transit dock. Our first foray into the big city was Downwind Marine, where all things are possible! This is an amazing place catering to cruisers with a large supply of useful treasures, information, and a place to get mail. We drug our loot back to the boat, meeting other cruisers and gaining valuable information along the way. One of the great things about cruising is that we get to meet some great people. We are also learning that we run into friends in the harbors along the way. Joy of Life, whom we met in Sequim, WA showed up at Half Moon Bay, CA. We also met Aquarella at Bodega Bay, CA. That wonderful Canadian family showed up this morning at San Diego. Everywhere we go, there is a happy reunion amongst cruisers along with the joy of meeting new folks. We will be staying in San Diego for one or two weeks, depending on how soon we get chores completed before leaving the country. The engine is begging for new oil and fuel filters. We need to get some mail, and hopefully our documentation renewal forms! We may be adding a wind generator to help charge our batteries. The list is never ending!
| 2007 West Coast Adventure |
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Comments [2]
C&C
LucretiaB
-sounds like a good connection for you!
Love ya, Rob...
10/29/2007, Santa Barbara
October 30, 2007 Wow, what a passage! We had some great sailing from Half Moon Bay to Santa Barbara. It was probably the nicest trip we've done. Winds averaged 5-15 knots, except from Point Conception to Santa Barbara, where winds increased to 25+ knots. The sky was clear and the sun was warm. What more could a person ask for? We are anchored up and will decide this morning whether or not we spend one more night. This anchorage is really roly-poly! We got our opportunity to try out our new whisker pole. It performed beautifully. Bob, a friend we met at Bodega Bay showed us his set-up which has made deployment and retrieval very simple. Going down wind was one of our biggest weaknesses, thank to the whisker pole, we have solved that problem. Little by little, we are making this boat a great cruising machine. We now have most of our high priority items on board with the exception of a new jib, solar panels, and wind generator.
| 2007 West Coast Adventure |
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October 26, 2007 The weather continues to show promise for the next four days. Unless something unusual occurs, we will leave tomorrow morning. The last minute preparations are complete, and this is the time I start "pacing", going back over the route, checking on the tides and currents (negligible here, but a habit from years of navigating in big tides and currents). I also start stashing those little items that will be airborne later! Everything that needs charging is charging while we have shore power tonight. I learned my lesson, when the cell phone went dead trying to talk with a harbormaster. I also double check out on deck little things like cotter pins, lines in the correct locations. Tomorrow morning we will top off the fuel and water, get the main cover unzipped, halyard attached, and all the sheets ready. We sure have enjoyed Half Moon Bay. Right now there are two other Alaska boats in the harbor. It sure has been nice visiting with them. We especially enjoyed visiting with the commercial fishermen. The harbor staff has been great, and we definitely recommend this place for cruisers passing through!
| 2007 West Coast Adventure |
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Well, we are storing our latest provisions, checking the weather, and getting the last "must complete" stuff checked of the list. A weather window is developing for Saturday, October 27. This looks like it will be our latest sailing date. We did get a lot accomplished at Half Moon Bay. The whisker pole is ready to go now. Yanmar parts finally arrived, and now the single sideband radio is up and running. So, are you curious about our trip from Bodega Bay to Half Moon Bay? And whatever happened to those plans of cruising San Francisco Bay? Well, here is the story: We left Bodega Bay, bound for Drakes Bay. The weather was decent, light south winds, with north swells averaging about 8 feet. The light winds on the nose were tolerable, but we spent the 5 hour trip mostly motoring. Drakes Bay is a large bay tucked around the corner from Point Reyes. The scenery was beautiful, pastoral with cows mooing in the fields and a couple of fishing boats anchored near a pier. The night started out fine, with no wind. We were anchored in 18 feet of water, the shallowest we have ever anchored. We are not accustomed to small 6-7 foot tides! The winds were supposed to shift to the west, but by 2am, it was blowing 15 from the south, and were were totally exposed to them. We sat up, listening to the weather and decided not to leave at 3am for San Francisico Bay, just lay low until the blow passed by. While were were setting up an anchor snubber, I continued to check on how we were holding. We started dragging at 4:00, going to 9 feet of water in just a few minutes. Up came the anchor, and we motored back and forth deciding on our next move. The weather report did not match our observation. The wind was blowing 18-20 directly into the bay. We had two choices, stay, hope that the wind would shift, or get out of the bay and make for Half Moon Bay. We had missed our tide window for San Francisco. We decided to leave. We knew we would get hammered in the ocean, but it sure beat getting washed up on the beach! The move turned out to be a good one, although it was the worst trip I'd ever been on. We had 14-16 foot seas from one direction, chop from another, and south winds on the bow gusting to 30 knots. We had 1/2 mile of visibility with heavy rain, most of the way and only found the freighters and other boats by radar. When we arrived at Half Moon Bay, I was never so glad to see a breakwater! It was also the first time I've ever been really seasick. Let me tell you, it was not fun! The weather continued to be poor for another day or two. We would have played anchor games at Drakes Bay for another 48 hours! We managed to get our West Marine parts by driving down to Monterey where we had them sent. While there, we visited the Monterey Aquarium and walked down Cannery Row. The aquarium was spectacular!!! I highly recommend it! We also made a trip back to Saulsalito, and did go over the Golden Gate Bridge. Not as exciting, but it was a beautiful day, and we drove around the city looking at all the beautiful buildings. We sure have enjoyed staying at Half Moon Bay. The Princeton Seafood restaurant does have a great crab sandwich!!! That is saying a lot from an x-commercial fisherman!
| 2007 West Coast Adventure |
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