Hi again.

This blogging is a lot harder than I expected! We have never been much for journal keeping, but after reading several other blogs, I want to try keeping ours a little more up to date. I'm sure it will make for good memories as well as letting friends and family know what we are up to.

San Francisco was a welcome treat. We had often driven around San Francisco on our yearly trips to California, not wanting the hassle of driving through a major city. Wrong. After almost two weeks of exploring San Francisco and the surrounding area, I found myself saying that San Francisco could actually be a vacation destination. So much to see and do. Everyone very friendly. Terrific transportation systems. GREAT restaurants! We moved through four different marinas from Sausalito to Saint Francis to downtown South Beach and finally Berkley. Each had their own benefits. Sausalito was our first stop since the Americas Cup racing was going on and we had a hard time finding anything in San Francisco. It was very quiet with many shops and restaurants nearby yet only a short 20 minute ferry ride to downtown San Francisco. It's where we saw our first palm trees of the trip! After groceries, laundry and boat shops, we spent the rest of the first week taking daily trips downtown by ferry.

Saint Francis Yacht Club was next. We were expecting this to be the best of our choices and from a sailing standpoint it probably was. Saint Francis is host to next year's Americas Cup Challenge. The clubhouse has several nice restaurants and bar areas that are just perfect for watching close up action of the racing that seems to go on daily right in front of the club. With the regular and steady 20+ knots of wind the area gets every day, it makes for an exciting spectator location. Chris joined us while at Saint Francis and managed to convince me to go to one of California's biggest monthly "flea Markets". A great place to get rid of your junk at outrageous prices, or to snoop around looking for valuable collectables. It's all in the perspective I guess :-) Our trip out for a late lunch and wine at the Culinary Institute Of America in Napa offset the "bargain hunting" of earlier that day, although Chris HAD managed to find a collector's item wooden box used to carry bottles of orange juice back in 1524 (or maybe later?). Before Chris left we took in the play "War Horse". Very well done bringing tears to all before the happy ending. Thanks for dropping by Chris. Your visits are always welcome.

After two days at Saint Francis we were asked to leave to make room for race boats. Off to South Beach Marina which is situated on the North side of downtown right next to the Giants ballpark. It was a sunny long weekend and the Giants had a home field stretch. Great crowd noise and another of the few big cities where singing the National Anthem is shared by all. Goosebumps. South Beach would be the marina of choice if we were to do it over again. Great facilities, quiet and secure moorage, close to a great transit system that safely takes you anywhere you want. Our stay there included a private day tour of several unique Napa wineries where we managed to refrain from loading the boat down TOO much further. After detouring to Alameda where we picked up our new backup auto pilot, we headed off to Berkley Yacht Club and the Berkley Marina. Another pleasant and secure marina with great seafood restaurants nearby. We were there mainly for the Ha Ha Mexico lecture where we learned more about what to expect in the coming weeks. The next morning Rebecca had itchy feet so off we went! No more marinas for these guys. Let's anchor out! So we left San Francisco and passed under the Golden Gate for the second time. This time we saw ALL of the bridge and had a wonderful sail down to Half Moon Bay.

Our two nights anchored at Half Moon Bay were most memorable for the solitude after San Francisco, and for the incredible amount of bird life. We rowed ashore for lunch and a walk and were amazed at the number of Pelicans sitting on the breakwater. Hundreds! (a big deal for those of us who haven't seen pelicans while sailing before). Apparently the breakwater was their bathroom as evidenced by the white coloring on the rocks and the wonderful sinus clearing aroma as we rowed past. Rowing the half mile to the dock wasn't too bad, but rowing back into a rising wind made me question how far we wanted to plan on rowing in the future. We eventually got back to Callisti and enjoyed an afternoon reading in the sunshine. Finally. While we were at anchor we occasionally saw pelicans diving (crashing) into the water catching fish. Immediately afterwards, at least two seagulls would land beside the pelicans and pick up whatever the pelicans had stunned. Later that evening we witnessed a school of baitfish come into the harbor creating a feeding frenzy of birds. We have never seen so many birds churning the water at one time. There must have been near a thousand pelicans along with what seemed like thousands of other sea birds all diving into the water repeatedly gorging on the baitfish below. This lasted for almost 20 minutes before either the birds were satisfied, or the baitfish had been decimated. Amazing.

The next morning we left early for what was supposed to be a fun downwind sail in sunny weather and 10 to 20 knot winds with 4 to 6 foot waves. Our 70 mile trip to Monterey started out sort of that way although the sun had yet to come out. More fog and cloud. After about 20 miles though, the sun did break through and everything was going as scheduled. The waves got up to 6 feet and the wind got up to 20 knots. Then 25 knots. Then 30 knots. Then gusting to 38 knots. The waves by the way grew proportionately. We were surfing at speeds sometimes exceeding 10 knots. A little too fast for comfort so we took the jib in and sailed dead downwind (our preferred course) with only a full mainsail. Speeds were still approaching 9 knots surfing down the backs of the biggest waves we had ever been out in. I estimated them to be close to 80 feet tall! (Rebecca thought 12 to 15 feet might be more accurate - you be the judge). Well once again, it didn't kill us - just made us stronger. We wer e both bushed from a very exhilarating sail when we entered Monterey Harbor only to find that our next mission might be even more difficult. Mooring Callisti (43 feet) onto an angled dock that had only 30 feet exposed and was broadside to the 25 knot wind. With a little help from the crew of neighboring boats and a few tries, that too made us stronger.

We rested up a couple of days in Monterey taking care of groceries, beer and communications details. Lots of walking. Good restaurants (again). One of the highlights of Monterey was seeing the large number of sea lions and sea otters in the bay and marina. Most of the local boats had netting put up around their transoms to keep the sea lions off. There were hundreds of them barking all day and night making for broken sleeps. What a racket. But best of all, they made themselves right at home on the visitors dock (where we were). At times there would be 15 huge sea lions sprawled across the dock making it almost impossible to get to some of the boats. One poor lady made the mistake of trying to sneak past a sleeping monster only to have him charge her as he suddenly woke up. Good thing she was faster than him although I'm sure that made HER stronger too.

Monterey to Carmel, an easy three hour motor in preparation for the long next day to San Simeon. The Stillwater Cove Yacht Club lent us the use of one of their mooring buoys in Carmel where we watched nattily attired golfers play the famous Pebble Beach golf course. We were amazed at the number of tractors and lawn mowers that took over the course at dusk. I guess for a four month wait list and $600 green fees you expect it to be pristine.

Carmel to San Simeon an 80 mile uneventful motor along the Big Sur coast. Apparently it's very dramatic but we didn't see a lick of it due to heavy fog that only lifted the last two hours of the day. San Simeon was another peaceful anchorage that we could have stayed longer but warmer weather beckons. San Simeon to Morro Bay was an easy four hour motor sail in light winds and heavy fog. Apparently Morro Rock is quite a landmark (if you get to see it - we didn't). Morro Bay is a small fishing town with a big summer rush of tourists. The shops along the waterfront are filled with touristy "stuff" with many restaurants catering to family foods. We took a two night mooring at the Morro Bay Yacht Club just a few yards from "downtown". Even that close, it was a challenging row to get across the large currents flowing through the harbor. Again we shared the company of many sea lions and sea otters. I'm surprised to see that even this close to larger populations, sea life prevails. California gets a lot of hard knocks for some of their social regulations, but good for California for protecting their sea life! We had a nice afternoon beach walk across the Morro Bay peninsula to watch the open ocean meet the sandy shoreline. The sun DID come out that afternoon and we finally did see Morro Rock. Amazing how it could have been left there when the surrounding topography is so sandy and flat.

Well yesterday we had a short day (again in fog) making for San Luis Obispo anchorage. We were told that if we wanted to avoid the fog in Morro Bay, "just pop around the corner". Sure enough it's warm and sunny here. Quiet anchorage, blue skies, clear green water. Sounds like maybe we should stop eh? Good idea. Read and write. Tomorrow we get up early for our 60 mile trip around the dreaded Point Conception, the most feared point on the coast - oooohhhh I'm so scared! Let's hope it too makes us stronger :-)