We practiced watch standing in anticipation of 2 long upcoming legs as we motored out from Half Moon Bay towards Santa Cruz. I set a good example by napping during my off-watch.
We saw a pod of whales just before lunch. They were easy to spot not only from their spouts but also from the flock of birds flying overhead. It was a pod of 6 or 8 humpbacks. It was great to watch them. Later in the afternoon we saw another pod of whales. These displayed quite different behaviors so I think they were not humpbacks. We are planning to go to the aquarium at Monterey and I hope to find out what whale species are common in the area at this time of year. On our afternoon watch Tom saw another critter swimming in the water. It didn’t have a dorsal fin so it wasn’t a dolphin or porpoise, but was some kind of mammal since it came up to breathe. Maybe it was a seal or sealion.
By 2 in the afternoon the wind came up and it was all hands on deck as we set the staysail. It got quite windy as we approached Santa Cruz (winds above 25 knots) and there were pretty big waves (at least they seemed big to me) so we were hand steering. I got the opportunity to steer for a little while; it took all of my attention. We secured the sail about 5:15 as we approached Santa Cruz.
The marina was excellent (wide tidy docks, clean restrooms and hot showers). We walked to a brewpub for dinner, walked back to the boat and were asleep by 9:30.