Requiem for a voyage
This isn’t to imply that I’m done blogging our adventures, it’s just time to put some closure on the last voyage of the Argonaut before the ol’ memory dims.

One important quality in a voyaging sailor is a short memory. If you remembered every detail in vivid recall, you might not leave the dock again! However... the same quality is not a plus for writers. It’s been more than a year since we arrived back in the US from Australia. If I don’t get this down, it’ll become fuzzy legend instead of a facsimile of fact.

Regular reader, friends and relations might remember that we set out in August 2006 with Yacht Club (CYCE) friends, Paul and Chris, for the Bay Area. There isn’t much to recommend this passage so the quicker you get it over the better.

The only advice I might offer, and it may be time specific, is: As long as you have a Northwesterly, don’t run off out to sea. I don’t think we were more than five or ten miles off ninety nine percent of the time. If a Sou’westerly springs up, get your butt into harbor and wait for a favorable breeze.

Don’t forget your radar and a wind vane! Hand steering, blind, in a cold fog, will soon make a landlubber of the staunchest sailor. That said... yes, there are lunatics out there. Good luck to ‘em and hope you don’t meet one on a dark foggy night.

We burned a lot of diesel in 800 miles. What breeze we had was two gales and nice half day going in under The Gate. In the middle of the second gale we opted for a few days in Crescent City to rest and repair before motoring all the way to Point Reyes, where the NW picked up to 25 for a great sail across the potato patch and in under the bridge.

Taking a left immediately under the bridge, we were searching for a cheap place to dock when we passed the St Francis YC. A quick poll of the motley crew and I was on the horn.
“St Francis? This is the yacht Argonaut. Might you have a slip available?”
“Yes sir, we do. And when might you be expected?”
“Will ten minutes be ok?”

Nice place. Really nice place. Nothing like a hot shower, a cold beer and a great meal to top off an otherwise uncomfortable trip.

To be Continued