We got up at 3AM this morning after a needed night in harbor with the plan to round point conception at first light. After brewing some coffee, I checked weather and things did not look good. Fog, small craft advisory, 7' seas at 7 seconds not pleasant. After looking over the gribs I called a run today off.

I have to say, our ditch might have had something to do with the awesome anchorage. Temps get up to 68 during the day (versus 55 in SF) and we're the only boat in the anchorage, overlooking a lovely beach with the little town of Avila one side.

Everyone crashed after the no-go and got back up at a leisurely 8:30 for coffee and omelets. We ran the genset in the morning giving everyone a chance to take warm showers and what have you. No shaving was permitted so all of the guys are getting some pretty scraggly beards at this point.

Throughout the day we updated routes, did work (good cell coverage in this anchorage) and watched all of the sea mammals cruising through the anchorage. So far we have seen sea lions, sea otters and dolphins checking out the boat.

We also had some two legged mammals come by. We met a guy on a paddle board who gave us some local knowledge on getting around point conception. He suggested going at night, which reaffirmed our inclination. Cold air coming off the land at night tends to push the gradient wind off shore a ways, keeping things inshore much more mellow.

Later a gal on a paddle board came over and demanded a beer for paddling all the way to out boat. She was very nice about it so we asked her to jump in the water, which she did promptly, so we gave her a nice German bottle.

Right around then we met Mike. Mike came buy on a Caribe dingy with a Yamaha 25 four stroke (exactly what I am looking at for my new dink). Hey is a central coast local and currently lives in Avila. He is also owns a catamaran moored across the way.

Mike was so awesome and generous with his time. He took us over to another great anchorage, just a little south of here. He showed us where the salmon were biting and took us over to the local tackle shop to grab an Apex Watermelon (the perfect salmon lure apparently). He had been around Point Conception 3-4 times as well and gave us his thoughts on making the passage.

We started the day with an updated plan to head around Point Conception after dark tonight. The afternoon forecast put the kibosh on that plan. More small craft advisories, fog and steep/short seas. Mike estimated that whatever we saw outside Port San Luis, it was 4x worse at conception. Mike is also a surfer and surfers have a pretty good idea of where the biggest breaks are.

We also have some crew management issues to consider. Thomas has to be ashore by Sunday and Nancy is coming aboard Saturday. In the end, and in context of the weather around Conception, we decided to stay in Avila until Sunday and then try our luck heading south. The forecast for Sunday is not great but the NWS forecasts cover a large area. Looking over the gribs for the headlands on Sunday it appears there will be lighter winds and longer period seas, though still 6-8'. We'll take what we can get.

In the meantime we are really enjoying Avila, a lovely anchorage with great locals!