On To Santa Barbara
The Captain wants to sail straight from San Francisco to Monterey a distance of almost 100nm. The First Mate, taking exception to that plan, consults the charts and finds a suitable harbor for us at Half Moon Bay, a much shorter distance and day. Plus it is closer to Saratoga where Wendy Babb, a friend from B-school days, lives. Wendy has plans to visit us on Avante somewhere between San Francisco and Monterey.
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Monday, September 15th – We leave South Beach Marina at 0730 in order to get to Half Moon Bay prior to 1500, Wendy’s expected arrival time. Pulling up to our assigned dock in Half Moon Bay, we find it occupied by one very unfriendly and very big seal. The Captain needs to jump down on the dock to secure the ropes, and this guy is not about to move.
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He firmly ignores The Captain and then growls his dominance showing all teeth. This is definitely a contest of the “who’s bigger than who” type. The Captain standing high and secure on Avante, rears up, raises his arms and growls just as menacingly back. The seal slithers off the dock, but remounts just down from us as if to say he’s not finished with us yet.
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We are being plagued by bursting water lines. While The First Mate goes off to shower, The Captain tears the floorboards apart in search of another burst line. Wendy arrives as The First Mate returns to the boat. Shortly after, with the burst line repaired, the three of us drive into Half Moon Bay to walk around a bit. We return to the boat for cocktails and then head ashore for dinner at a local seafood restaurant. We have a fun visit with Wendy and enjoy catching up with our various activities and those of all of our children.
Bedtime. It is all quiet in the harbor until, in the middle of the dark of night, our seal asserts himself, and for the rest of the night barks and growls at all and sundry. He is joined by a buddy, and the two of them have their final say in their opinion of our visit and occupation of that particular dock. If The First Mate had had an old shoe, she would have thrown it at them – just like one would at an alley cat howling on an old picket fence!
Tuesday, September 16th – 0800, we are dropping lines to motor out and head to Monterey. It is overcast with light wind, but by noon, as we cross Monterey Bay, winds are up enough to raise sail. We know we are going to have an issue with entering the harbor in Monterey. They have been waiting permission from the State of California to re-dredge the harbor. In the meantime, the harbor is silting up. We are entering at low tide. The Captain contacts the the harbormaster who tells us that he is not sure how much clearance we will have. All we know is that it is going to be close. He assigns us a dock, and as we slowly crawl toward our dock, our eyes are riveted on the depth meter. 10.0’, 9.7’, 9.5’. At 9.3’, both of us call a stop. Avante draws 8.8′, and we don’t know how precise our depth meter really is. Do we really have 6 inches of clearance? The middle of the harbor fairway is no place to find out and risk running aground. We slowly back up. The harbormaster then assigns us to a floating guest dock just outside the marina on the Old Fisherman’s Pier. It’s not the prettiest location, but at least it is deep enough for Avante.
We are now very definitely in seal territory. They are all over the place, growling and barking and stinking. Seals out in the ocean are sleek and graceful. On land in great numbers, they are ungainly, noisy and obnoxious, but as a protected species, there is nothing any of these “seal-occupied” harbors can do about them except put up barricades wherever they can.
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At night, they bark like dogs. All will be quiet for a while, then one idiot starts barking followed by another and another. A regular wave of noise circles around the harbor until they all settle down only to restart again when something startles some other idiot out there. And on they go, all night long. During the day, the noise is just one constant barrage. These guys are not cute and definitely no fun, but we enjoy the picturesque, historic harbor itself.
The historic Fisherman’s Pier is interesting, and eating in local restaurants is a treat.
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Two nights in Monterey are scheduled because the next leg of our trip to Morro Bay will entail an overnighter. There are just no suitable anchorages from here to there. Because our water hoses have been failing, The Captain has decided to replace most of the water hoses on the boat. He heads off to buy hose and hose clamps, and The First Mate runs the usual laundry and provision routine. She also finds a great internet café where she happily reconnects with her world. In a moment of unexpected vanity, she even decides to get her hair trimmed and nails done. Now she’s ready! Boat repairs completed, boat cleaned and provisioned, we have a wonderful abalone dinner in a harbor restaurant.
Thursday, September 18th – It is a sunny and warm morning as we head to the fuel dock to refuel. Then, under light winds, we enjoy a gorgeous leisurely sail out of Monterrey Bay heading toward the Big Sur Coast.
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In the mid-afternoon, we sail past Cypress Point and then furl the jib, turn on the engine and motorsail into Carmel Bay circling below the Pebble Beach Golf Course and the seaside town of Carmel. How many times have we watched golf tournaments at Pebble Beach and seen all the boats out on the water? Here we are except there is no golf tournament today!
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We continued motorsailing across Carmel bay and then south down one of the most scenic coastlines in the world.
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Big Sur is as magnificent from the ocean as it is from land.
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There is no mistaking the large rock and lighthouse at Point Sur. Just before sunset, the wind increases to 9 knots from NW, and we turn off the engine and peacefully sail.
We sail on in the evening twilight. One could almost call it romantic if it were not for the fact that the night watch schedule is about to start. The First Mate gets the 2100 to 2400 watch. Captain goes from 2400 to 0300, and then The First Mate is back on from 0300 to 0600. Technically, The Captain now is on from 0600 to 0900 except that it is light by 0600, and The First Mate cannot sleep. She mentions to The Captain that something does not seem right with her having to stand two dark night shifts and he only has the one. He tells her that that his shift is called the graveyard shift and is the hardest. She is not convinced. Next time it is just the two of them, she wants to try that shift.
Friday, September 19th – The First Mate is certainly not complaining about her two shifts this night, as it is a delightful night for sailing with winds at 10 – 12 knots from NW. Skies are clear and there is a 3/4 moon, and we are sailing gently along. Wind drops below 5 knots at dawn, and we have to start the engine and motorsail the rest of the way to Morro Bay. Morro Rock, marking the entrance, is clearly visible in the distance.
We had continued past Morro Bay without stopping on our way north because of fairly dense fog that did not allow us to see the channel marker buoys. However, this morning, conditions are perfect, and we easily follow the buoys that mark the channel into the harbor. Staying in the winding channel between the marker buoys, we find the water considerably deeper than indicated on our charts.
Morro Bay is fairly large, but it is not very deep. We find limited space to comfortably anchor with Avante’s deep keel, and have to stay fairly near the channel and main docks. Our reward is an impressive view of Morro Rock.
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There is plenty of room further on into the bay for sailboats with shorter keels. We spend the afternoon ashore, but are back on the boat early, as we have a dawn departure planned.
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Saturday, September 20th – Weather forecasts for Point Conception look good, and we are underway early, as we have over 80nm to cover before dark. Once outside the harbor, the wind is only 8 -10 knots from NW. With only light wind coming from behind, we don’t raise any sails and just motor, keeping our speed up. By 0830, the wind picks up to 15 knots, and we raise the mainsail, turn off the engine and sail downwind.
By mid-morning, we are sailing along with hundreds of dolphins swimming along in a column like a marching army. We have never seen so many. Occasionally, several dolphins break out of formation and come over to check out Avante. We even see a breaching whale. Unfortunately, our photography failed to capture this impressive natural display.
Shortly afterwards, we are able to raise the jib and keep it flying. Winds slowly increase and by late morning, in an abundance of caution, we put two reefs in the mainsail. That proves to be too many, and when winds settle out at a steady 15 – 18 knots, we shake out the second reef. By 1430, we are abeam Point Arguello and sailing past the Pacific Missile Test Range buildings at Vandenberg Air Force Base. As the First Mate prepares a late lunch, the winds drop to 10 – 12 knots. After 30 minutes of this lighter wind, we take the last reef out of the mainsail in order to keep our speed up while sailing. Of course, the diabolical winds increase to 18 – 20 knots just 15 minutes later.
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By this time we are approaching Point Conception, and we assume that we are seeing the increased winds associated with this cape. We make the mistake of not slowing down to put a reef back in.
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We sail around Point Conception with 20 – 25 knots of wind doing over 10 knots. With full sails up, we have too much canvas out, but the boat still handles well.
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Our anchorage for the night is just past Point Conception. Compared to the rough seas off Point Conception, it is a peaceful looking roadstead anchorage. While the seas are calmer, we get very little respite from the wind here. When we turn into 25 knots of wind to take down the full mainsail, The Captain has his hands full. He manages to lash the mainsail to the boom with a couple of sail ties, but he does not want any pictures taken of the finished job.
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Looking back at Point Conception from Cojo anchorage, the water appears calm, but the photo doesn’t show the 20 knots of wind blowing across Avante. We are quite pleased with the day, as we covered 87nm in 10.5 hours. Most importantly, we are past Point Conception – the cape that delayed us for days on our trip north.
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When we depart Cojo Anchorage in the morning, wind is less than 5 knots, and we end up motoring the entire 46nm to Santa Barbara. We head into the marina and are able to get the only berth available for a 50 foot boat. Whew! As usual, our berth is so far out on the docks that it takes almost 10 minutes to walk to the marina front gate.
It is great to be in Santa Barbara again for a few days. Weather is much warmer for us now that we have gotten this far south. We get together with our long time friends, Don and Susan Bennett, and we also have dinner with a couple that live aboard their J/160 in Santa Barbara Marina. As enjoyable as Santa Barbara is, we are now on a mission to get Avante to San Diego and are soon ready to depart.