Month: October 2020

Morro Bay and the Traveling Trio

My parents and my Aunt Anita drove down to Morro Bay last week, and we set about the usual activities. Martinis on the boat, gourmet dinners (if I do say so myself), dinghy rides, beach picnics, hikes, and exploring the nearby towns. We had an amazing week!

It’s fun having access to a car for a few days. We did several down-n-backs to Avila Beach. A measly 30 minutes by car would be a 5-hour sail. This opened doors to a sunny beach picnic (Morro Bay is perpetually foggy).

The car also opened the opportunity to go to Costco. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any affordable surfboards so the search continues, but we were able to replenish our favorite hashbrowns.

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We didn’t get to sail down to Avila beach due to large swell and a predicted southerly wind making the anchorage unprotected. Instead, we did our sailing trip in and out of Morro Bay. 

It worked out because we got the full spectrum of wildlife. Sea otters, seals & sea lions, dolphins, every bird, and finally … a pod of humpback whales! Winds were light so instead of properly sailing we mostly had a controlled drift and drifted right over the feeding whales. This was the closest Scooter’s been to whales and it was fantastic. They’re huge, taylor cried tears of joy, Eunice didn’t notice, and my folks were impressed. 

On the hike to Morro rock, Mark, a known Cairn aficionado,was in heaven. Cairns as far as the eye could see. 

We wanted more hiking so we set off driving north. Of course, we had to stop at the thrift store hoping for a cheap surfboard. They didn’t have any but recommended a surf shop a short walk away. Tay and I wandered in with low expectations. The little warehouse was full of thousand dollar boards and even the one the guy tried to sell us was $300. But we found a foam board in the consignment section for $175 and negotiated to $150. They even through in a leash! We’re finally the proud owners of a Surf Board!!!! 

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We eventually got the second hike in and got some family photos. 

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They left Sunday morning with many miles to go back to the snow. They were kind enough to help us cast off as we left also, headed south, back to Avila Beach. We’ll be up bright and early Tuesday morning heading for the Cojo Anchorage, located right at Point Conception (the Cape Horn of California). We’ll miss our latest crew!

Monterey to Morro Bay ft. the setting sun

With Tay’s family headed back to Colorado, we looked south on the weather maps. Steady 35-knot winds every night would’ve made an exciting sail down to San Simeon but we weren’t ready for that to be our first overnight with just the two of us. So we took to waiting on weather. We added two nights to our marina tab in Monterey and set about some projects.

We needed a better way to secure our spare diesel Jerry cans and had been wanting to advertise our blog to people on the dock. So we built some painted wooden planks that mount up on the side of our boat. They turned out great, and hopefully will draw some attention from the other sailors!

We also needed to explore Monterey. We went on a long walk on the beach, and had a sunset picnic. It was romantic but it was also a surprise 12-mile walk. You gotta be careful when Taylor plans ‘quick afternoon adventures’. It was beautiful.

We also have a dream of Eunice being the next great adventure cat so we had to introduce her to the beach. We planned another beach picnic, but this time close enough so I could cook a hot meal and serve a full dinner. The dinner was great, Taylor and I were loving it, but Eunice was not enthused. She doesn’t like her feet to touch anything but the boat or our shoulders.

We left Monterey at 5 pm. It was 18 hours to San Simeon and by leaving in the afternoon we ensured we’d have light for the marina departure and the anchoring process in San Simeon.

Lucky for us, it was the clearest night in months. The sunset at sea was spectacular.

Then the stars came out. Its obvious why sailors used stars for navigation. At night you can’t look at anything else. They’re astoundingly bright and along Big Sur, light pollution is nil.

We were doubly lucky to have good bioluminescence. The tail behind the boat glowed green all night, the current shifts created giant highlighter green paths crossing underneath us. It was magical. To add to our luck, I finally got to experience Secret night dolphins. They came swimming up like glowing green rockets and swam around the boat, streaking and splashing green. Tay had seen some on the passage from Seattle so she was excited I could share the experience.

We cant capture the nighttime stuff with our cameras but we did get a visit from some playful dolphins right before sunrise.

Here’s a picture of Eunice’s preferred location while underway. She likes the warmth of our vests, and we like knowing she won’t fall overboard or make a mess in the boat.

The rest of the night wasn’t as fun. I got seasick (shocker), couldn’t sleep, and the wind never came so the diesel continued to grind all night. The Sunrise was glorious so all woes were forgotten.

We dropped the anchor in San Simeon bay at noon and fell asleep. We napped, cleaned the boat, and started exploring. We somewhat successfully had our first surf-landing on the dinghy. We left the outboard on the boat in case we rolled it, and I’m glad we did. I think we need more practice before I’m willing to risk Grego(the outboard’s nickname). The Hearst Castle was closed due to covid but we found a hike and made the best of our time.

The next morning we had to weigh anchor at 5 am to time the Morro Bay bar crossing at high tide. Our sleep schedules are wacky but we got another sunrise out of the deal.

We’ll be in Morro Bay a few nights as we await my parents and Aunt Anita visiting!

In Morro Bay its more of the same…sunsets. (sorry this post was mostly sunsets)

Santa Cruz was a spectacle. Surfers, movies, a bunch of roller coasters, and a miserably rolly anchorage. We loved it but must press Southward.

Bizarrely, in 4 days in town and having watched a movie where the whole sub-plot was about paddling across the bay, we never saw the other side of the bay. The odd part is it was sunny and nice a lot of the time. Evidently, enough fog stuck above the water to obstruct the other side of the bay.

We pulled the hook, motored off into the mist, and expected an open water type jaunt down to Monterey. It never came. We had 4 hours of motoring, and no waves or wind. An astute viewer at this point might point out our reliance on our motor. To which I would say that may be an insult to a person born and bred by the saltwater, but as a land-lubber-couple in origin, we’re pretty proud of our house that moves on a half-gallon-an-hour of diesel from one city to the next. Sometimes we proudly tackle hundreds of miles with our cloth unfurled…but sometimes the wind doesn’t blow.

Anyway, the only boats out that day on AIS were whale watching boats. the “BlackFin” the “Ocean Experience”, and the “Spirit of Monterey”. The only one we got close to was the BlackFin. The whales surfaced between the boats with their plume of mist and their big flappy tail. We were excited to be a touch closer to the whales than the paying customers for a moment. Of course, they had a big ole motor and got real close to the whales for their next breath.

Scooter docked up in Monterey (we did our first stern in, and I was so proud of myself), settled in, did a boatload of laundry, and enjoyed being at a marina again. The mindset change is stark going from being at anchor for several days to being in a plugged-in slip at a marina. Either you’re on water rations, and monitor the battery before flipping the light switch, or you live in a regular house. The realities exist one day to the next in the same little space.

Tay’s family drove in the following day. Kim might be the most welcoming person I know. She called me one of her “muffins” on, like, day 10 of dating Taylor. Chris brings the fun and immediately grabs 5 Busch lights from the back of the car cooler to celebrate being together, and Zac is like a boy version of his sister. He’s so fun to be around and makes you feel like someone is paying attention to YOU.

Her family visit was the best 30 hours of Scooter’s life. Also, it’s worth noting they drove 18 hours each way for a 30-hour visit, but we made the absolute best of the time we had.

We sailed, fished, ate the local fare, celebrated a birthday (Zac’s eve-eve) met the new puppy ‘River’, and had the most fun couple of days.

Now we have to wrap up the Monterey week. On our task list is to expose Captain Eunice to a beach without crazy breaking waves and do more laundry because River (Tay’s parents’ puppy) isn’t entirely potty trained, peed on our blanket, and Eunice has since sought revenge by trying to mark her territory 10x over. We’ve got some projects left, and some hobo logistics to take care of…

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Part 1

We left off, having just arrived in Half Moon Bay. The bay’s breakwall encloses a large anchorage so we were fortunate to not have to spend any money on marina fees.

Immediately after finding the free dinghy dock, Taylor set about making friends with a couple selling whole tuna off the side of their boat. We didn’t need a 20 lb tuna, and California doesn’t allow fishermen to just sell fillets. It seemed like we were out of luck, but they liked Tay’s enthusiasm the way we all do and invited us to find them the next morning.

We explored the town, resupplied, and had a beer at the local watering hole compliments of Tay’s friend’s generous sponsorship.

That night, we watched Chasing Mavericks at our little anchorage. Turns out, a quarter-mile west, just outside the breakwall is a phenomenon of a steep bottom, and concentrating swell that can produce surfable waves in excess of 60 ft.

In the middle of the movie, Eunice was hyper as can be, and running as far and as fast as her 32-foot playpen allows. 32 feet proved too small. We were shocked when she darted into the living room soaking. Apparently, on one of her laps, she slipped, or misstepped, and took a swim. We didn’t hear anything to our chagrin, but to our relief, she climbed the rope ladder we have dangling in the water and lived to survive another day.

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The next morning, Tay’s new friendship paid dividends!!

The fishing couple gave us a fresh Albacore Tuna Fillet. Probably 3-5 lbs of meat. We made Tuna Ceviche the first night, a few nights of tuna steaks, and finally tuna Tacos. Albacore cooked right (Rare, fresh, and filleted by an expert is one of the best pieces of fish I’ve ever experienced).

We had more exploring to do in Half Moon bay now that we had seen the surfing movie. We hiked the rocky beach for a view of the breakers. Without any storm, they were tame, but still probably crested above 15 feet. A picnic on the beach is becoming a staple of the lifestyle, even if its just pb&js.

We tried our hand at rock fishing along the jetty after sunset at low tide. We had a great time, caught one fish and a chill, but were undeterred. We’ll figure out how to fish this ocean someday.

Here’s Tay posing with the bait squid, which we got from a vending machine.

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The next morning we made the 10-hour sail down to Santa Cruz. It was a long day taking 8-foot swells on the beam and not much visibility. We pulled into Santa Cruz and were both feeling a little green (although Tay and Eunice managed to not look green at all).

The anchorage was not as protected as we had been lead to believe so the sickness persisted into the next morning. Finally, we made it to land and began exploring beautiful Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz marked the start of what I expected from California. It was sunny and the pier and the beaches were lined with restaurants, volleyball courts, and an amusement park (all empty, but still). We saw a youth surf lesson, dolphins, and a steady stream of paddleboarders and swimmers. We had a lot of errands to run in Santa Cruz so it felt like we made a new little home for ourselves for a couple of nights.

We even had time to make some fire-roasted salsa.

Santa Cruz was a great stopover, but I don’t think we can cross it off as visited until we see it with the boardwalks packed or the lights of the roller coasters on. Plus maybe we can determine a better anchorage next time.

Stay Tuned for part 2 of the Central Coast of California, sooner than you might think!

And It was Packed!

This was an all-encompassing week on the boat. Tay’s friends visited for 3 days, and we hit all the SF requirements. We had 20-knot winds for an afternoon sail (even had to reef the main), we hiked for some excellent views, swam in the breaking waves (which made us so excited for warmer water), and hosted Scooter’s largest dinner party: 9 people! The biggest regret of the week was not getting a proper happy hour dinghy ride in. Ladies, you’ll have to schedule a second trip. (For anyone who attended Tay and my wedding, they were the maids of honor who re-wrote “huntin, fishin, lovin every day” for their speech). 

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Next thing we know, we got hit by a wave of generosity. One follower sponsored a dinner at his favorite restaurant in Chinatown, one found & sponsored a breakfast spot, and a fan bought a round of beers. We’ve felt so incredibly blessed to have such amazing people in our lives. 

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The Voodoo Child is one of the boats we met in Newport. The two brothers, Nick and Coleman, have a month-long sublet slip in SF and we spent a couple of nights at that marina. We attempted to introduce our cats which ended with Eunice running off the dock into the water out of fear. The meeting later to talk about boat life, over a drink, was much more productive. Their cat, Bigfoot, had to stay behind. We discussed boat life, night shifts, cat sea-sickness, and dreams of continued cruising (this picture is back in Newport).

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We popped back over to Berkeley. My high school friend Ben was so generous to drive us to the hardware store so we can get back into boat improvement mode. He also took us to get groceries and scrounged up a used computer monitor to replace our broken one. 

Seeing old friends multiple times in our 3-week stint in the city made us feel like we had community again for a brief period. Community is something Tay and I have been hungry for over the last year, but that goes with the territory, and hopefully, down the road it’ll make us appreciate it more when we have it. 

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Anyway, we also got put at the same slip in Berkeley as last time next to the Chileans. They gifted is a jar of Caviar, an evening of wine and cheese, and tons of fishing gear. And tons of stories, advice, and conversation. They even offered to sell us their boat in 5 years. 

Here are some highlights from their retirement:

They have a few acres of sand dunes on the Chilean coast. In the summer they build a plywood hut and fish every day. For a few months, they have everything they need by trading fish for wine and beer, and a trip into town for water every 2 weeks. Then they live in their motor home on a lake in southern Chile catching salmon. Then as the weather gets colder they fly to America to their boat, and cruise the Californian coast. Spring and summer, in alternating hemispheres, on repeat for 18 years and counting. Maria Elena and Ben were the perfect neighbors and an inspiration for a life well-lived. 

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We anchored one night in Sausalito and grilled a whole chicken. The seagulls appreciated the scraps but were shockingly wary of our captain. 

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We left early Saturday morning, following the US Warship 1001 under the bridge into dense fog. No wind, but swell on our beam made for a less than comfortable motor, but we made our anchorage at half moon bay by mid-afternoon. 

Now for a new home for a few nights.