It’s a beautiful sunny day here in San Diego. The temp is in the 70’s and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. For the past 4 nights we’ve enjoyed the hospitality of the San Diego Yacht Club located on Shelter Island.
Nope Nothing To See Here
We’re anchored in Mission Bay, five miles north of San Diego, waiting out a gale that blew in yesterday. It was supposed to have passed by now, but the anemometer is still pegged at 23 knots with gusts in the 30s.
It’s 6:30 PM and the sun has just about disappeared behind the horizon. Erin’s cooking a Pizza for dinner and Mishka is fast asleep on the aft cabin bed, after napping most of the day on the pass-through berth that has become her daily spot of choice.
Catalina Island is known as a divers and hikers paradise (which is why it’s such a popular destination!) The water is warmer than the other Channel Islands and the visibility can exceed 50 feet on good days.
We left Albert’s Anchorage on Santa Cruz Island at 10:30PM last night. With a large swell crashing into the cliffs surrounding us we pulled up both the bow and stern anchors and headed to deeper water.
It has been interesting to see my home state, California, from a new perspective over the past few weeks. The Southern California that I grew up in was known for its high standard of backyard living, with BBQs and pool parties every other weekend. It might be crowded, hot and sprawling, but it’s also sophisticated and relatively sheltered from harm (as long as you didn’t mind the occasional earthquake).
Tonight is our third night in Ventura Isle Marina. We hadn’t planned on stopping here but we’re finding that there’s a fine line between plans and what actually transpires while cruising. Ventura is about 30 miles east of Santa Cruz Island where we spent the last 4 nights.
We made it safely to our first stop on Santa Cruz Island yesterday morning. We’re currently the only boat in Fry’s Harbor and enjoying the peace and solitude.
We’re just a few minutes away from rounding Pt. Conception. Our ETA for rounding is 1:20 AM. This is a notorious point along the California coast dubbed by numerous sailors as “The Cape Horn of the Pacific”.
Before Brian and I embarked on this trip, we used to dream about what the cruising life might entail — we pictured long, restful days of lounging in the sun and doing whatever we pleased. I thought it might be similar to retired life… Only with later mornings, later nights, and no golf.
After a busy week in Monterey getting our PADI dive certifications we decided it was time to head further South. Our next stop was Pebble Beach about 25 miles down the coast. Since the trip was short we left after a leisure morning and lunch.
The morning that we arrived in Monterey Bay, the sky opened up. The stars and moon appeared to be just feet above the mast — I was tempted to throw a rope around the dazzling crescent and pull it onto the boat.
We woke up yesterday morning to clear skies and no fog! The forecast wasn’t ideal- light and variable winds out of the South (direction of our travel) but we decided it was time to say goodbye to Half Moon Bay and head further south to Monterey which is around 70 miles away.
We’re anchored in the flat, calm waters of Half Moon Bay, about 20 miles south of San Francisco bay. We’d planned to spend only one night here — last night — but the thought of navigating the foggy coastline for miles is less than enticing.
For the last week or so we’ve been tied to a dock at Schoonmaker marina- partly out of convenience and partly out of necessity. With much luck our new friend Kevin was able to dig our lost prop out of the mud of Richards bay in Sausalito.
We found the propeller! We asked a friend of a friend, Kevin – a professional diver who also sailed his boat down here from Seattle – to set up a search and rescue mission for us…
We crossed under the Golden Gate bridge just after 6AM on Thursday, August 27th. The trip from Seattle took just over 5 days non-stop. Since then we’ve explored the city, gotten busted by a trasit cop for jumping tolls, and saw the Giants get killed at ATT Park right down the street from our marina.
During the 10PM-2AM watch last night we saw the highest sustained winds of the trip- 16 knots as we rounded Cape Mendocino. Ryan said that last week someone he know saw 60 knots, and 40 knots are predicted for 2 days from now.