Cabo pics

In the town of Todos Santos, north of Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific side of the peninsula.

The marina in Cabo San Lucas.

This sea lion is at the marina in Cabo. The fishing boat that she is behind had bought several tuna, and the deckhand filleted them here in port. Easy meal! He would put them on the transom, and she jumped up and took them! I did not have my camera then, sorry.

We are currently in Bay de los Muertos, and tomorrow will be headed towards La Paz. I took a lot of pictures today at a resort here, so they will be on the next update.

Cabo San Lucas

We left Mag Bay early on the morning of Monday, November 29th. The wind had been howling from the northeast for a couple of days, and was forecast to blow for one more day, so we figured that if we would stay in really close to the shore it wouldn't have enough fetch to build up big waves. We stayed about a mile offshore in the morning, as we motored southeast along Isla Margarita. The shoreline jumps several miles east at the end of the island, and I thought that we may get the wind there. It was around 1400 hours when we finally got there, and it was clear that the forecast was wrong about the big winds. We did get a little from the west later that day and evening, but most of the time we used the motor along with the sails. We proceeded direct, and before dark we were far enough offshore that no land was visible anywhere. Daylight found us approaching Cabo Falso, and then it was only another couple of hours until we got to Cabo San Lucas.

Cabo San Lucas is a dramatic ridge line that runs east-west and ends in a series of tall rocks. The bay is open to the east. We anchored on the north side of it, along a sandy beach, in about 20 feet of water. It was so clear that I could see the bottom as soon as I donned my goggles and put my face in the water. The beach is lined with hotels, and the water is full of jet skis, glass-bottomed water taxis, and plenty of other boats. The hotels play their music very loud, so it's quite different from Mag Bay and Turtle Bay. To conserve water, I go snorkeling each morning, and then rinse with fresh water. On the west end of the bay, they have dug a man made harbor that is very protected. Their are hundreds of slips in there, and a dinghy dock all the way up at the end, near the marina office. There are high end stores around the harbor, and several blocks of gringo alley type stores catering to people who show up on cruise ships. 

The second day that we were here, we joined some other cruisers and rented a van to drive up the Pacific coast to a town called Todo Santos, where the real Hotel California (remember the 

Eagles?) is located. I made sure to not check in! We left Cabo around lunchtime, and we were hungry, so we stopped on the outskirts of town at a real Mexican restaurant. They didn't seem to have menus, but I ordered cauldo chivo. Hope the spelling is correct. It was a fantastic bowl of soup with goat meat. Topped with fresh chopped onions, cilantro, lime juice, and a little hot sauce with a tortilla on the side, YUM! It was interesting to travel by highway, and driving through the desert was a treat, but really it's just another tourist thing and we didn't even go to the beach. 

Friday, we moved into the marina and stayed there two nights. It was kind of nice to have the boat in flat water and to be able to step off onto a dock. It had been nearly a month since we were last able to do that. It was also nice to have electricity, water, and showers! For this 35 foot boat, the fee was 54 dollars per day. When we are anchored out, getting to shore often means getting wet. Hitting waves in the dinghy sends water spraying over the bow. The water taxi charges $5 per person each way, so that's out. One morning I swam to the beach, but that's not practical if you're buying groceries. So it was nice to be able to just walk away and see the sights. I needed to see a dermatologist, and was able to get the name  and phone number of the one here in Cabo. I was able to get her on her cell phone, but I could not figure out what she was saying when she told me where her office was located. She did tell me to call at 2 pm, and I decided to be in her office at that time. I went to the marina office, gave them her name, and they looked her up on Google. They gave me her address, and I was sitting in her office before 2 pm. She got me in at about 2:15, checked me all out, gave me the sunscreen lecture in Spanish, and sent me on my way for 600 pesos - about 45 dollars. 

Saturday morning, I took the dinghy out in the bay to Greg's boat and picked up Kalel. We went across the bay to Lover's Beach, and then went snorkeling at a rock called Neptune's Finger. The fish were amazing. So was the surge from the ocean swell, and it certainly stretched my snorkeling comfort zone! It's a small world! Later in the day, I moved a load of clothes from the washer to the dryer and headed back to the boat to wait on the dryer. Along the way, a guy came and started walking beside me, close, to get my attention. I looked at him, and it was Jack from Tomahawk Bay back in Portland! He was here with his sister and her husband, we sat and had a cerveza. I enjoyed visiting with them very much! Jack is a sweetheart and it was good to see someone from home.

The Sea of Cortez is prone to strong winds from the north in the winter. These northers are reported to kick up really steep waves, and this year it seems that there have been a lot of them. We have been watching the forecast for several days, and one was forecast to start blowing late Sunday. It looks like it will be windy for most of the week, that means we'll be here for a while.  We will be leaving here on Thursday morning, Dec 8, headed to Los Frailes, which is a bay about 45 miles northeast of here. We will make some sotps along the way, but should be in La Paz and internet coverage in a week or so.

20 November

We are in Mag Bay and have been here for a few days now. It's really Bahia de Magdelena, and it is so long and wide that I can not see across it. We are anchored off a small village, and have spent a considerable amount of time there. No internet access, so this post will be uploaded later. We are here with 7 other sailboats currently, and we know most of them. This morning our friends Rick and Kira, on s/v Nyon, sailed for Puerto Vallarta. I hope to meet them again, somewhere! 

The sail here from Bahia de Tortugas was not uneventful! Our intent was to stop along the way at a place called Bahia San Juanico, but before we got there we ran over some floats and got the ropes wrapped around the prop. It was just after daylight, and the wind was about 15 knots, and we were not using the motor. The water going past the prop makes it turn though, so it can wrap lines even when it's not in use. Maybe the wind was closer to 20 knots - the waves were pretty tall and steep. We were about 20 miles offshore, so we hove-to and Ed put on his mask and fins and went in the ocean to take a look. It was pretty wild with the waves, and there was danger that the boat would hit him, so he decided to wait for calmer conditions before going under the boat. We discussed our options, and decided to continue on towards Bahia de Magdelena. San Juanico would have had us sailing to anchor in a place where there is a shore-wise setting current and rather small anchorage. Later that afternoon, the wind had dropped a bit, and the sea was calmer, and Ed was able to get the prop cleared. We continued sailing southeast toward Cabo Lazaro and Mag Bay, and the wind blew enough that we sailed all day and all night. The next morning, we were at the bay above the entrance to Mag Bay, which is called Bahia de Santa Maria. It is about 4 miles wide and 11 miles long, and we entered it and went to the northwest end of it. We anchored there for a night, and the water was 80 degrees, so I went snorkeling. Having not swam for about 10 years; it was fulfilling! I went swimming the next morning also, and then we left for Mag Bay. Just as we were leaving the Bay and entering the ocean, I saw a whale come out of the water in the distance. It continued coming out of the water, and the whole whale was in the air! You would not believe the splash that an adult Gray Whale makes when it free falls into the ocean! The spray that went up hung in the air for what seemed like minutes. I saw 2 breeches that day, along with a lot of fin slapping.

Back in Turtle Bay, there was a Mexican guy who hung out at Rogelio's palapa, named Kalel. Not sure if that's his real name or not, but he pronounces it like Superman's real name. He told us that he was from Cabo San Lucas, and was trying to get $100 dollars for a bus ticket to get back there. He speaks English as well as Spanish, and is a very nice and funny guy. He was very helpful to us and the other cruisers in our group during our time in Turtle Bay, and I really like him. One of the boats is a single hander from Canada named Greg, and I suggested to him that Kalel might be interested in going as far as Cabo with him. Greg talked to Kalel, and now Greg has crew who speaks fluent Espanol!

Yesterday morning while drinking my morning coffee, I opened a can of corn and used some to bait a hook. I immediately caught a small fish about 5 inches long, and kept it for bait. Later, I took it in the dinghy and went fishing for Rock Fish or Halibut. The problem is that I don't know enough about the habits of my quarry to be successful, yet. I did catch 2 nice fish that were each about 12 inches long, but I released them. It was fun, but I probably should have brought them home and made fish tacos out of them.

Yesterday was "Flag Day" here in Mexico, and last night this little town had a parade and then the whole town had an event at the basketball court. The townspeople brought various food items to sell to each other, and it was interesting! I tried two things: Champra something, which Kalel says is made from flour, milk, and chocolate cookies. It was thick like pudding, and warm, and served in cups. Interesting, but not something that I would drink very much of. The other thing that I tried was a flat crunchy chip like thing that was topped with lettuce, avocado, tomato, and drizzled with crema. It was good, but huge, so I ate half and gave the rest to Kalel. 

22 November

Well, we're still here at Mag Bay. Not sure why -  It's not that I don't want to stay - but better places are waiting! Today I aired up the kayak to get away for a little while, and went to shore and visited with Kalel. We hatched a plan to go snorkeling in an effort to find some scallops, and we came back to the boat and got the dinghy and Ed. We also told two neighboring boats that we were going, and Dave and Neal brought Dave's dinghy. We went about 2 miles to a rocky point, and then spent a couple of hours snorkeling. All the scallops that we found were empty. Kalel thinks that they were eaten by octopus. He caught one and we put it in the bucket. We also found several lobsters and they went in the bucket, too! When we got back to the sailboat, he and I cooked the lobster in butter and garlic, and we had a small feast for 9 people. Then we got the pressure cooker out to cook the octopus. Kalel cleaned it while I got about an inch of seawater in the bottom of the pan, and then I put the lid on and cooked it. I forgot to time it, but I think that it cooked for about 20 minutes after the pressure came up. When it came out of the pressure cooker, Kalel cleaned it up some more and cut it up into bite size pieces. He put it on a plate and squeezed fresh lime juice and hot sauce onto it, and oh my it was good! But back to the snorkeling for a minute - I am a really novice snorkeler, but It is so much fun! I snorkel around the boat here in the morning (it's my bath) but the water here is between 20 and 30 feet deep with a sandy bottom. I can't see it, so it's just about the swimming. But when I got to the rocky area today, and nearer shore, I was amazed by all the fish! The lobsters are not easy to find, because they are hiding under the rocks. Very fun!

29 November

We ended up waiting through thanksgiving, and having a get together at the dulceria on the beach. Teri and several others went to San Carlos and Cuidad Constiticion to get fixins for thanksgiving dinner; it's a "30 minute ride in a fast boat" from the village where we were anchored. Apparently it was quite a trip, because when they arrived in San Carlos, they loaded the panga on a trailer and continued to ride in the panga, on the trailer, for some distance. Teri was not back from that excursion until well after dark. In the meantime, a new cruiser had arrived in Mag Bay, and anchored at Belcher's Cove, which was a couple of miles away from us. They were not able to get their engine started, and somehow I ended up going to see if I could fix it. This boat was beautiful: a 2008 Bruce Robert's design, 54 foot steel hulled center cockpit cutter rig. It had an 84 hp cummins diesel that would not start. I spent most of the day - Thanksgiving day - trying to get it to run. It wasn't easy, because there were a couple of problems. The full tank (one of four) had a plugged fuel line, which I was able to blow out by inserting the fuel hose into one of those compressed air horns and squeezing the button. The major problem turned out to be that the electric fuel solenoid in the injector pump was not working. It took a while to figure that out, because I could hear it operating so I thought it might be working. I took it out and the piston was free, so I put it back together and bled the system yet again. Eventually, everything pointed to that solenoid. So we pulled the piston out and put it back together sans piston. Problem solved! By the time I arrived at thanksgiving dinner, everyone had finished eating and I had to scarf it while they were cleaning up.

The next day, when there should no longer be any possible reason to stay another day longer, we got stuck in a weather hold. The wind howled from the northeast for a few days, and we did not weigh anchor until early on Monday the 28th. The forecast was still for wind from the northeast up to 30 knots, but I was pretty confident that it had blown itself out, and we left Bahia de Magdelena in light winds from the northeast before sunrise. The trip to Cabo San Lucas was about 158 miles direct, and a direct route would take us offshore a considerable distance, which would result in a longer fetch for the wind to build waves if it was from the northeast. We figured that by the time we cleared Isla Margarita (early in the trip) that we would be able to decide whether to proceed direct or to stay close to the shore and take higher winds but smaller waves. 

Look for my next blog update to learn what we actually experienced!

Turtle Bay

Bahia de Tortugas, Baja California Sur. On the charts, it's called Puerto San Bartolome. To cruisers, it's simply "Turtle Bay". The trip here from Ensenada took us 49 hours, and was about 290 miles. Leaving Ensenada, we were visited by several Blue whales, and two of them got to within 50 yards or so from us. They are huge, and graceful, and their spout is like a "V". They are a heck of a lot bigger than this boat! We motored away from Ensenada into a direct headwind, having to go west to get out past Punta Banda, at which point we turned to the southeast and set sail. We motor sailed for a few hours, and then were able to shut it down and let the wind take us. The wind was forecast to be light, but it freshened to 15 - 20 knots and seemed to stay that way all the way here. At one point during one of the nights, I saw it hit 29 knots, and since I was steering the boat, Teri came up to help me reduce sail somewhat. With moderate swell and steep wind waves, it was actually a rather rough 2 days.

The Mexican coastline is very scalloped, and about 100 miles south of Ensenada we left the coastline and took a direct course to pass just to the west of Isla Cedros. This course took us quite a ways offshore, and for the first time I was able to look completely around the boat and not see land. It was also amazing to go for a day and night without seeing any other boats! With the wind blowing up pretty good waves, we made good time but I was very aware that we were on our own. In addition to the isolation, there were also all the warnings that the charts are not totally accurate and some of the coastline was last mapped by the U.S.S. Ranger in 1890 -1892. To drive the point home, the first afternoon out of Ensenada we sailed past two haystack type rocks that were not on the charts! So getting offshore further was good, because the water was charted to be about 7000 feet deep. 

We sailed down the west side side of Isla Cedros, and after clearing it by a good margin we turned southeast again, rejoining the coastline at Punta Eugenia and continuing another 20 miles or so to Turtle Bay. It was morning, and the wind was blowing briskly from the northeast, so it was on the beam or forward a little to close hauled. It was my watch, and the autopilot was doing a great job of driving the boat, so I was kicking back and trimming the sails for maximum speed. I was over 7 knots for a long time, which was perfect because it was fast enough to convince a Yellowfin Tuna that the cedar plug we were towing was its next meal. The handline went tight and I yelled "fish on!" and pulled it in. Ed estimates that it was about 20 pounds, and it was a beautiful fish. In all the excitement, I did not get a good picture of it. Ed filleted it immediately, and we had fish for three days! Too bad we don't have any wasabi aboard!

We had met several cruisers in Ensenada who were heading south, and many of us left there on the same day. I'm happy to report that they all arrived here, although some of them took considerably longer than others. Today most of us got together on the beach at a small place that is run by a guy named Rogelio. He has a little snack bar and happens to sell cerveza for 15 pesos, and it didn't take long until we had quite a party going. It was fun to get to know some of the other people who are doing the same thing as we are, and compare stories about the trip from Ensenada. Many are from the Pacific Northwest. 

SEVERAL DAYS LATER: Well, it's Monday morning, and the storm has passed. We moved to the south side of the bay in advance of a storm, and had a windy but not too rough ride. Those who stayed on the north side reported 6 foot waves breaking, and a local sailboat actually sank. The top of the mast is still sticking up out of the water. We are gathering last minute provisions, and plan to leave this afternoon. We only have 75 gallons of water capacity, and ran out last night. This morning Ed had Enrique bring 50 gallons, and we poured a 7 gallon jug that we had aboard in the tank too, so we have 57 gallons in the tank, and our reserve is empty. So, we are leaving with about 70% of our capacity - not sure about the wisdom of that, but it'll be interesting! In the meantime, I'll be fishing and sailing.

We checked out of the Bay Club Marina on Monday, the 1st of November. Moved the boat about a half mile to the "Police Docks". Because there is no place that anchoring is allowed (during the week), we took a slip there. Met some other boats who were also about to head south, and talked about the weather forecast that included Santa Ana Winds gusting to 70 knots. We decided that we were far enough south to be safe. 

Ed got up at midnight and got under way. When my watch started at 0300, we were in Mexican waters. Tijuana was astern and the Islas de Coronados were coming up on starboard. The wind was on the stern at about 5 knots, so we were motoring. Within a half hour, the wind began to freshen, and soon we had enough to get over 6 knots. The motor pushes the boat along at about 5 knots, so another knot is a 20% increase! Seas were gentle, and the autopilot was doing a fine job of driving the boat, so I was able to move forward in the cockpit and play with sail trim and look at the sky and ocean. It was a moonless night, but with fog forming and a kind of haziness that limited visibility to overhead. I saw a lot of falling stars, and the reflection of Jupiter on the water was amazing.

 On Teri's watch before my next one started, we were beam reaching on a starboard tack. The wind was light, but out of nowhere it started gusting to 28 knots. Teri has that kind of luck; not enough wind for awesome sailing, punctuated by "what the hell was that" conditions! We were about 5 miles offshore, and it was katabatic wind flowing out of the huge Guadelupe Canyon. We got a little thrill out of that and both sails got reefed for a little while! 

My next watch started at 1000, and again the wind built, so I shut down the engine and sailed the rest of the way to Ensenada. I love it when I have full sails up, 15 to 18 knots of wind on the beam, and 7 knots over the ground! Don't think it's quiet, because at that speed there is a lot noise as the boat hits waves. In fact, the wind pushes up these little (sometimes huge) waves, and then they fizzle and reform, and they do not die quietly. So even without us there, would it be noisy? If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it, did it make any sound?

The approach to Ensenada was uneventful. We are at a marina called Baja Naval. It is nice, and very close to downtown Ensenada. After clearing customs, Teri and I walked for a while, and got a couple of margaritas for the walk back to the boat. It's kind of fun to walk around with a margarita in a styrofoam cup, and these were excellent! Upon returning to the boat, we ran into our neighbors on s/v Eagle, Tom and Jeanne. We had talked with them on VHF several weeks ago after leaving Monterrey, and we had met them in San Diego. Since Teri had a lasagna in the oven and we had just bought some fresh bread at the panaderia, Teri invited them over for dinner. They brought a salad and a bottle of red, and of course I had opened a large bottle to start breathing before they arrived, so we had a feast! I very much enjoyed the evening with good food, good wine, and getting to know this wonderful couple!

Today the three of us walked into town and had a taco and a cervesa for lunch. Muy bueno! They are forecasting gale force winds tomorrow, so we are staying put until after the system blows through. In the meantime, we'll keep enjoying life here in Ensenada! Hasta luego!

We arrived in San Diego on Sunday morning, and spent most of the day being lazy because we were up all night crossing down from Catalina Island. The Harbor Police Docks on Shelter Island are OK, but bathrooms and showers leave a lot to be desired. On Monday morning, we tuned in to the cruisers net on VHF, and found out about a coffee klatch at Downwind Marine scheduled for 10 AM. So we put the motor on the dinghy and drove over to a nearby beach, and walked the rest of the way. While there, we met some other cruisers, and from one couple we learned about about a great deal on a slip that they had found. Calling that marina, we were able to get a slip for 2 weeks for $261. So we moved the boat to Bay Club Motel and Marina, and this is a great spot!

It is about a 1/2 mile walk to Downwind Marine, and also to West Marine. I am amazed at how many marine businesses are here - it's a whole industry here! Today I splurged and bought a fishing pole, which I plan to use once we get south of the border (I have a Mexican fishing license, but not one for California). I see fish tacos in my future!!

Ed has been working on getting insurance coverage for Mexico, and finally got that secured this morning.    We have researched the paper chart options and have decided to go with the Yachtsman brand; the book that covers the west coast of Mexico costs $100. Not a bad price, but they are not as nice as the Maptech paper charts that we used on the way down from Astoria. Even though we have a chart plotter at the helm, and Ed has charts in his laptop computer, the paper charts were indispensable in making the trip. Every hour, we would write down our GPS coordinates, speed, and heading on a log that I created. Then we would put a X on the chart and note the time. This way, if the electronics fail, we know where we were at the last hour as well as the speed and heading since then. Paper charts also helped in planning. Before departing from any port, we would look at the chart, decide where we wanted to go, and chose the waypoints for each leg. Then we would measure the length and heading for each leg, and after programming the waypoints into the chart plotter, we could check the headings and distances against the chart. Don't leave home without it!

Not sure what I will do with all my time here - we are not leaving here before Nov 1. Maybe I'll slip the line in the water behind the boat and see what kind of fish are swimming around. I have been walking every day and getting at least a mile, usually 2. We have a list of chores to do on the boat, including washing it inside and out, and some repairs to do.  Last night, Teri and went to a seminar to learn about cooking meals in pressure cookers. There were about 40 people there, and the 2 guys with the pressure cookers did a great job. I learned a lot and look forward to practicing some of it! We are planning to take Ed and Teri's grandsons sailing on Saturday! Hope I can still remember how to sail!

I am going to try to change how this blog looks for this post:

A bison on Catalina Island

Arriving at Avalon in the fog!

Mai Tai's at the Bay Club Hotel and Marina on Shelter Island

Just trying to figure out how to upload photos, now that I have a great internet connection!

Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands.

We departed Santa Barbara on Monday morning in a very thick fog, headed south for Santa Cruz Island. It's 20 some miles, and the wind soon picked up to about 10 knots from the west, so we set sails and shut off the engine. The fog cleared and we had a great sail across the channel at about 5 knots. We did see one whale but it was a ways away. Arriving at the north side of the island, we turned and headed around the east end, because we were headed for a place called Smuggler's Cove on the southeast corner of the island. We were met head-on by hundreds of what we thought must be dolphins headed west and jumping on every stroke of the their tails. But they did not appear to have dorsal fins, so we think that they were Northern Fur seals.

We anchored here in Smuggler's Cove with a few other boats, and we decided to blow up the kayak for the first time on the trip and see if we run into any issues doing it on the boat instead of the dock. It went well, and we soon had a kayak to play in! Because Roxie has not learned to do her business on the boat, she needed to be taken ashore, so Ed and Teri decided to take her. Ed got in the kayak first, and held it against the stern of Sea Moore. Teri sat down on the swim platform and put her feet into the kayak. Now, I understand the desire to be graceful, but I think it might have been better for her to have gotten on her knees, and then into the kayak. I didn't have time to  get my camera….. as she pushed into the kayak, it went away from her, and she rolled backwards into the resulting gap between the boat and the kayak. Her PFD soon brought her to the surface, choking and sputtering, and totally soaked! The second attempt worked better, and off they went. Given that the surf looked pretty big and that none of us have ever landed or launched an inflatable kayak in the surf, I figured that I might be in for a show. So I filled my water glass and got a bag of potato chips and sat in the cockpit with binoculars to watch. They did fine, both landing and launching, and Roxie was soon back onboard a happy dog. Teri put some rice on to boil, and I baked 2 cod fillets and fixed some broccoli. We enjoyed a scrumptious meal and then watched a movie before bed.

The next day, we enjoyed the sights and visited with a few other cruisers who were also anchored there. I took the kayak and started getting used to being in the ocean in an inflatable kayak. I didn't try to got through the surf though. After dinner I went up in the cockpit, and looked around. It was warm and calm, and 2 new boats had anchored nearby, so I decided to kayak over and meet them. I visited with some people on a big catamaran, and then headed towards the surf to get a closer look at it from the ocean side. Before I got there, though, the breeze started coming up, and I looked around and saw a wind line cutting through the cove. I immediately started digging towards SeaMoore, which was upwind on my port bow. Within just a few minutes, the entire cove had whitecaps. I was seated towards the back of the kayak, and it was hard to keep it pointed into the wind. I was also nervous that the wind might get under the bow and tip me over. As I got closer to the boat, the wind increased and it seemed like as hard as I could paddle was not making progress. I thought about what was behind me - 6 miles to Ana Capa Island, which was only 10 or 15 degrees wide, but beyond that it was about 30 to 40 miles of open ocean. I changed my heading a little into the wind, so that I could paddle on both side without loosing my heading, and started making a little headway again towards the boat. When I finally got there, Ed and Teri were both waiting for me and rooting for me, and were very concerned. I drove the bow into the stern of SeaMoore and Ed caught my bow line. I just sat there and rested for a minute before climbing out. We have a home weather station on the boat, and as soon as I got aboard I looked at it; the wind was 25 -28 and the max gust was 29mph. So that is about 25 knots. The folks on the catamaran were dragging anchor, and it took then 2 more tries to get a good holding. SeaMoore held well, but we were very vigilant for the next couple of hours till the wind slowed down. Another strange thing about the wind coming up was that when it did, the temp went up from 73 to 80 degrees. We were in the lee of Santa Cruz Island, and I considered that the temperature increase could be due to compressional cooling, but I don't think it would warm that much just blowing over and island and not raining on the windward side. Anyway, we got up this morning at 0300 to head for Santa Catalina Island. The wind had dropped to nearly calm, and it was a beautiful morning with a full moon and 75 degrees. 

We left the next morning, and are now enjoying Catalina Island, which will be the subject of my next post.

SoIt's our final day here at Port San Luis Obispo, about 4 pm. The wind is howling outside at about 20 knots, and the sky is clear and warm. The forecaster says that the wind will slow down a little tonight and tomorrow morning around Pt. Arguello. I am hoping that she is correct, because looking south at the sand dunes down toward Pismo Beach, I see a huge cloud of sand being blown up, and looking at the ocean I see lots of sheep grazing out there. So we are planning to leave in the morning before 4, with the intent of getting around the points by noon and therefore hopefully before the wind pipes back up. Assuming that it goes down.

I just discovered that my MacBook has a jack for my earphones, so I can listen to Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs" as I write this, without subjecting Ed and Teri to it. Next up: Billy Bob Thornton!

Heretofore in writing blog posts, I have written the entry after a passage and then uploaded it. I am trying something different this time; by writing this initial piece prior to departure, and then as we are enroute I will add to it. It's 90 miles from here to Santa Barbara; 18 hours at 5 knots, 15 hours at 6 knots. I'll be back.

So, we left last night - early this morning, actually - at 0130. we have made it around Points Arguello and Conception, and we are in the Santa Barbara Channel. It's 1247, and I am wearing a tee shirt and shorts. Bright  blue sky and bright blue water. The swells are passing under us about 8 seconds apart, and they are about 2 feet high. The wind is on the stern at about 6 knots, so we are motoring. This morning around daylight, we were abeam Pt. Arguello and the wind was from the north at 15 and the seas were 10 - 12 feet at about 8 seconds. It's called the "Cape Horn" of the west coast for a reason, I suppose! 

We are headed east, and off to the south and southeast I can see San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz Islands. We have sailed past some oil platforms that are huge! Even from several miles away, they look huge. There is a lot of oil in this area, and the chart actually shows "oil springs" There must be some, too, because we have seen miles of water with oil floating on the surface. I suppose it's okay if it's natural and not there because of a human action. Since when were humans not natural? The wind is completely calm, and the water is glassy.

We arrived Santa Barbara this evening at about 1845 hrs. Since there are no slips available, we have anchored east of the marina in 5 fathoms of water. It's a little rolly, but I will sleep well because I'm tired. Ed and Teri have taken the dinghy to shore and may be getting groceries. If not tonight, then tomorrow! We are running low on some basic provisions, and we had quite a grocery list. Things like nuts, eggs, fresh vegetables, potatoes, hummus, etc. Interestingly, we have not had a real discussion about where to go next. The only 2 place we are going for sure soon are Santa Catalina Island and San Diego. I suppose tomorrow we'll talk about where to go next. It is a huge relief to finally get past Pt. Conception - we have arrived in southern California!!! 

We are still sitting at Port San Luis, waiting for the conditions to improve. It's sunny and windy outside, slightly cool, and I am sitting in the bar where I can get internet reception. I am sitting on a stool, at a table, looking out the window towards the bay. It is a little bluer than what I would see in Oregon, but still has a silver quality to it. The wind is creating a lot of texture on the surface, and there are many boats sitting there at anchor. The sky is mostly blue, with low level cumulus clouds in the distance. Way out to the south, on the horizon, I imagine that  I can see Pt. Arguello, which with Pt. Conception makes a huge cape that we have to get around before entering the Santa Barbara channel.
I realized yesterday that I have not been in a car or on a highway in quite some time - a revelation that pleases me. Pondering this, I started thinking about how much I have left the world behind - and it occurred to me that I have not seen any news since we left Portland on September 8th. Am I okay with that? Thanks to Facebook, email, and my cell phone, I am still in contact with my people, and so I don't feel detached from the world. So I suppose it's fair to say that my world is my people, or my people are my world. I sympathize with people having problems in the wider world, but right now, there's just nothing that I can do to help them, so it doesn't bother me to not really now everything that's going on out there. I am happy to work on my relationship with my boat mates, with the people that we meet along the way, and with my people that I remain connected with through the internet. I truly believe that we are all connected - in fact, that we are one - and even with this belief, it's amazing how much I miss seeing some of my loved ones back home. You know who you are!
And yet, there is no other place that I would rather be, and nothing that I would rather be doing. This is one hell of an adventure!

I write this from the comfort of the settee in SeaMoore's salon, on a stormy morning on 5 October. We are on a mooring ball in San Luis Obispo Bay, and it's raining and blowing outside. The waves are making the boat pitch and roll and overall it's a pretty wild ride. But we are safe, and the only real threat is that my coffee cup may fly off at any given moment.

I think I last posted to this blog from San Francisco. We had a decent sail from there to Monterey, about 20 hours enroute. Monterey is a great place to go when transiting the coast, and as we approached the harbor we were welcomed by sea lions, seals, sea otters, and dolphins; and of course the ever present  pelicans, cormorants, and sea gulls. Monterey has thriving tourist industry on the wharf, with seafood restaurants packed side by side on both sides of the length of the wharf. They are basically "fish and chips" places and the day that we were there, they were hawking clam chowder, free calamari and $3.95 drinks for happy hour. We did splurge by walking landward several blocks to a Mexican place. My fish tacos were excellent! But, a result of the global economy, the fish in my tacos was tilapia, and was most likely imported from southeast Asia in a refrigerated container aboard a container ship to L.A. or San Francisco, and then hauled in a truck to Monterey. Such is the world in which we live.

We left Monterey after spending one night there, and headed once again southward along the desolate and rugged coast of central California. I was at the helm, sailing with a wind at my back, when I heard a great exhalation of air to my port side. "Thar she blows!!" It was a Humpback whale, a hundred yards or less away. The last I saw of it was it's entire tail, silhouetted against the horizon, as it dived to deeper waters. On my next watch, which was from 0300 to 0600, the was very little wind and I was using the engine. I still had the genoa poled out, but was not getting much help from it. I noticed a faint spot on the radar, at a close range, at a relative position of about 1 o'clock. I looked and looked, and finally got a visual. The lights indicated that it was another sailboat using her motor, and I hailed them on the radio. No answer. Eventually I did talk to another boat that was behind us, who told me that the boat in question was a single hander (we had met this guy in Monterey) named Carl. Any way, I was a little faster and overtaking very slowly, and his heading was kind of wandering around a bit, I don't know if it was because he was using a wind vane for steerage or if he was just driving while asleep, but he was hard to pass because he kept turning in front of me. I eventually got past him when he turned more to port in front of me. I turned about 45 degrees right and added power to pick up another 2 tenths of speed or so. I think he eventually went into Morro Bay, as did several other southbound cruisers that we heard on the radio.

The fuel dock here at Port San Luis is on a wharf with really tall pilings, so when tying up we were way below the dock, and had to get our dock lines around the pilings to hold the boat. Then we climb a ladder to the dock. It's not what we're accustomed to in Portland, but we saw the same thing in Eureka, and I'm sure will see it a lot more as we continue south. After getting fuel, we picked up this mooring ball, and here we are waiting out this storm. Looks like we'll be here for a few more days. I am enjoying the adventure - we take the dinghy to the dinghy dock to get ashore, and this bay is full of sea otters, seals, and sea lions. I got some really good close up pictures of pelicans yesterday when we were ashore to shore and use the free WiFi in the bar. Today will bring more adventure I'm sure! Ed is cooking some eggs, so I think I'll sign off for now and get to the business of the day. Sea Moore out!

dinner with a view

We spent our first night anchored in Richardson Bay, near Sausalito, and then moved the boat to the guest dock at Clipper Marine in Sausalito for the second night. It was good to get a shower on land and have an internet connection. Marin County has a reputation for being a bit expensive, and our 24 hours there validated it. We spent one night at  the dock, and the next day we headed south towards San Francisco. Towards the south end on Richardson Bay, the wind was on the starboard beam at about 8 knots, and Teri was at the helm. I asked her if she wanted to sail, and of course she said yes. So I unfurled the main and genoa, and away we went. Within 5 minutes, we were in San Francisco Bay with 20 knots of wind on the beam and were doing over 7 knots. It was a great sail across the bay, and as we approached the San Francisco side, we furled the genoa and then the main and motored into the Aquatic Park. The signs at the entrance say something like "Motorized Vessels Prohibited" and "Caution: Swimmers in the Water". After getting inside, we realized that we needed to pump out the black water holding tank, we started up and motored out and west a half mile to a marina with a pump out station. After pumping out, we headed back to Aquatic Park, and this we sailed in and anchored. It turns out that it is OK for a sailboat to use a motor in there, and also to use an outboard on a dinghy. They just don't want the place to fill up with power boaters. 

Aquatic Park is directly in front of Ghirardelli Square and adjacent to Fisherman's Wharf, and from the water we had a priceless view of the City. There is a sandy beach and lots of people enjoying the water on a nice day. Some swell runs through the anchorage, and we could see and hear the waves breaking on the beach. Just little ones about a foot high. Teri and I jumped in the dinghy and rowed to the beach. We wondered around Ghirardelli Square, and we did happy hour at McCormick and Kuletto's (everything inside said Schmick's). We headed back to the dinghy and were happy to find it there on the beach were we had left it. It is an 8 foot rubber raft. We dragged it back down to the water and talked about hour we could get out out past the breakers. They were now about 1.5 feet high. This was our first time ever doing something like this, and we both got soaked! Roxie, the boat mutt, didn't like it either. But we learned from it, and the next day we didn't get wet. Ed and I went through the Maritime Museum while Teri and Roxie explored Fisherman's Wharf, and then we met up for lunch and further exploration. We went back to the boat in the afternoon and hung out. For dinner Teri cooked a chicken and noodle pesto dish and I sautéed a skillet of swiss chard. We had garlic french bread and wine with it, and ate it in the cockpit while enjoying the view of San Francisco nearby. It was a perfect evening; warm, fun, great conversation and food. 

I awakened this morning to a chorus of very deep sounding and very loud horns. Some were closer and some were farther away, and they did not all have the same pitch, so it is a cool sound the hear. I laid in my warm bed and listened to them, and decided that it must be foggy outside and they must be fog horns. Sure enough, when I looked outside it was very foggy. I could not see Alcatraz,, and I could not see the Golden Gate Bridge. 

We are planning to leave today, although the wind is supposed to be from the south. We plan to go south about 20 miles to Half Moon Bay. Possible subsequent stops are Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Morro Bay, and San Luis Obispo. We will not stop at all of them. Then we will face the double capes of Point Arguello and Point Conception, and head east in the Santa Barbara Channel. But that's a few day to a week away, and I'm sure I'll be writing again before we get that far.

Ft Bragg to San Francisco Bay

It's difficult to really know what the weather is going to do when you're getting ready to go sailing. Even when the planned passage is only 25 hours, as our passage from Ft Bragg to SFO was, it's hard to predict. Basically there are two things to watch, the wind and the waves. When going to sea for a longer trip, it's nice to have the wind at your back, or at least on the beam. The waves are created by wind, but not necessarily by the wind that we're sailing in. Local winds certainly make waves, and we call them "wind waves". They're usually steep and close together, and they can make the ride rough. The waves from far off storms arrive as swell, and a bigger swell is not a problem if they are far enough apart.
We departed Fort Bragg with no wind, but an approaching cold front was promising winds from the south. The forecasters were telling us that the south wind would not kick up until the next day, and the real issue was whether we could get south faster than the cold front and avoid the headwinds and resulting wind waves. I had a bad feeling that the cold front would move more quickly than the forecasters were telling us,    but I could not find any evidence that they were wrong, so we launched. The swells were about 12 feet or so, and the period was 17 seconds. It was a good ride and they was no wind so we motored south. A wind started blowing from the east, so we unfurled the main and sailed on a beam reach. We went around Point Arena sometime after dark and turned left, following the coastline about 6 miles offshore. The wind on the nose, so we motored for the rest of the night. We passed Point Reyes early in the morning, and the cold front caught up with us, and the wind clocked around to the south. Happily, after passing Point Reyes our reading was pretty much east, so again we were able to sail on a beam reach.
Our plan was to stay north of the main shipping channel, and use the Bonita Channel near the shore. This would put us between the shore and a nasty place called "four fathom bank" and the "potato patch".  By the time we entered the channel, the wind was up to over 20 knots from the south, and the seas were getting very confused, with wind waves from the south and swell from the west. It rained a little, and the wind waves were making the boat pretty salty, but we were never in any danger and were in good spirits. The seas gradually subsided as we approached the Golden Gate Bridge, and we arrived on a 1.5 knot flood tide. It took 26 hours to make the trip, but it went well!
We motored up into Richardson's Bay, near Sausalito, and anchored for the night. I slept soundly as I always do after getting off the ocean. We did not have internet access, and we needed to do laundry, so today we moved to a marina in Sausalito. The laundry is now done, and our plan is to leave here tomorrow and go to an anchorage in SFO called Aquatic Park. It is supposed to be very near Ghirardelli Sqquare and Fisherman's Wharf. We'll stay there a night or two, and then start looking at the weather and making plans to continue down the coast.
I shot some exciting video while crossing the bar, but so far have not been able to upload it to the web. Bear with me, please!

Fort Bragg

We left Eureka on Tuesday afternoon and headed for Fort Bragg. The forecast called for winds 15 to 20 knots, and seas not bad. I have heard that Cape Mendocino can dish up scary big waves, so I was smugly happy that we were leaving in the afternoon. This would put us around the cape during the night, when the wind is usually lighter, and therefore the waves too. I like it when I get the chance to outfox Mother Nature. My watch ended at 2100 hours, and just before going off watch I turned the boat to the southeast, having cleared the point of the cape. The wind had been picking up a little, and when I turned the helm over to Teri the wind was blowing 18 - 20 with an occasional gust up to 23 or so. The wind was on our port quarter, and the seas were on our starboard quarter. The main was reefed and the genoa was doused because we like to keep it simple for one person watches at night and the broad reach was deep enough that the genoa would have been blanketed by the main anyway.  

So Teri took the watch and I went to bed. I was awakened about an hour later by the crashing of items in the salon that usually don't crash, and I could hear the wind whistling in the rigging. So much for outfoxing Mother Nature! Ed told me later that the wind had been above 30 knots for more than an hour. We did get to see lots of marine mammals on the way - a pod of Orcas, what we thought was a Humpback, and another that we think was a Fin whale. We have a chart to help us determine what kind they are, but it's not easy and we just bought it here at Fort Bragg.

I was back on watch when we arrived here at Fort Bragg, and got the thrill and pleasure of bringing the boat across the bar, up the Noyo River, and into the slip here at the marina. The Noyo River is VERY small, and going from open ocean to something narrower than the Multnomah Channel in five minutes is pretty cool. We are definitely not in Oregon any more! I recognize some of the plants, but there are a lot of trees that I don't recognize.  The river is full of sea lions and seals. And fishing boats.

I went out today with my camera and took some pictures, hoping that my new computer would easily download them from the camera. WOW! It was simple, and the slideshow in iPhoto was incredible! We don't have WiFi here in the marina, but as soon as I get an internet connection I intend to try uploading to Facebook and hopefully will upload this blog entry and some pics with it. We plan to leave here soon for Bodega Bay.

Astoria to Eureka

We left Astoria  at 0930 on Tuesday, September 13. There was almost no wind blowing, so we ran the motor as we headed south. The breeze did come up, and we had the sails up, but continued to use the motor to help us along. We motorsailed for something like the first 32 hours or so. Then the wind came up nice and we shut the motor down. The wind was from the northwest, and it pushed up some waves to about 6 feet. None of us were seasick and the mood on the boat was good. We each had 2 three hour shifts and 1 two hour watch each day, so we seemed to get plenty of sleeptime, too. Sleeping on a sailboat at sea turned out to be more difficult than I had expected, because it's very noisy and the boat keeps rolling and my instinct is to brace against the roll, and the ocean did not have any rhythm because the waves and swells were from about 3 different directions.

The evening of the first day had us going past Cape Meares and Oceanside (Oregon) and I was happy to be able to see that area from the ocean, having grown up there. The sun was shining on Oceanside and it looked good from 12 miles out. Sometime the next day, we got far enough offshore (and the fog was hanging on the coast) that we could not see land at all. This persisted until we got to Cape Blanco, and then again pretty much to Point St. George.

We typically like to run the engine at night because the wind is lighter, and we need to charge the batteries, etc. Still sailing of course! When we were off Brookings, we started the engine and there was no cooling water in the exhaust. We installed a new impeller in the raw water pump, but that did not fix the problem. We rotated the cover plate on the pump, and this helped for a while, but then it quit again. This is not good. So we sailed sans engine and just went more slowly while thinking about our options. We arrived offshore Eureka late in the evening of the third day, and hove-to about 5 miles off the coast in 3 knots of wind and sloppy seas about 6 feet at 6 seconds. Next morning I had a plan that we tried and it worked - we removed the shower head from the flexible hose; removed the raw water hose from the output side of the pump, and was able to plug the shower hose into it. Then turning on the shower would pump cooling water into the engine! We got a funnel and a bucket, and filled the fresh water tank with sea water. We started the engine and started motoring towards the entrance to Humboldt Bay, about 6 miles away. Did I mention that the visibility was about 100 yards in the fog? We kept bucketing all the way in, because the shower was on full blast and we didn't want to run into trouble now! It worked perfectly, and the first buoy showed up exactly where the chart plotter and radar said it should, and in an hour we were inside the bay.

One thing that I should mention here is that we were hove-to one afternoon off the southern Oregon coast when a whale came to check us out. It swam around the boat 4 times, about 10 to 20 feet away from us. Way cool but a little worrisome, given that I know of 3 times in the past 2 years that a sailboat has been wrecked by a whale breaching and landing on the boat.

My camera battery was dead for this leg of our adventure, I have now fully charged it. The problem now is that my laptop computer is about to go. It has been getting really slow, and when we got here to Eureka, I plugged it in and turned it on, and it will not start. Well, it starts, and then restarts, and restarts, and restarts, and finally I get a blue screen, etc. Macs are more expensive, but I'm thinking that the cost of getting a PC cleaned up and fixed after a few viruses make the 2 about the same cost over the life of the computer. So I think I'll buy a Mac. Maybe when we get to San Francisco, I'll look for one on Craigslist. In the meantime, I'll use Ed and Teri's.

I slept for 12 hours the first night here. The marina has good clean restrooms and the showers are free. Yester we walked into old town and had a beer at the Lost River Brewer (I think). We are planning to leave here tomorrow night or Tuesday for San Francisco.

Getting out of town is hard to do!

It's probably a good thing that we have been delayed in getting out to sea. We spent most of Saturday rethinking and redoing things on the boat. Ed worked on getting the fuel jugs secured on the deck, and I dismantled the radar reflector, put it together around a cap shroud, and went up the mast to the lower spreader and secured it there. Yesterday Ed and I went to Safeway and got some groceries, Teri found her foulies, and in general we decided that we are ready to venture out there. The wind was still from the south today, so we decided to wait until tomorrow morning. The forecast is for pretty good sailing the next few days, but in my experience the weather is usually worse than the forecast.

I have been trying to figure out how to get my passport reissued with a needed correction for about 2 years. To be honest, I have not been trying every day for the past 2 years, but on several occasions I have gone to the passport website and tried to figure out which form to use and how to fill it out and what other documentation to include with the application. It is not as simple as the State Department would have you believe! Amazingly, through Facebook I reconnected with a high school classmate who is the director of one of the regional passport offices. He helped me out and I got the application sent off about 3 weeks prior to leaving Portland. I paid the extra fee for expedited service and overnight delivery both ways. Unfortunately, the national passport center in Philadelphia would not accept the application because (according to them) I used the wrong form. It took the post office 1 week and 1 day to overnight the rejected application back to me, and it arrived the day after we left Portland. It's no wonder the Post Office is going broke! Any way, today Julia brought the application here to Astoria; I filled it out and she took me to the county clerks office to get it signed and sent off. Whew! I hope it all goes well now and the new passport is waiting for me when we reach San Diego.


We stopped at Safeway on the way back to the boat and picked up a tub of Tillamook Vanilla Ice Cream. Ed and Teri picked some blackberries this morning, and the ice cream was perfect on the cobbler!

some background

Last spring, I helped Ed and Teri bring their Hunter 356 down the Washington coast from Port Townsend, Washington to Portland. Shortly after completing that trip, we started talking about sailing it to Mexico and perhaps beyond. We set a departure date of September 7, 2011, and left the day after that (due to my needing a follow-up medical appointment). We motored to Saint Helens, and spent the night at the City Docks there. Next morning we motored down the river as far as Jim Crow Point, and anchored there behind the point in about 30 feet of water. The dredge Oregon was operating just downstream near Pillar Rock, and we saw lots of piping and infrastructure on the water as we ended the day. Saturday dawned - well, it didn't really dawn. The fog just got brighter. Visibility was about 50 yards. I don't know how it came to pass that I got to drive, but I did! It was my first time driving a boat in low visibility conditions, but radar, chart plotter, and an autopilot make it easy! I called the dredge though, and they advised me to pass them on the Oregon side, which I did. Near Rice Island I made a position report on Channel 13, and a tug towing a barge answered to tell me that they were headed up the river and the we would be meeting soon. I was on the "green side" and they moved over to the "red side" and it was still amazing how close we passed! I had nearly lost sight of the tug when the tow became visible. The fog lasted all the way to Tongue Point, and then it opened and lifted to glorious sunshine.

We spent the day readying the boat to go to sea. Lots of small jobs and we got them all done. This morning (Sunday) we checked the weather and decided to leave for Eureka, California. We decided this knowing that there was forecast winds from the south, because the wind speeds were not supposed to get more than 15 knots. On the way from Astoria to the bar, a distance of 15 miles, the wind kept building until it was sustained at 30 and we saw a gut to 38 knots. The sailing was fun, but we decided to return to Astoria and wait it out. Had T-bone steaks and yams for dinner.

It has taken me 28 months to return to this blog - I opened it in March, 2009, and now it's August 2011. I didn't even remember creating it, but found it here on the internet when I decided to start writing a blog!

Twelve days from now, I will be leaving my home port of Portland, Oregon and sailing down the Columbia River to Astoria. We are going to cross the Columbia River Bar, and then turn left and head for warmer waters! I'm told that, even now in the height of summer, the warmer water is a long ways away and to be sure and take my foul weather gear.

Last April, I joined a crew to help a friend move her Hunter 356 sailboat from Bellingham, Washington to Portland. As a result of that delivery, I was asked to join Ed and Teri in taking their boat to Mexico and to spend the winter with them down there, cruising. I intend to write to this blog regularly as a means of developing my writing skills and to let my friends follow my progress.