Monterey

Monterey

We left Half Moon Bay on September 24th and arrived early evening to Monterey. We motored initially but then had a fabulous sail reaching across the bay the last 3 hours. Sails were put away right before entering Breakwater Cove. We were greeted by many seals, sea lions and sea otters on the breakwater, it was LOADED with all of them. In Seattle our breakwater had the usual seagulls, then in Half Moon Bay they were full of pelicans and now we had a change of crew. Hmmm, what is next?

The sea otters are as cute as they are like to take mussels and break them on the bow of the boat causing quite a bit of damage. We noticed all the boats kept fenders low on their bow to protect it from these mischievous creatures. They were all over the marina and fun to watch as they are playful. We did try to discourage their behavior when we saw other boats being assaulted. 

Stephen and I did stay at a marina as we had some laundry and showers in our future after anchoring out the last time. I had some nice runs on the trail on the coast. We used to come to Monterey quite a bit in the past to paraglide on the dunes so it was fun to arrive by a different mode of transportation and with different activities in mind. Despite all of our frequent visits, we never went to the aquarium so that was achieved on this trip. Additionally, we decided a dive at Breakwater Cove in the Kelp Forest would be cool and since we had dive gear on the boat it seemed proper we check this out. This "checking out" include 7mm wet suits ( we only have 3mm on board so we rented these) and then it was told to us for the weight we needed 10% of our body weight and additional 10lbs just to get down. Holy Moly HEAVY dive gear!! I have never done a shore dive and oh boy with all this weight it was pretty funny to watch me WADDLE across the sand just to get to the water. 

Visibility was fair obviously. 

Uggh!! Heavy tank, lots of weight, 7mm suit -can I just step off a boat???  Soon....

1st dive in a while! Nice to feel good about your gear and look forward to warmer water dives

Steps down to San Carlos beach at the Breakwater Cove

Out to Sea is a great dive shop/fishing shop next to the cove and on the marina grounds.  Chris and Erin, the owners, were ridiculously helpful. They gave us information on the dive and they will cart over your gear to San Carlos beach and refill your tanks. They treated us like we were paying for a big charter even though we had our own gear and really would just get refills. Stephen and I dusted off the cobwebs ( I had not dove since going to Australia 6 years ago) and Stephen was 10 years ago when we both dove in Thailand. We did some mellow shallow water dives and check out the kelp forest and appreciated the decorator crabs and some cool sand dollars.

I loved the Jelly display in the Aquarium - Jellyfish are gorgeous animals and very hypnotic with their movements. I found them tranquil to watch but I can sure say this is NOT how I feel about them when I see them in the water with me!!!

Ethan gave us generous pours and we enjoyed some wine! 

Cribbage, yummy wine thanks to Alise and Adam, and very rare Yeti wine glasses ( ha!). Stephen FINALLY plays cribbage with me - yahoo! 

Tomorrow we will take off for Morro Bay and catch up with Dave and Kelly SV Arctos. We have a good friend Larry there and will spend some time enjoying the area.

Sorry about the video that would not post! I am over trying to download it- Blogger is not always user-friendly :(

Half Moon Bay

HALF MOON BAY:
This is a quick blog from the San Francisco post. We left SF on September 22nd, the Fall Equinox, and arrived to Half Moon Bay early afternoon.  We plan to head to Monterey next and wanted a spot to break up the next cruise so we could get an earlier arrival to Monterey and Half Moon Bay was perfect. We got some fuel at the fuel dock and then anchored in the bay. We re-commissioned our dinghy and headed to shore to check out the Coast Trail.  The Coast Trail is a nice path along the shoreline with great views. You can also just walk the beach which extends for quite some distance.

Before we headed into shore too soon, Stephen convinced me the Johnson outboard motor needed to get some time on her again. The truth is he loves dinghy rides but he REALLY likes fast dinghy rides. She gets on plane pretty quick and we had a good race around in the water avoiding going too far into the surf. We then headed back to the dinghy dock and chatted up some fishermen. They had black cod, ling cod, king salmon and some rockfish for sale on the dock.  Our freezer is tiny and full so we held off on buying any fish at this time. We took a great walk on Coast Trail and by the time we returned SV  Jean Anne and SV Luego had pulled in to anchor as well. We had a great time on SV Jean Anne for the evening and then returned back to Soulstice, just a short dinghy ride away.

Today, September 23rd, all the cruisers went for a walk on the trail and took the SV Luego's dogs, Pip and Mac, to get some good doggy fun in. They raced along the beach, ran in and out of the water, played fetch and ball. They had a great doggy day and it always warms my heart to get dogs out and get them good playtime! I always say I am like a dog:) if you walk me and feed me I'm fine but I need both to keep me happy! We had plans to meet up with our friends Krysi and Ryan Sanders and their 3-year-old son Sawyer. His Birthday was today and they were headed to Santa Cruz to do a train ride through the Redwoods to celebrate his special day. They were able to meet us for lunch and we took them out to the boat to hang out and see our tiny floating home. It was such a good visit and we feel blessed to have another great visit with good souls.

Walking alone the Coast Trail

SV Jean Anne crew ( Steve and Chelsea from Tacoma) , SV Soulstice crew, and SV Luego crew ( Sonni and Brad from Spokane) 

We have really enjoyed hanging out with these guys, sharing meals on boats and fun activities in town. They are heading to Santa Cruz tomorrow and us to Monterey but we will ALL  be heading to Mexico! We will probably see them again in Morro Bay.

Krysi and Sawyer ( and very large beer cans from Hop Dogma Brewing Co. with Silly Gimmick DIPA  inside - you can pick a beer and they fill these cans for you on a To Go order:) pretty sweet!)

Now that is some serious smiling on Sawyer's part - that is a "I am 3!" smile.

Captain Sawyer

Stephen and Ryan catching up in the salon. 

The Sanders Family

Thanks again Ryan and Krysi for making the stop to see us and SV Soulstice! We are grateful to have such good friends and the timing was perfect. They have an amazing adventure coming up to Vietnam and Bali so we are excited for their travels as well!

SAN FRANCISCO

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

Hello! We have had a fantastic week in San Francisco! We had some great visits here with friends as well as a surprise visit from Sarah, Stephen's sister from Germany. We left on September 12th from Eureka and arrived Friday, September 14th to San Francisco. We had some fun downwind sailing with using our whisker pole and the genoa on the cruise down. Our entrance into the San Francisco Bar early Friday went smoothly as we did our best to time it right coming around Bonita Point.  We have been at the Marina Bay Yacht Harbor in Richmond. It is very reasonably priced compared to other marinas in the bay and the Bay Trail, which is a great walking/running trail is right next to the marina. We were familiar with the area as we have gone to the Boat Show at the Craneway Pavilion which is next door to the marina for the last 2 years. 

The Whisker pole set up with our foreguy and afterguy:) We can furl the genoa with the pole still set up which is great! 

Good morning...

Some fog at the entrance

Heading to Richmond now...

Bonita Point Lighthouse 

The Robertson Family visit!

Captain Lincoln

Sunset contemplations

Thanks Alise for a great visit with your family!

Alise working the Genoa sheet! Nice job!

PB&J for lunch - always a winner!

He spotted a Pirate? 👀😉

Julia Sandavol, Calstar Flight RN, co-worker of Stephen's came for a visit with Andy (brown fluffy love) and Hailey (black and white fluffy love)

We took Andy, Hailey,  Mac, and Pip ( Our other friend's dogs who are cruising) for a walk on the Bay Trail to the Point Isabel Dog Park. 

Stephen and Julia ( Julia said she is not sad that Stephen is not around to make her watch Naked and Afraid at work anymore - did I say work? yikes...did I say they watch TV at work? Yep, it's true - when not saving lives there is downtime - ha!

Miss Lovely Sarah Poehls from Germany arrived in San Fran! She is a flight attendant for Lufthansa and got a last minute flight to SF. She does fly here fairly often but this was kismet. She only has 48 hours in town so we had a great dinner party on the night of her arrival. I made some gringo posole as I call it and we had SV Jean Anne (Chelsea and Steve) and SV Luego ( Sonni and Brad) over for dinner.  

They had not seen each other in 2 years so this was a real special treat! Sarah lives in Germany with her boyfriend Felix and loves the job that takes her traveling internationally. 

Next stop is Half Moon Bay - this is a good place to stop and break up the trip to Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay.

Eureka! Visiting Uncle Dave and the Redwoods

EUREKA!!! We arrived from Coos Bay to Eureka on September 6, 2018, and we plan to leave tomorrow am September 12, 2018, to San Francisco, which is approximately 250 nm away give or take. It will take a little over 2 days.  We are excited to continue South after almost a full week in Eureka. Our extended stay was due to the ominous gust forecast around Cape Mendocino and Point Arena that would improve by tomorrow.  Stephen has some family here so that was a bonus and the Redwood National and State Park is nearby and provided us with a great scenic detour.

We have been staying at the Woodley Marina and it is a lovely little marina with nice amenities and professional staff.  Unbeknownst to us, the National Weather Service has an office that we could walk to as well from our slip and that was definitely a welcomed surprise! The office is very amenable to folks coming in to see their office space and encouraged us to pick their meteorology brains. We told them our next sail plan and we were able to review the different weather models and get a personalized forecast to aid with our departure planning.

Before I just head right in our Eureka visit, I have to backtrack and mention 2 little gentle souls who touched our hearts. On our last journey here to Eureka we had 2 tiny visitors. They were small birds that befriended us but seemed to be a long distance from home and not the usual pelagic birds we had been seeing in the Pacific Ocean.

Stephen's new friend! We think an American Redstart - This little guy flew onto our boat and into the cockpit when I was on watch. We were in the middle of passage so I was quite stunned to see this kind of bird greet me.  Stephen just woke up and we were about to change shifts for the watch. As I was telling Stephen about him, I also saw another bird through a porthole while Stephen was in the galley making coffee getting ready for his watch. So then I realized there were 2 birds and one was outside on the deck. When I woke up he had the little yellow bird on his finger and had blown up my cell phone with video and pictures of himself with these 2 birds - ha ha ha! I am only posting a few of the pics...

So the sad part of this story is we had these guys for a few hours with us on our journey to Eureka but they did not make it. They did fly in and out of the cockpit during their time with us and we found the little yellow guy outside and appeared he had injured himself. Eventually, the orange and black bird just slept by the other bird and did not wake up. We think they may have been blown offshore and were exhausted and starved. We were so sad they did not make it and I kept thinking we would give them a new home in Eureka with grass, bunnies, flowers, and trees ( thinking this was more of their scene).  We had a little burial ceremony in Eureka and wish their birdie spirits well. 

Stephen's Uncle Dave came for a morning visit on Soulstice.

Stephen's Uncle Dave with us at the Eureka Friday Night Market - Great Food, dancing, and music!

Channel mark on the lawn at the Woodley Marina in Eureka - gives you an idea how BIG these things are just dangling in the open water. 

So the National Weather Service has their office right here on Woodley Island and we got a personalized forecast by Alex Dodd, marine forecaster for the day. 

Statue on Woodley Island that is also next to a memorial for fishermen lost at Sea. 

A home on Samoa Island that I appreciated their decorative efforts. Woodley Island is also connected Samoa Island by bridge and I liked to run out there. They have the last surviving Cookhouse in the West.  We did not eat there but I thought that was pretty neat and it reminded me of the Amish style food restaurants in Pennsylvania.

What the heck??? $3.25 per pound!! Yep we bought some! A couple from Redding comes every year and buys $500.00 worth and does some serious canning. This was from a fishing boat on B dock and we were staying on A dock - very convenient :). 

Amazing sushi by Chef Stephen with our Tuna - this was sooo delicious! 

I hopped aboard the fishing boat so I could get a lesson in how to filet a Tuna! This is so when we catch our own I know what the heck to do with them.  

The Redwood National Park - So we decided to explore the Redwoods since the Gust forecast around Cape Mendocino and Point Arena looked ugly for a few days (35-40 knts- uggh!).  Also the car that Dave and Kelly rented to go surfing we used instead to go hiking since the sighting of a Jaw's like dorsal fin in the surf changed Kelly and Dave's mind about surfing in the area. 

The amazing thing about our hike is that included a coastal walk, waterfalls, redwoods, blackberries to eat, ferns, douglas fir and hemlock trees. The variety of the ecosystem on such a small scale was incredible. 

Post hike smiles

And.... we found the Lost Coast Brewery! I was always a Great White fan but they have a double IPA called Fogcutter that I found quite yummy and a good bang for your buck at 8.7% ABV.