SVSoulsticeAdventures: Morro Bay

Morro Bay

We arrived here September 29, 2018, along with SV Luego and SV Jean Anne. Dave and Kelly from SV Arctos were already here working on an install of their water maker. Our sail from was pretty mellow from Monterey, our previous port. We did continue to encounter more pods of whales continuing with their migration and every time you see them it is just as exciting!

Morro Bay is a well-protected bay and has a distinct feature of a 576 ft rock at the entrance. It is a fantastic navigational aid and has been called the "Gibraltar of the Pacific". It is illegal to climb the rock as it is a breeding ground for the Peregrine Falcons as well as a sacred site to the Salinan and Chumash tribes. It has a crazy current in the bay and gets very shallow. There are also some fantastic sand dunes to walk in with a trail directly to the beach. I found tons of sand dollars here on the beach and I guess Pismo Beach and Morro Bay are well known for their abundant sand dollars!

This trip afforded us a longer stay than most places as we wanted to celebrate Stephen's birthday and also see a good friend Larry. Larry is a local resident of Morro Bay and was a great resource to Stephen when he was doing the refit on the original Soulstice, our 24 ft Nimble we sailed in Lake Tahoe. This extended stay allowed us to do some boat projects (ALWAYS), get a hike in Montana De Oro, have a great night at the Farmers Market in San Luis Obispo and celebrate Stephen's birthday with our cruising friends at the Sycamore Hot Springs. Dave and Kelly also have some good friends here Stu and Terry, local surfers and Stu owns a surf shop in town. They were very generous and had us over for a lovely meal in their home in SLO. We kept saying, " so... are we going to house for dinner, a house?". We had not been in a house since we left Minden in July.

Space X also had their launch on October the 8th. We were having cocktails in the cockpit of SV Arctos and did not realize until we saw this huge glow in the sky. It was a fabulous sight just from Morro Bay! Thank goodness we were outside and caught this historic event.

Today we are heading to Avila and then to the Channel Islands, starting with San Miguel! Hoping for lobster, great hikes, and enjoying the marine life, flora and fauna these Islands have to offer.

Celebrating Stephen's Birthday 10/4 with cake and champagne on SV Jean Anne with Chelsea and Steve, Brad and Sonni and Dave and Kelly

Sycamore Hot Springs! I rented the Lagoon - great for bigger parties. Stephen and I did come here once before and they have private tubs all up in the hills. Well worth the visit!

Beach by the trail head in Montana De Oro.

Great trail in Montana De Oro. For the all the mountain bikers out there - this place was loaded with folks having great single track rides. There are so many trails and possibilities for great rides.

Beautiful Birthday Hike Day!

Farmer's Market in SLO - those are smiles as we know we heading to Mo's BBQ!!!

Tree I saw running in Morro Bay State trails loaded with vultures -hmmm what are they looking at? Hope they don't think they could feast on a visitor

Me happy trail running:)

You can never take enough sunset pics while sailing

Black Hill! I had to add this because I liked to run up here several times during our stay. I got great views of the bay and this is how I fill my soul cup and like to start my day. And sometimes you need some vertical in your life, at least I do!