On The Sea Again - To Sunny Catalina

After returning from Italy on September 30 where we spent a wonderful 10 days in Tuscany, Venice, and the Cinque Terra enjoying quaint fishing villages and spectacular sunsets on the Mediterranean, we returned to our new reality.

Nephew Mike  picked us up at LAX at 11:00 p.m.  and took us to his home in Woodland Hills where we enjoyed a midnight supper prepared by niece Teresa.  With exception of an overnight layover in London where we got some rest, we had been traveling for 48 hours and were exhausted.  Their hospitality was most welcome.

October 1 - In the morning, we rented a car and continued to Ventura Isle Marina where Worrall Wind had been cooling her keel for the last two weeks.  While we were gone, our refrigeration and freezer system were completed.  Yeah! but now our head had a vacuum leak.  If it's not one thing, it's another.  So goes it on a boat....another project.


October 1- 3 - We managed to unpack and forced ourselves to stay awake.  We caved at 7:30 p.m..  By the next morning we were almost back to normal.  We spent Friday and Saturday catching up on laundry, shopping, and our obligatory stops at the marine stores for little project stuff. Russ installed two more opening portholes in the lower saloon and just in time. During the project we had gapping unportected holes into the cabin.   We filled the freezer and refrigerator for the next leg of our voyage, tentatively scheduled for Sunday.  Mike and Teresa came to dinner on Saturday evening minutes after the last porthole was installed and the groceries were stored.

October 4 - Saturday night the wind started to pick up and by Sunday morning the wind was howling.` We closed the hatches and the new portholes.  We were really glad that project had been completed.   There was so much beach sand blowing around, we got it in our mouths, ears, and hair.  Needless to say we decided to postpone our trip to the Channel Islands, particularly after watching some brave boats making their way in to the harbor.

We recorded sustained winds in our slip of about 40 miles per hour with gusts upto 50!  The surf was breaking inside the entrance channel to the harbor.  We rocked and rolled in our slip through out the night.  By Monday morning, the harbor was a glassy pond and Worrall Wind was in need of a  thorough wash down.

October 5 - We left Ventura on Monday after lunch and headed for Santa Cruz Island.  Sailing conditions were beautiful and we marveled at what a difference a few hours make.  We glided out on fair, but slightly brown seas, raised the sails, and turned off the the motor.  In about 4 hours we arrived.  We anchored in Smugglers Cove in about 40 feet of water, making sure our anchor was well set.  Smuggler's cove is open to the ocean and constant sea swell.  We could see the waves crashing on the beach and rocks and wanted to make sure Worrall Wind didn't find herself on the rocks.  Several times during the night, the anchor alarm went off.  We dutifully checked to find that the wind had only shifted and our drift was within the scope of where we thought we should have been.   With a full moon, we had good visuals to check our movement.


October 6 - On Tuesday morning, just as the sun was rising in the east we heard a helicopter overhead. We looked out the ports to discover that a fishing boat had gone on the rocks the night before and was being checked out by the Coast Guard.

Transmission on Channel 16 verified that the Coast Guard was trying to determine if the skipper and crew were still on board.  Apparently they were not on board the Lady Frances.  Through out the day we watched in morbid fascination of the saving,

sinking,

resurrection,

and

salvaging of the Lady Frances. 


Boat US sent out rescue boats from Ventura (about 22 miles away).  Not knowing what the procedure is for "salvaging" a boat, we don't know whether they purposely held off sending out the big rescue boat until late in the day or it was tied up in other salvage efforts earlier in the day as a result of Sunday's horrific wind storm.  The Coast Guard was present all day in a standoff position once the salvaging began.  We felt sorry for the skipper and saddened by the whole affair.  They worked into the night long after our ability to shoot open exposure photos on the rolling sea.


October 7 - After another rolly night and some unpleasant dreams about the day before, we pulled up the anchor at day break as the sun was rising over Anacapa Island and headed towards Catalina, nearly 60 miles away.   Yesterday was now a memory and a reminder of the importance of a well set anchor.

We had a long way to go so started off motoring until the wind came up.  Unfortunately, the wind didn't pickup well enough to move Worrall Wind until we were just outside of Isthmus Harbor on Catalina.   The Isthmus is like the blow through the Golden Gate Slot.  And of course by this time, we now had to think about mooring in gusty winds.   During the day, we saw lots of pelicans, a lone dolphin, and a baby flying fish that landed on our deck and died before we could throw it back in the water.
 
During the long motor, we fired up the auto pilot so we could attend to some little projects while underway.  We started up the watermaker for the first time and it worked!   We made about 2 hours worth of fresh water (28 gallons).  It tasted good and our little water tester indicated that it had less salinity than the water currently in our tank.  Go figure! 

When we pulled into Isthmus Harbor, we were introduced to their 2 point mooring ball system and immediately became the evening's entertainment for those yachties already moored up and sucking down their Buffalo Milk.

Floating about 10 feet in front of tightly place mooring balls, there is a small ball with a tall quill.   The strategy is to sneak up on the quill after dodging the other mooring balls and boats; pull up the quill and ball which is attached to a looped line leading to the mooring ball, drop the quill back into the water, grab the looped line and hook it on to a bow cleat.  There is then yet another line attached to the looped end with lead weights that a crew member walks back to the stern of the boat.

Upon reaching the stern, the crew member continues pulling up on this line until another looped line appears which is then tied to the stern cleat, dropping the weighted snake line back into the water.  After is all said and done, it seems pretty straight forward and clever, but the first time it's a little scary because newbies are not sure where all these under water lines are and if they will get caught up in the keel, rudder, and prop.  In the meantime, crew mates  (Russ and I) are yelling directions at one another that may or may not make any sense.  Well, we made it on our first attempt, but not without a few choice words, switching positions from helmsman to quill yanker, a little sweat and nearly mowing over a couple of mooring balls (that would be me).  We were glad to have had the practice in the off season with only every third occupied mooring ball as witness and audience.   I can only imagine what it is like when all the balls are occupied.  There is only about 20 feet between the beams of all the of the lined up boats. 

Once we were snug in our slot, we took the dinghy to the landing and headed for the bar for a hamburger and beer.  The specialty on Catalina Island is Buffalo Milk, no not the kind baby buffalo drink.  We decided to wait until the next night to try this treat while we watched newbies moor.

October 8 - We spent a lazy day Thursday enjoying the sunshine, reading, taking a walk across the Isthmus to Catalina Harbor on west side and relaxing.  We had cell service and  Internet connection, so we took care of the first of the month stuff and making phone calls.  During the course of the day, we met up with two other boats and their crew that will be on the Baja Ha Ha, the Bob and Alice Ann Phillips from Crescendo, Challenger 50 ketch, and Scott and Monica Stoner on Scott Free, a 44 Gulfstar.

Both of these boats came down from Washington state and were resting up on Catalina before heading down to San Diego.  Catherine and Doug Hounshell, Berkeley Yacht Club friends and fellow Baja Ha Ha'ers from Galatea were on the other side of the Isthmus in Catalina Bay participating in the Island Packet Rendezvous.  There were probably other boats as well, but if they didn't have their flags up we wouldn't have know about them.

Our raggedy Baja Ha Ha 2009 flags are becoming badges of honor.  The more tattered they are, the better the stories they have to tell. At least this is what we believe after the long awaited Buffalo Milk and a couple glasses of wine.  So what's a Buffalo Milk?  Crushed ice, a shot each of vodka, creme d'banana, creme de cacao and cream blended together, topped off with whipped cream, nutmeg, and a shot of Kalua. I think it might even be better than gelato, which we sampled once, maybe even twice a day while in Italy.

October 9 - Friday a.m. we were up early.  Check out time from the mooring balls is 8:00 a.m. and the harbor patrol starts cruising and reminding folks that if they want to stay later, they've got to fork up more dollars.  We turned on the motor and headed out toward Avalon.  We were told that Avalon on a weekend can get pretty crowded so we wanted to get there early and with less of an audience to witness our tie up show.  As we rounded the last point, we saw a huge cruise ship anchored outside the Avalon harbor. It was at least 12 stories high and would probably disgorge more passengers than Avalon residents and all the yachties combined.

A harbor patrol boat met us at the breakwater and collected a check from us for two nights in the amount of $90.00 in exchange for a map to our mooring ball and dye pellets for the heads to make sure we were not discharging into the harbor.    Now old pros, we found our spot, snagged the quill, looped the bow, walked the snake line, and tied up the stern much to the disappointment of some of the onlookers who were eating lunch topside and looking for some afternoon entertainment.

We too ate lunch and relaxed on the boat and enjoying the harbor views,

not too eager, to rub elbow with all the cruisers in the T-shirt shops.  We waited until 4:00 p.m. when the cruise ship sounded its "gitty up" signal.  At that point we, dinghied to shore and enjoyed a lovely afternoon walking around.  I spied a beauty salon and inquired about a haircut.  Russ was a little disappointed as he had been training with our Colfax stylist and friend Beth to crop my mop.  But I wasn't quite ready yet to give him free reign with the sheers...maybe Mexico on some deserted beach when I'm desperate. Renee, a native Catalinian, did a great job cutting my hair.  I'm set now until that deserted beach.  Tomorrow though, Russ gets a cut from moi. We plan to take a hike and then on Sunday we will head to Long Beach and our continued journey south.

Delightful Detour to Tuscany

We're back on Worrall Wind after 10 beautiful days in Tuscany, Venice,  and the Cinque Terra.  I will share more about Venice and Cinque Terra later, but wanted to post some photos of Garyn and Jessica's wedding for those of you who were not in attendance.  Garyn and Jess recognized all of you who were with them in spirit. The wedding was beautiful.  How could it not be?  The villa was delightful, the countryside magnificent, the bride and groom radiant, and the company of friends and family, albeit missing some dear ones, was joyous.  Here are the photos.

Linda and Roz, Mothers of Bride and Groom doing the Happy Dance in the kitchen as we prepare the rehearsal dinner to Dancing Queens from Mamma Mia. 

Roz and and sister-in-law Diane, having way too much fun in the kitchen.

Chicken Cacciatori with Fettucini

Worrall Family

Proud parents escort Garyn eown the aisle

 

Bride's brother Brian and Groom Garyn watching Jessica come down the aisle.

Mother and Father of Bride, Linda and Gary, escort their beautiful daughter down the aisle.

Pledging their love to one another.

Newlyweds!

And despite Garyn and Jessica's playful nature, they fed each other a rich chocolate wedding cake very gently and with much love and then sealed it with a kiss.

and a little dancing dip!

It was lovely.  We are delighted with our new daughter and the blending of our two families.  Garyn and Jessica are currently on their honeymoon in the Swiss Alps.

Russ and I are preparing to leave Ventura on Monday for Channel Islands, Long Beach, Catalina, and San Diego.  More later.  Ciao!

Morro Bay to Ventura, via Avila Bay Pt. San Luis and Santa Barbara

MORRO BAY

We left Morro Bay at 7:45 on Sunday morning and made our way to Avila Bay behind San Luis Point.  We left just as the tide was turning from ebb to flood which are good conditions from getting past the bar and breakwater of Morro Bay out to sea.   We motored-sailed most of the way.  There wasn’t enough wind for us to sail, only 4-6 knots of wind.  Worrall Wind needs about 8 knots to move minimally.   The sea swells were coming from the northwest, 6-8 feet high. It took us only four hours to get to Avila Bay, but by making this little hop, we knew we would be able to leave early in the morning and not worry about foggy and tide conditions like we would getting out of Morro Bay.  It would also make our trip to Coho, right around Point Conception doable by noon.  We had been told at Morro Bay by a wise old seaman  to anchor where X marked the spot.

AVILA BAY - WHERE X MARKS THE SPOT  

We anchored between the two piers on Avila  Bay in about 28 feet if water right under the X, where we ate lunch on the bow, enjoying a lovely breeze, watching harbor seals and black clouds of sea birds landing in the water, relaxing, playing with our compass, and watching our anchor alarm.

We were moving all over the place but within our anchor circle. We didn’t bother launching the dinghy, as the surf into the beach looked more than we wanted to tackle.  

There were only a couple of other boats anchored in the bay.  About sunset, one of the ketches that had shown no signs of life all afternoon, started to prepare the boat for pulling anchor.  They must have slept during the day and were making a night passage around Point Arguello and Point Conception.  Ever since our night passage eight years ago bashing north with lots of water over the bow, I’ve been dreading going around these points again.

We listened to the weather reports and sea state.  It didn’t sound too bad, 15-20 knots of wind, with gusts up to 25.  The sea swells of 8-10 feet every 12-13 seconds were the same on both Sunday and Monday.  We decided to take the two dreaded points during the day rather than at night even though the conditions at night are usually calmer because of subdued winds.  Nevertheless, we started to question our judgment when the other ketch left Sunday night.  Did they know something we didn’t?  We watched the ketch leave into the sunset.



We went to bed early and awoke at 5:30.  We pulled up the anchor and were motoring out of the bay by 6:40, and the first light.  Our plan was to go around both of the points by midday and duck behind the point in Coho Bay for the rest of the afternoon.

The seas were flat and glassy.  By 9:15 there was a little breeze.  We hoisted the main and motor sailed at a beam reach, averaging 8 knots per hour.  We could have sailed, but were trying to get around the points by noon and the wind picked up.  By 9:30, we were 17 nm from Point Arguello.

There were swells 2-4 feet every 11 second, with 1 ft wind waves.  By the time we rounded Point Arguello, the wind had intensified, but it was pretty mild.

Between Arguello and Conception the seas got less stable and there were increasing white caps.  The northwest swells and the polar current flowing south were meeting the equatorial  current flowing north resulting in upwelling conditions.  You can read more about this at http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2003/2001JC001302.shtml . 

It was difficult to hold a course as the swells were rolling us around, but much easier than it would have been at night when we could not have seen the sea conditions.  To me that would have been too scary. I like to SEE the sea.


We rounded Conception about 1:00 with plans to anchor in Coho Bay on the backside of Conception and rest until the next morning.  When we got to Coho Bay, it was a pretty barren place, the Wind was still 18-20 knots and the seas choppy.  There were about 5 boats anchored there.  We could only surmise these were northbound boats waiting for better conditions that night.  It was not where we wanted to stay, however, so we made the decision to keep sailing.  It was early enough in the day that we could be in Santa Barbara by early evening.  The wind was blowing us down the channel and we sailed the rest of the afternoon.  It was glorious.

We arrived in Santa Barbara about 7:00 p.m. just at dusk which made it a bit difficult to pick up the colors of the red and green buoys leading into the channel.  Nevertheless, we made our way to the guest dock, registered for the night, and were given the last available slip on an end tie on the farthest dock from the harbor office.I fixed a quick meal while Russ cleaned up the fan tail.  We ate and tumbled into bed.  It had been a 16 hour day, and we were exhausted.

After sleeping in until 7:00 a.m. (early for me, late for Russ), we did a few chores, ate breakfast, and walked into town with our empty grocery bags.  First we walked out on the pier, then down State Street, and over to Castillo back toward the harbor.  Our walk brought back many memories of Abby’s college years here, her graduation, and our boat purchase.  This is where we walked the picturesque harbor of fishing boats 

and yachts, discovering our Nauticat in 2001.  We imagined ourselves returning someday on our way south, and here we are! 

We had been told of a Mexican grocery store on Castillo, the Santa Cruz, which had beautiful produce and fresh meat.  We were not disappointed and filled our bags with ice, avocados, cilantro, tomatoes, corn, chicken breasts…..lots, but not intentionally.  I’m used to thinking of a chicken breast as a half breast and asked for four breasts thinking when we reached Ventura we could bar-b-que the four breasts with two breasts left for a salad the following day.  Turned out I got for full breasts (8 very plump halves)!  We’ll be eating chicken all week as I have no way of freezing them yet, and we must eat them before we leave for Italy on Friday.  Chicken in the morning, chicken in the evening, chicken at supper time.

 

By 1:30 p.m. we had slipped the docked lines and were sailing out of Santa Barbara on our way to Ventura.  We cut the motor just outside the harbor and sailed all afternoon until the sun started sinking into the sea.

At the point we turned on the engine and motored the last 3 miles to Ventura so that we could be in our slip before dark.  One of our great pleasures while sailing is to listen to books on tape or CD.  We finished our lazy, beautiful sail at the same time we finished our murder mystery.  We called the Marina office at 4:30 and learned that the office was going to close at 5:00, but they promised to leave a gate key and the car keys that our nephew Mike so graciously left for us to his beautiful Tacoma truck in the dock box at our slip.  We will drive the truck to LAX on Friday and park it.  When Mike and Teresa return from the wedding, a few days before we do, they will pick up the truck, then pick us up when we return… very convenient and much appreciated!

As soon as we reached our slip in the Ventura Isla Marina, I started dinner.  I coated half of the fresh chicken with garlic pepper, lemon juice, and oregano and we grilled them. I cut up the other breasts into chunks and am marinating them for for chicken kabobs tomorrow night.   I pulled some cabbage out of the hold and made an avocado slaw with cilantro. We feasted and relaxed the rest of the evening.

For the next couple of days we will be in Ventura catching up on some projects before we leave for Garyn and Jessica’s wedding in Tuscany.  This will be the last Worrall Wind entry until we return the end of September. Ciao!

Santa Cruz to Morro Bay via Monterey and San Simeon

It's hard to believe that we left one week ago today. As I write this entry, Russ is entering waypoints into our navigation software. It's about 9:00 p.m. and we are on a mooring ball in Morro Bay waiting for the dryer's last cycle at the Morro Bay Yacht Club to coincide with an evening shower so that we can pick up fresh warm towels. Then tomorrow morning we will be taking a short sail down to Avila Bay tucked behind Point San Luis where we will anchor for the night. From there we will sail early Monday morning around Points Arguello and Conception with an overnight anchorage in Coho before reaching Ventura on Tuesday.

Santa Cruz
So let's backtrack a little. We reached Santa Cruz late Tuesday afternoon, and spent two nights at the Santa Cruz Small Yacht Harbor. On Wednesday, we walked to the local chandlery and to West Marine (several miles) to buy the parts we needed to install new running lights, the anomometer, and shower pump. The LED lights wouldn't be in until the following day, so we decided to spend the two nights in Santa Cruz instead of two nights in Monterey. The sun was out and the harbor was beautiful.

Once we returned from our big hike, I hiked back out to get some groceries several blocks away while Russ worked on projects. Once again, we unpacked and repacked the V-berth lockers to string wire for the running lights. After dinner, we took a sunset walk out to Walton's Lighthouse where we found a geocache and met two lovely ladies out for a walk who took our picture holding up our "Out the Gate and Hang a Left" Travel Bug and showed us the way to the Santa Cruz Yacht Club. The Club was bustling and festive with the finish of the Wednesday night races.
All in all, we must have walked 4-8 miles. Good exercise after a couple of days on the boat.

Monterey
On Thursday morning, Russ and I worked on installing the anemometer. Russ climbed the mast the first time to replace the broken flag halyard, and the second time to the top to install the wind instrument and straighten out the wind vane. We feed new wire down the mast and got everything connected on top. Just as Russ climbed down the mast, the phone rang and our LED lights had arrived. While Russ left to pick up the lights, I hosed the harbor grime off the boat and stowed things for our sail across Monterey Bay. The wind was picking up and we were looking forward to a good sail. We weren't disappointed. We left right after lunch with 15 knots of wind and had a fabulous sail across the Bay with all of our sails up. About 1/2 way across the Bay, we sailed into a thick fog with visibility of less than 1/2 nautical mile. Russ flipped on the radar and we navigated by instrument to about 1 mile off of Monterey when burst out of the fog into the glorious sun and blue water just outside the harbor.

After securing Worrall Wind in her slip, we checked into the harbor office and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Monterey and doing some grocery shopping for some easy to fix food during our planned 12 hour sail day on Thursday from Monterey down to San Simeon. Monterey is such a beautiful place. Being there brought back lots of memories from our sailing adventures with our Catalina 25 group when we used to trailer our little boats down to Monterey to go whale watching in February. I don't think we ever saw many whales, but we sure had a lot of fun. I remember the swells being so big that our friends' boats would disappear from view as we would sink into a trough. When we rose to the crest of the swell, we would all have our binoculars ready to scan for whales. The seas weren't nearly as big this time around and our boat is almost twice as big...and still no whales.

San Simeon or Brigadoon?

When we awoke at 5:00 a.m. on Friday morning, we were in a thick fog. We had planned on leaving by 6:00, but postponed our departure until the sun rose a little more for better visibility. Once in 2003 we sailed overnight from Drake's Bay to Monterey Bay and got to our waypoint that would lead us into Monterey Bay about 3:00 a.m. Russ and I were asleep, and our friends Clark and Nina were on watch. The fog was so thick, they hove to and waited for the sun to rise before going in. We decided to do the same before going out. We left Monterey at 7:30 a.m. and drifted into the foggy sea. A pod of dolphin escorted us out the Bay on glassy gray seas, surfing on our bow wake.

For twelve hours, we motored south, tacking across our course line, bucking the swell head on so that we could turn back across and take advantage of surfing on a northwest following swell. Staying on our course line was very uncomfortable because the swells were coming at us from our beam and the boat would roll and loll from one side to the other. It's a good thing that neither of us get (to date) sea sick because that surely would have done it. The day was long and challenging as we never saw the sun the entire time. We missed seeing Big Sur and the beautiful California coast. I spent most of the day at the helm, Russ did most of the radar and navigation. We tried letting Ado (our auto pilot) steer the boat, but unlike a human, Ado couldn't see the direction the swells were coming and anticipate how to ride the swell so that the passengers weren't thrown from side of the boat to the other. We enjoyed listening to an audio book and playing with our electronic gadgetry. All in in all, we had a great day. We got to San Simeon just before dusk.

We were a little concerned about anchoring in San Simeon, primarily because we couldn't see anything and had never anchored in the fog without some reference point. Usually when we anchor, we "set" the anchor by reversing the engine and fixing on a reference point in relation to a stay or stanchion on the boat. We could barely make out the entrance buoy. From the radar we were expecting to see some other boats and had a general idea where the land was. Our chart and radar overlay weren't matching up the way they should have been, so we were going to have to ignore the chart and follow the radar, but weren't entirely sure we could trust the radar because our radar heading wasn't accurate. Just as our anxiety was mounting and our eyes were straining to see whatever we could, Brigadoon appeared out of the mist. For just about half an hour, the setting sunlight illuminated the little bay just enough for us to find a place to anchor.

We were exhilarated and exhausted. After dinner, we fell into bed, but as the evening deepened, the ocean swell grew higher rocking the boat uncomfortably all night. The boat creaked, rattled and hummed. We had two anchor alarms set and couldn't see a thing outside of the portholes as the fog was thicker than ever. I don't get sick when we are moving forward and rocking, but laying in bed, bobbing and pitching was really uncomfortable. Mercifully, the sun finally rose and we could get moving again.

Morro Bay
We left, once again in deep fog. The ocean was incredibly beautiful. There wasn't a wisp of wind. Undulating waves of gunmetal satin and our Lehman engine carried us into the mist. Periodically, light from the sun would find it's way through thinner wisps of fog to create silver ribbons of light across the waves. Sea birds bobbed on kelp and left black water trails as they would take flight by first running across the water.

Around noon, we arrived at Morro Bay. Visibility was now a couple of nautical miles, but fog still hung down to the horizon. As we approached the mouth of the bay we could see the big rock and breakers hiting the seawall. The swells would hit the wall on a diagonal and spray white foam skyward running along the seawall like the choreographed "wave" at a football stadium. Beautiful and powerful. We navigated our way into the channel and reached the Morro Bay Yacht Club where we secured ourselves to a mooring ball, and spent the afternoon walking to the farmer's market, doing laundry, chatting with MBYC members, and having a great fish and chips dinner at Rosie's. We plan to sleep in tomorrow morning before heading south to Point San Luis.

Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz

When we tuned into the weather forecast on Sunday evening after a great day on the beach with the Berkeley Yacht Club, venturing out into the sea on Labor Day looked daunting with 20-35 knots of wind, 8-10 foot waves every 11 seconds, and 3-4 foot wind waves with small craft warnings until 9:00 p.m. Instead of taking a left and heading south Worrall Wind stayed tucked in the Half Moon Bay Harbor with a handful of other boats that decided to wait for Tuesday when the seas would be more friendly. It's grand to not have to go back to work and just take our time.

Russ and I spent a wonderful, quiet day on the boat with lots of a little projects we hadn't had time to complete before our departure, like inventorying the ditch bag, medical bag, medicine chest, connecting switches, attaching safety bars, route planning, etc. We barely ventured outside on the deck as the chill winds blew and spume from the crashing waves shotup against the breakwater. I kept the anchor watch GPS by my side to make sure we didn't drag. Thankfully we were good and stuck. Our neighbors however drifted and got quite close before they realized they were dragging. They pulled up their anchor and motored elsewhere. My guess was a slip in the harbor. Our only casualty was our flag halyard snapped from the wind, and we lost our Seven Seas Cruising Association flag.

The sardine balls in Half Moon Bay made for incredible feeding frenzy entertainment. Harbor seals gracefully conducted a synchronized ballet, dove, leaped and slid under the water to grab their breakfast.Pelicans dropped bill first like cannon balls all around us. It was quite the show. The sardines must have been greatly diminished by the end of the day.

We awoke early on Tuesday morning. The wind had died down, the water was flat, and there was a morning mist. Even the deck under the bimini was soaked. We left Half Moon Bay and headed south, motoring in less than 2 knots of wind, 3-5 foot swells every 10 seconds. By noon we noticed some ripple on the water. We pulled up the main, turned off the motor, and poled out the jib and sailed wing on wing. We heard nothing but the water against the hull and an occasional sea bird, NOT QUITE....along with all the things not secured well inside the boat crashing to the floor when the boat caught side waves and lolled and rolled from one side to the other. Once we got everything stowed properly, then we heard just the water and the sea birds.

We arrived in Santa Cruise about 3:00 p.m. We wanted to anchor off the pier by the boardwalk. We tried dropping and setting the anchor three times (2 different anchors) to no avail. Both Russ and the windlass were exhausted (the next project). We made arrangements to go into the Santa Cruz small craft harbor. Here too, the otters, seals, and pelicans entertained us as we cleaned up after the sail and Russ worked on reviving the windlass and cleaning the ailing shower sump pump. It's a good thing Russ knows how to do all of these things. I think this sump pump must be the only thing we don't have a spare part for. Wouldn't you know, so it's off to the chandlrey we go.

We may spend two nights here depending on whether Russ can get what he needs at local chandlery. Our running lights don't seem to be working well, and if we want to do a night passage around Point Conception, we need to get these in working order. We will either spend 2 nights here or 2 nights in Monterey. In the mean time, we are having fun! Check out our tracks on Where in the Worrall?? in the left column.

Out the Gate and Hanging a Left

After years, months, and weeks of preparation, we cast off the bowlines for our Worrall Cruise about 8:00 a.m. on September 5, 2009, exactly as dreamed and planned. Mark Twain would have been proud! We were really keyed up and ready to GO! The night before we said goodbye to friends at the Berkeley Yacht Club and paid our inactive dues for the coming year. Doug and Catherine, provided us with a much appreciated packet of harbor maps from their recent southern California cruise. We will catch up again with them in San Diego for the Baja Ha Ha.
Brother and sister-in-law, Ted and Marian, arrived at 6:30 a.m.to help with final prep and cast off. Russ discovered a little leak after we started the motor which we thought might set us back, but after a few minutes in the engine room, Russ decided it was only an annoyance not a problem. Phew!

I picked up crew, Garyn and Jessica, at the Berkeley BART station. They had driven their car to Half Moon Bay the night before.

BYC friends Jack and Linda, and also new residents of our Emery Cove slip, took lots of pictures and escorted us out the GATE in their boat. There were several marina neighbors waving us off. We had been and still are receiving email bon voyage sentiments and phone calls. Jean and Bruce were standing on the Emeryville pier waving us off as we went through the break water. Carolyn and Bob and Wayne and Carol were waving to us from Sausilito and Fort Baker. Because of the incoming traffic in the shipping channel and the fog, we decided it would be prudent to stay on the southern border of the shipping channel which was a bit far from Fort Baker and Sausalito.
Here are some photos of us getting ready to go under the bridge, going under,

and looking back.

We did wave, but don't know if anyone saw us. We were deeply touched by all of your good wishes, lovely sentiments, and parting waves. A special thanks for those of you who drove from your homes many miles away to send us off! Even if we couldn't see you and you couldn't see us, we knew you were there (or thinking of us from afar), and you made the day a very special one for us. Thank you.

Despite the cold and fog (which we promised to ourselves to remember when we are baking and steaming in the tropics), there was no wind. It was bitter sweet knowing that it would be some time before we sail in the San Francisco Bay again. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at sailing, we wound up motoring to Half Moon Bay. By the time we arrived in Half Moon Bay, the sun was out and the water had just a few breeze ripples. Jessica did a terrific job at the helm most of the way down the coast.We put 6 hours on the engine and arrived around 2:30 p.m. We had only a couple of glitches along the way. Our wind generator and solar panels were producing so many amps, our engine alternator got very confused and kept cutting in and out. Russ wound up temporarily disabling both our wind and solar, and then the engine alternator seemed to work fine.

I started our SPOT tracking device just before we left the Marina. If you click on the Where in the Worrall?? in the left hand column of the blog, you can see our tracks and follow our cruise as we progress. When you get to the map, it's more interesting to click the satellite/hybrid view and zoom in. Don't be alarmed by track spots 26 and 27. Despite what you see when these two spots were connected, we did not sail our boat across the land into the harbor. The Spot sends coordinates every ten minutes. From point 26 we traversed south and came in through the break water. By point 27 we were in our anchor location horizontal from 26. The tracker connected the two points, but it looks like went through the shoals and over the breakwater to our anchorage.

When we got to Half Moon Bay, we dinghied into Princeton, Half Moon Bay Yacht Club, where Jessica and Garyn had parked their car nearby. We had a nice dinner at the Brew Pub, then Russ and Garyn took a ride to a hardware store to pickup some toggle switches for solar and wind power while Jessica and I walked around. By the time Garyn and Jessica left, about 5:30, the fog had come back in. They were going back to Emeryville to pick up our car and ferry it up to the house and park it in the garage. They still had several hours ahead of them.

We on the other hand, finally felt free, no time constraints, no "must do" chores, or last minute preparations. What a great feeling!

Russ and I visited with some BYC folks having dinner at the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club and then worked our way back through the fog to our boat. Visibility was really poor (50 yards), but we did find Worrall Wind calmly sitting where we had left her shrouded in a thick mist. By 9:00 p.m. we were sound asleep, lulled by the fog horns and only a few breaks in the still water by surfacing harbor seals around our boat.

Today there is a BYC beach party. Tomorrow, depending on weather we will be turning left instead of right when the BYC cruise out is over. A dream come true!

Today's the Day!

The moon is brilliant with the approaching sunrise. There are some clouds and fog
this morning. Worrall Wind has blue sky directly above at the moment, but this may not
last. We still plan on leaving around 8:00. Until we meet again, we're off!

Cast Off Tomorrow!

Forecast tomorrow looks like patchy low clouds and fog tomorrow morning. If it was like this morning, the visibility will be pretty good below the fog. We'll have to see, but are still planning on leaving between 7:30-8:00 (probably closer to 8:00ish). Will post again tomorrow morning.

48 Hours and Counting

After numerous trips home and back to the boat, we are loaded to the gills! We have spent the last couple of days stowing all the stuff! What a job. Russ and I are closing in on all of the projects that will allow us to cast off. We still plan to leave on Saturday even though our refrigeration/freezer system are not installed. The refrigeration folks will be driving down to Ventura and installing while we are attending our son's wedding. I will be doing final provisioning with lots of canned goods and non-refrigerated packages. We still have our teeny-weeny icebox which we will use for most critical foods. A lot of projects will continue as we sail and probably for the next six months!

We are taking our general ham license tomorrow. I think we are ready. Final chores on Friday and final BYC bar-b-que, then off on Saturday morning. Slack at the "Gate" is 8:49. Looks like the weather will be ok. Not sure about the fog though. We plan to leave Emeryville between 7:30 and 8:00. Remember the Bay Bridge is closed this weekend for any of you who are planning to wave goodbye. Garyn and Jessica will be accompanying us to Half Moon Bay, pick up their car and head back to Emeryville where they will pickup our car and ferry back home for safe keeping until we return.

Got to go! Still lots to do. But it's looking good for Saturday! We will confirm Friday night and again on Saturday morning. Stay tuned to the blogspot.