02-18-2010 - Update 2

02-18-2010 - Upd 2

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the great replies to the first update, Kara and I really appreciate hearing from friends and family. We're having a blast, but its always great to hear from home.

In general, we are having a wonderful time. The boat is doing great -- in fact, nothing has broken (knock on wood?) and we don't seem to have forgotten anything.

We had a great stay in Morro Bay, quite a cool spot if you've never been. The town is a cross between Moss Landing and Cannery Row -- where commercial fishing meets the tourist industry. We met some cool people, Kevin in particular who owns one of tourist boat-ride companies was very amicable.

After we rested up we started to get antsy. After our nearly wind-less sail down from Monterey, we were determined to pick up some strong NW winds and make the next jumps in better time. We left on the tail end of a small storm, in the evening, with a forecast of NW 15-25 gusts to 35 knots and thunderstorms for the night, with the goal of rounding point conception (so-called "Cape Horn of the west coast", notorious for strong winds) in the wee hours of the morning. Our sail was quick and uneventful -- we averaged 6 knots, our top speed, under jib alone and made the run to Cojo anchorage (a little spot just in the lee of point conception) by morning--just as the wind really started to pick up--weaving through the oil platforms that sprout from the ocean seemingly at random.

Cojo is a beautiful spot. It reminded me of what Santa Cruz must have looked like before buildings, roads, and crowds. Low cliffs with green hills, small groves of trees, bordered by several nice right point breaks. The wind blows offshore when NW there, and swell wraps around point conception and is quickly groomed into nice lines. We anchored 1/8 mile off of one of the surf spots, and surfed a couple of times in playful head-high surf.

Other distinguishing featurers of Cojo were the train track that ran along the cliff, which carries Amtrack passengers up and down the coast at regular intervals, accompanied by lots of horn blowing (to scare the cows off the track?) at all hours of the day and night. By far the most disturbing feature of the anchorage were two wrecked sailboats on the beach, which looked quite recent. The anchorage is unprotected against winds from the south, and it looked as if these two boats had been left to fend for themselves during recent storms. Both were un-looted, and had nearly all of their hardware and other gear still attached.

In any case, the swell started to decline and the wind lightened up, and we set off going due south for San Miguel, the outermost of the channel islands. The northern channel islands and all deserted islands and have been designated some sort of nature preserve which attempts to prevent destructive activities like rowing ashore and walking around. A closer look at our charts shows that the government has found the islands useful for various millitary exercises like target practice, and chemical dumping. We weren't sure how to interpret this information, so upon arrival at San Miguel, seeing no one and nothing around, we decided to do whatever we felt like doing and not pay much attention to the rules.

We anchored in Cuyler Harbor, which is, in our opinion, the most beautiful place we've been so far. We pulled behind a huge cliff in an emerald-green cove, surrounded by a few token palm trees and white sand beaches peppered with black rocks. Scared stiff by rumors we heard in Morro of unforecast 80 knot gusts of wind in the middle of the night screaming through this particular cove, we set two big anchors on plenty of scope.

The largest of the beaches were covered in huge elephant seals. Some of the big bulls looked like they might weigh in at around 5-600 lbs, and only some of it blubber. None were afraid of humans, they seemed, at best, curious and at worst openly hostile. They make an amazing range of noises, from monkey-howls to a kind of jackhammering noise, which took us forever to figure out. The big males swim to the base of big cliff and, focusing the sound on the cliff, make a series of coughing hickups which reflect off the cliff and boom out across the bay.

We spent three days and two nights here, spearfishing for dinner, swimming, walking on the beaches, and having a good time. The swell was forecast to jump up so we decided to weigh anchor and move to the lee (south) side of the next islands for more protection. We anchored in a few litle coves but none were as spectacular, or as well protected, as Cuyler. Surfed a left a-frame peeler that was fun. The only humans we saw the whole week we spent in these islands were a few very friendly fisherman, who sometimes shared our anchorages with us.

Culture shock -- Catalina. We sailed all night and arrived at Catalina Island for Valentine's Day weekend. Cruise ships. jet skis. million-dollar motor yachts. helocopters. water skiers. Para-sailers. Every cove filled with $30/night mooring buoys, nowhere left to anchor. We finally found somewhere to drop the hook on the E side of the island, speared a couple of fish for dinner, and resigned ourselves to the Southern California Experience.

We escaped to Dana point at our earliest opportunity, motoring the 30 miles in oily-glassy conditions. The ocean was filled with garbage. Most notably were 100's of partly inflated heart-shaped balloons, which must have escaped over-zealous attempts at romance.

Dana Point is a surprisingly cruiser-friendly harbor. A nice nook is set aside for anchoring (for up to five days), and a dingy dock is provided. We'll probably stay here till the weekend or early next week, when it looks like there is a chance for some decent wind. Next stop is San Diego!

Thanks!

John & Kara