Ft. Bragg - Noya Anchor, Sept 13 - 16, 2009

We left Santa Cruz on Sunday, making a big run north. The winds were slight, altho the swells were fairly good sized (10 feet at times). We had the seas in our favor, since they werre coming from the SW, virtually pushing us home. We made good time.

Dave pushed her all night, passed the San Francisco Bay channel opening and Bodega Bay. Steering has been running smoothly and both engines, too, however the RPM meter for the Starboard engine went out in the night.

Throughout the day we looked for small anchorages between Pt. Reyes and Pt. Cabrillo (Ft. Bragg). There not being much of anything available, we settled on Noya Anchorage. A small bay nestled between a natural rock jetty of the Mendocino Headlands. A beautiful spot to anchor, but left little protection from the movement of the seas. Needless to say, cooking supper was a bit of a challenge!

Dave spent the a.m. in the engine room, working his magic, while I collected bullwhip kelp from the bay. I enjoy being "creative" in the kitchen with wild ingredients. I would use my collection for a stuffed kelp dish at our next stop. By 9 am on the 15th, Dave had rewired the tachometer and had our engines ready to go. We pulled anchor, and heading north once again.

Seas were calm with 1 - 3 foot swells. In the late morning, Dave put me at the helm, so that he could take a much needed break. This lasted about an hour when we hit a fog bank. We found that we had taken aboard a stowaway, a sparrow. She sat at the bow of the boat for several hours. Occassionally she would make an attempt to fly towards land, but would soon circle and make it back to the safety of our boat.

I was at the helm again for several hours in the late afternoon. Most of my time was as we rounded Cape Mendocino. There was a light fog cover, the beautiful thing about fog is that there is no wind, making the seas like glass. In the early evening, Dave regained the helm and ran her all night. We planned to make it to Brookings, OR by morning.

We saw the most beautiful sunrise as we neared the Brookings Harbor. The skies all around were dark and ominous. Swells from the south were pushing us towards our destination. I got to bring the Sea Crest in towards the first bouy of the harbor entrance (good practice for me). The Coast Guard hailed us as we came through the bar. We tied up to the fuel dock and awaited our first Coast Guard inspection which is a common occurence (especially when crossing state lines).

Brookings Harbor was to be home for the next 6 days and proved to be a memorably, enjoyable visit.

Santa Cruz - Sept 9 - 12, 2009

Santa Cruz has been another nice respite. The first thing that I did once the boat was secured to the dock was head up to the dock to the marina facilities showers. The best damn shower I have ever had! We have made several trip into town to West Marine and for groceries. Lots of walking.

Dave found a hydraulic repair specialist in the area, and we put him to work on repairing our hydraulic steering arm. Rick, at Bay Power Equipment, has been a life saver. He was able to replace worn out gaskets on our hydraulic arm. The picture below is of Rick and Dave at the stern deck of the Sea Crest.

Our Sea Crest has been run longer and harder in the past 2 weeks than she has her entire life, minor repairs and upgrades are to be expected, since she is a 30 year old vessel.

My first full day spent in Santa Cruz was to be doing laundry...pioneer style! An old-fashioned bar of laundry soap, a sink, and lots of scrubbing. Once we reach our home port we plan to install a combo washer/dryer unit, but for the time being this will do the trick.

Today we are working on our steering and hoping to leave the harbor by this afternoon...

Until our next port...

San Simeon to Santa Cruz - Sept. 9, 09

Today we made the big run! The seas were agreeable, and the weather perfect. Hoisted anchor at 5 am. Traveled in the dark for several hours. Visibility was good. We spotted grey whales as they were making their southern migration. Two came very near the boat. I attempted to photograph them, but am afraid that my attempts didn't do the event any justice. It was a thrill to see them so close.

Lots of porpoises about. At one point in the day around 100 of them crossed our path. Hard to capture the "spirit" of the moment while bobbing at sea...but I tried! They love to dance and play with the bow of the boat, so is an experience to behold.

As we trudged along past Pt. Sur, 2 orcas were spotted off our Starboard (right) side. They followed us for a time and indulged me in a few photographs. Big Sur was cloud covered as we passed, but as we rounded the corner into Carmel, we were able to get a clear view of Pebble Beach. The closest Dave will get to golfing on this trip!

This leg of the journey's mishap was losing steering at the flybridge helm. This made entering the Santa Cruz Harbor quite challenging for Dave. It was also "Regatta Wednesday" for the sailing crowd here in Santa Cruz. Hard to negotiate the small harbor entrance when sailboat after sailboat was exiting the marina as if there were a fire on the docks! We were able to get assistance from the Harbor Patrol (we sure do love the Harbor Patrol folks we've met!). They tied unto us and found us an end mooring to tie on to. Very nice facilities here.

San Simeon - September 8, 2009

We pulled anchor at approximately 1:30 pm in Morro Bay. The winds had died down considerably and the seas had calmed somewhat. We tentatively planned on making a run for Monterey Bay, but the winds picked up, making the seas choppy.

We anchored in the San Simeon Bay, below the Hearst Castle at around 5:30 pm. Several sailboats and a few fishing boats which we had seen in the Morro Bay harbor were also anchored in the bay.

We hit the hay early, so as to get a good jump on things the next morning. The photo above is of our view of the Hearst Castle (high atop the hill) from the Sea Crest. It was a great place to anchor, quuiet and peaceful.

Morro Bay - Sept 4 - 7, 2009

We made an attempt to head around Pt. Piedres Blancas today, but found that the winds were not in our favor, so we turned back to Morro Bay. This would be our home for several days. The winds outside of the bay were high as well as the seas.

We dropped our tender into the water and would make frequent visits into port for supplies and such. There was a good fish market on the pier called Giovanni's that we visited several times. Bringing home fish for dinner. WiFi connection in the harbor wasn't that strong, but found a funky coffee shop 3 blocks from our tender mooring dock that had good service; The Rock.

We enjoyed our stay in Morro Bay, but were eager to make some headway. The stretch from Pt. Piedres Blancas to Pt. Sur was a long one with no resting stops or anchorages inbetween. A 16 PLUS hour day on the ocean! We rested up for the next part of our voyage.

Pt. Conception to Morro Bay - Sept. 3, 2009

We tied off from our bouy at approx. 4:30 am. It was a beautiful, calm morning. We planned to make it around Pt. Conception and head for San Luis Obispo Bay or Morro Bay. The winds picked up by afternoon with greater than 6 ft swells and whitecaps. Suffice it to say, it was a bumpy ride.

I am overjoyed to report that I have now acquired my "sea legs", and was in tip-top shape for the entire 12 hours into Esterro Bay leading into Morro Bay. Morro Bay is an eclectic little fishing village. We noticed on our sea charts that they had a Coast Guard Station and Harbor Master, so we assumed that we could moore at their guest/fuel dock for the night and be off the next morning. Boy, were we wrong! Along the building pilings there were boats "stacked" next to each other 3 deep to even reach the "so called" dock. Quite a few boats were anchored in the bay, so we did the same.

After a nice meal of spaghetti and green salad, we watched pelicans dive for fish before retiring for the night. Our next door neighbors were a bunch of California Sea Lions, they were a bunch of party animals, but finally quieted down a bit once it got dark out.

Leaving Santa Barbara - September 2, 2009

I woke up feeling a bit green under the gills, mostly, in retrospect, it was my reluctance to head out to open water again. I took a FULL dose of dramamine prior to my breakfast, which made me feel somewhat worse, but this was only a momentary set-back. After my breakfast I felt much better. We pushed off around noon. As we passed the Santa Barbara pier our port engine went out on us again (still air bubbles in the fuel line). This ended up being a good thing. It gave us an opportunity to practice "dropping anchor" in the bay, so that Dave could work his magic on the engine. In no time, we were up and running. The seas were calm, the weather beautiful. And I had NO sea sickness issues! It was a great day. The winds picked up as we neared Pt. Conception, so we ducked into a small bay that had anchoring bouys available. We tied up to a bouy and enjoyed a simple supper and a beautifully serene view.

Santa Barbara - Tues, September 1, 2009

After several hours of a good, hard sleep, Dave and I slowly came back to life. We had been unable to plug into shore power provided at our moorage, since the 2 plugs we had on the boat were not compatible adaptors. Fortunately, there was a West Marine store next to the Harbor Masters office, so were able to get supplies (plugs and sea charts).

Dave found a good marine mechanic and in 1 minute was able to fix the "issue", and in the process was able to point out a few handy tid-bits to Dave regarding our engine system. All in all, time and $$$ well spent. The rest of our day was spent relaxing on the boat, planning the next leg of the trip. We stayed overnight and planned to leave the following afternoon.

August 31, 2009 - Our Departure

Departed Newport Beach, CA at 6:30 am. The cruise through the harbor was wonderful. We watched the sunrise over the harbor. Photographed Nicholas Cage's former residence, as well as, John Wayne's (which is presently being remodeled). Once we hit the jetty a light fog began to form. The fog was not very thick, so visibility was good. Unfortunately, it didn't take my stomach long to find the trip disagreeable. By afternoon, the only thing that I was good for was...well...nothing! I curled up in the salon on the sofa, while Dave captained the ship.

The trip became quite rough. We soon realized the the prior owners had not utilized the Sea Crest as a blue water vessel. Flybridge furniture was not secured, and the wind and waves did some "rearranging" for us. We decided it best to come into the nearest port when we lost our "port" engine off of Santa Barbara. Dave gave the Coast Guard a call on the radio. They sent the Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol out to assist us into the harbor. It was now 5 am Tues., Sept. 1st.

We survived the first leg of our journey! However, at this point I wasn't so sure that I wished it to continue...