Breakwater Cove, Monterey

Nov 15: Well, since we're plugged in to shore power, didn't have to start the Genset to get hot water for showers. Today we've scheduled time to do laundry. We were really surprised by the unaccountable accumulation of stuff to be washed! Decided best to take it up to the laundry facility in the restroom building (one washer, one dryer - $2.00/1.50) What would have been at least four loads onboard was now reduced to a manageable two. While the first load was washing, we took a stroll along the Coast Guard pier and observed California Sea Lions hanging out on the boulders just over the concrete fence. They had no fear of people hanging over the fence to look at them, “talk” to them, or having their photos taken. We also stopped in at the local Chandlery which was small but suprisingly well stocked. It's attached to a small haul-out facility/repair yard. After first load was done, dried, folded, put away, it was already 1330, so we decided to go visit Old Fisherman's Warf. It was a relatively short hike towards Monterey Harbor and the warf basically splits the two boating facilities, the other being Breakwater Cove. We walked the length of the warf, peeking in at all the small restaurants with sample tables out front of about half of them. Now that it's “off season”, best guess is they're really trying to get the few tourists there to eat at their establishments. We did pop into one of the places to get NJ a raw oyster fix, and, as it turns out, an ahi tuna shashimi fix as well. Hal just had a Sapporo. We headed back and got to the boat around 1530. Second load of laundry went in, and Hal started working on Major Project #2 (waste pump...phwew). Up came floorboards, pulled waste water pump, disassembled inlet and pulled joker valve to clean it out. Reassembled entire unit, attaching hoses, and grunting numerous times. Had to move boat forward about 35 feet to gain access to pumpout station. Added water to empty holding tank, tested newly cleaned pump....nada. Too late now to go any further. Pumped holding tank out externally. Put everything back together and headed to the galley for late dinner (now 1915) snacks and a movie. NJ got second load of laundry done and put away. Still wondering where it all came from.... Will continue project tomorrow. Have included some photos of our arrival to Monterey that I forgot we took.

The Concert in Santa Cruz

Nov 12: Cockle-doodle-doo! That's the alarm our phone sounds, ad nauseum! It's 0430 and time for all hands to get up and going, drain a couple cups of coffee, turn on navigation systems, running lights, VHF radio, depth sounder, and radar. Anchor up and underway in the dark at 0523. At 0551 we get a bit of a sprinkle, hopefully not an indication of more to come. 0646 brought the official sunrise, even though we could see a bit during the dawn. Overcast but no fog, winds less than 5 knots and we're heading 150 magnetic. About an hour later, hoisted Staysail, Main and Mizzen sails with promising 13-15 knot breezes. Unfortunately that lasted only 10 minutes, so motor remains our primary propulsion. At 1000, the Jib went up and Staysail came down. Jib needed some airing out/exercise, since we hadn't deployed it for more than a year (up in Port Angeles, WA). The wind started blowing steady and engine was shut down at 1143. We're actually SAILING! We made fairly good speed (5.5 – 5.8 knots) and were thrilled with the quiet tranquility a lack of engine noise provides. Unfortunately, all good things must take a break, and we needed to run the last 6 miles to Santa Cruze under power, so engine started at 1425. We arrived at the sea-lion-infested Santa Cruz Warf anchorage area and drove around a bit to scout out an appropriate spot to drop anchor, passing a 25 foot sailboat that had apparently been boarded by pirate-sea-lions in the absence of its human owner. Finally dropped anchor 1630. With sun scheduled to set in 30 minutes, got all sails and halyards stowed appropriately, and toasted to the sun set.

Nov 13: Sunny morning, rough, rolly, noisy night. Hal was up at midnight, 0200, 0400, 0430 (forgot to turn off previously set alarm!), 0600 and 0715 to start new day. By 1005 this morning, successfully swapped out fresh water system pump. This was necessitated when we found out after anchoring last night, that no water was coming out of our faucets. Initial troubleshooting indicated the pump to be defective (somehow). Anyway, the “fun” started about 0800 this morning, as the spare pump was, yes, at the bottom of a large pile of stuff in the bow. Something like needing a large book second from the bottom of a tall stack of very much larger books. So the process began, and 45 minutes later, the pump was located. Now the ever-present “bend-over” work began. Old pump had to be extricated, spare put in, including electrical wiring, and tested. Luckily, it worked fine. One more large project to go (get the waste water overboard pump system working). That's partly the reason we pumped out (and cleaned inside of holding tank) back at Half Moon Bay. We decided to leave everything where it was, drop dink into the water, motor it up, hop in and drive over to Santa Cruz Harbor proper. They had shut down dinghy access to the Warf for the season...bummer. Once there, we found a place to dump our trash, then made our way over to Aldo's eatery in time for lunch. Afterwards, we strolled out to the Harbor Lighthouse, noting all the Pelicans sleeping on dredging machinery. Headed back to Shakedown. Stripped dink and hauled it back aboard. Really didn't want a pile of sea lions playing house in it during the night. Then we went througn the process of putting everything back that we had pulled out this morning. 1610-Started GENSET for the express purpose of turning on the water heater for showers. 1800-shut down GENSET. 1825-restarted GENSET because I needed to charge the batteries after having forgotten to turn of the water heater circuit breaker which was sucking all the juice out of our house batteries through the inverter! Bozo learns (relearns, actually) a lesson. 1907-GENSET off. Dinner,a movie, and continuous concert from under the Warf, lasting well into the night (actually all night long) presented by the very vocal and mostly off-key mamals that lurk under the Warf.

Nov 14: 0645 GENSET on to charge batteries. Potential issue bubbling up here....batteries won't hold charge as long as they used to (almost six years old). Gotta look into this. Genset off at 0800. Turned on nav/comms gear and noted that depth gauge was showing 3 ft under the keel! Knowing we hadn't moved from 24 foot depth, and witnessing a wild flurry of marine activity completely surround Shakedown, realized the anchovie ball was directly beneath us, thus causing the depth guage reading. In the midst of the melee, brought anchor up at 0835, catching a total of five anchovies in the process. They were stuck in the chain links! As the chain was brought aboard, the fish were released (shoved out of the links) and thrown overboard to carry on. Unfortunately for these guys, seagulls were right there to devour them. We very gently floated out of the marine life as sea lions, seals, pelicans and too many birds to mention moved out of our way. After clearing end of the Warf, we were officially underway once again, trying to get across Monterey Bay before a forecasted small-craft warning went into effect. Since it was extremely foggy and windless, we went fairly slowly as our radar showed contacts ahead. Turns out, lots of folks were out fishing...go figure. As the fog started lifting, we got about one-quarter mile visibility, which helped spot the fishermen. At 0940 we snagged a crab pot line. Immediately threw motor into neutral to stop propeller from potentially wrapping line around it. As we floated, went forward to grab boat hook. By the time I got back aft to untangle the line, it had dropped of and great big fat sighs of relief were issued in perfect harmony!! Off we went, sighting a whale at 1049 and a couple more about an hour later. We believe first may have been Humpback and the others, a small pod of Orca. Mizzen sail had to be raised to provide wind brake from the irregular rollers trying to keep us off course. We finally got through it all and docked at Breakwater Cove, Monterey at 1600. Checked in with the office, got a key to restrooms and gates, and decided to walk into town looking for Nob Hill grocery store. Got to Cannery Row street and followed it a bit, asking/receiving directions to the store. Decided to head up the hill to Lighthouse Street (where store was ostensibly located) and continued walking past a long line of small eateries and bars. We found a CVS Pharmacy and decided to purchase some “emergency” supplies there and head back to the boat. So with a frozen pizza, can of yoghurt and a quantity of beer, we enjoyed the evening on the boat. Took no pictures today, just wanted to get here and settled in. We plan to be here until Monday morning, when weather should be more to our liking.

A little time in Half Moon Bay

Nov 8th:  Started GENSET this morning to charged batts, heat water for showers, make ice.  Walker Bay over the side, had to apply WD-40 and a bit of screwdriver leverage technology to Honda Outboard to unscrew it from mounting rail.  Added grease to threads.  Lowered into dinghy and attached to transom.  Fired up on third pull!  Wind kicked up to 20-25 with gusts to 28 this afternoon.  Decided to test new anchor bridle rig.  Let out additional 50 ft. chain, attached chain hook, cleated 3/4” 3-strand nylong line to starboard cleat.  Let out a bit more chain to make line taught.  No more pressure on bow roller!  And we've got 150 feet of 3/8" chain out in 12 feet of water!   Nancy baked bread and rolls this afternoon....YUM!  Relaxed onboard rest of day.

Nov 9th:  Ran GENSET again this morning, and later this afternoon.  This morning, winds being calm and sun warming up the day, we climbed into the dink and made our way into Pillar Point Harbor to scope out services & stretch our legs.  Found the pumpout station and self service diesel pumps.  Found a wee crack in the line of dinghies and tied up to a doock giving us access to main work dock above.  Started our stroll towards “town”, and since we have zero TV reception from our digital antenna mounted on top of the Mizzen mast, we included a fact-finding mission in our walk to a) find out where we could watch the 49ers game tomorrow, b) if there was food available, and c) if they had appropriate refreshments.  We found several of such establishments, one being the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club.  We were met by Diedre, the Quartermaster, who graciously gave us a tour of the facilities.  We happened to be wearing some items of clothing with Bellingham Yacht Club emblazened thereon, and were immediately invited to this evening's Commodore Ball.  The Commo was hanging outdoor party lights in preparation the the event.  We politely declined, as we had left our formal evening wear in a plastic bag in a clothing recycling bin somewhere up north.  We were also invited to show up tomorrow for the game if we wished.   We thanked them and continued our journey.  We dropped in at the American Legion, who said they could accommodate us, but we'd probably have a better time at the establishment next door.  So we checked out that place and our decision was made.  We had a beer and probably the best fish & chips ever.  They had five screens, and they would be playing the 49ers game on all five.  We got back to the dink, took a quick tour of the outer harbor, took some pics of Shakedown at anchor, climbed back aboard, and parked the dinghy off the stern of the boat.  Had Spaghetti & Lasagne for dinner, and of course a movie.

Nov 10th:  Ran GENSET. Got showers this morning and made preparations to head into town to watch the game.  Got into the dink about 1100, wanted to get there early enough to get a good seat, and headed into the inner harbor where we parked dinghy and walked to the Old Princeton Landing/Silver Star Grill and Gallery (previously mentioned) to watch the game.  Got a great seat with view of all screens.  The place was pretty full by game time and there was progressively louder crowd noise.  At half time, ordered fish & chips again (couldn't resist).  Unfortunately, we lost by one point (10-9) in a hard fought defensive battle.  Finished our beers and headed back in the warm sunshine to the harbor, climbed into the dink and drove back to Shakedown.  Had opportunity to install new anti-siphon valve and new electric solenoid for the toilet flushing system.  The last of the Lasagne was consumed this evening.   

Nov 11: (oh, that's TODAY)...well, we did stuff today as well.  We needed to pump out, so put batteries in our FRS radios and practiced using them, since we hadn't in about 5 years.  Then we hoisted anchor with our "new" electric windlass (what fun!) and watched all 150 feet of chain come up without a hitch.  Had hooked up our deck washdown hose and was happy to do it.  Chain was muddy and by the time the anchor surfaced, it had at least 40 lbs. of mud caked to it.  Got it all washed off with the hose in about 20 minutes.  We then drove Shakedown over to the inner harbor fuel dock where there was located previously mentioned pump out station.  No need for details on that.  Also filled fresh watter tanks just for the heck of it, and while that evolution was taking place, "ran" up to the store and brought back some beer.  Having completed annoying, but important, tasks, we headed back to our anchorage location and dropped anchor once more.  Hopped into the dink and returned to the inner harbor for lunch at Ketch Joanna's place.  The sandwiches ordered were huge, so we just had to walk them off a bit afterwards.  Got to see a bit more of Half Moon Bay, the fishermen cleaning their fish, the seagulls (always the seagulls) eagerly awaiting any odd piece of fish that may accidentally fall off the fish cleaning station, the surfers (all two of them) with no surf to speak of, getting their boards out of the water, lugging them to their truck, covering them in their custom sleeping bags with zippers, but smiling the entire time.  Then it was back to the dink and back to Shakedown to prepare for our 5 a.m. departure tomorrow (Tuesday).  Four hours later, I'm writing this last entry before we quit for the evening.  With a helping hand from above, we'll be in Santa Cruz tomorrow.....nite nite...

We are back to blogging.  We were heartened by all the responses to our "underway" email as we pulled out of our slip.  Thanks, everyone.

Well, we backed out of our slip at 7:57 a.m. (on Nov 7th) and were finally underway, passing the "Red Oak Victory" at 8:15 and arriving and passing under the Golden Gate Bridge at 10:09a.m., marking our return to the ocean.  We motored to the bridge, then about 4 miles west, turned left, raised stay and Mizzzen sails in 15-18 knot winds on our starboard beam.  Quite comfortable 6 to 6.5 knots, still motor sailing.  Wind died and seas became sloppy, so the mizzen sail came down, the staysail providing a wind brake the remaining eight or so miles to Half Moon Bay.  

Dropped anchor in the outer harbor at 4:03 p.m. and straightend things out.  At 5:00, we took a look if any TV reception was to be had from our digital antenna...nada.  So we watched a movie with dinner.  

We had travelled 39.4 nautical miles in 8 hours, and that was just perfect for our first extended trip for over 13 months.  
We slept really well in the calm harbor and woke to pea soup fog.  Fortunately it burned away fairly early.  We've decided to stay here probably until Tuesday, when the weather will be more favorable to a southbound sailing vessel.  Forecast is for a couple of days of South/southwest winds.  It's good to be retired and nothing to rush us down the coast.....

 Backed out of our slip at Marina Bay Yacht Harbor

 Making sure we're headed in the right direction

 Law of Tonnage dictates we get out of the way!

 Wondering if we're going to clear under the bridge

 We clear the bridge...easy peasy!

 Shakedown's Bridge

 Good to be out in the Pacific again

 Sunrise in Half Moon Bay