Making Our Way

We left Morro Bay at 5:30 in the morning, it was a mass exodus of almost all of the boats on the yacht club dock as we were all waiting for the weather window to either head north or south.  For us, we were planning to make it around Conception also known as "The Cape Horn of the Pacific".  It can get extremely nasty there during storms and as our kids are all fair weather sailors we were waiting for the lull which happened to be this last Saturday.  It said the winds should be variable 5-15 but I think 5 was even an overestimate.  We literally motored the whole way there without even the option of putting up a mainsail because the wind was on our nose down the coast.  We had a following sea with 10-12 foot rollers that would come through every ten minutes or so.    Just when you think it's calm, your world turns sideways. This is what took out my french press :( a major downer for this coffee lover, and also what sent a gallon of milk flying.

We arrived in Coho Bay where we stopped and anchored in the late afternoon.  The little boys and Keith immediately threw on their wetsuits, booties and grabbed a surf board to head to the beach.  Me, the nervous Nellie, stayed with the boat to make sure it's anchor was set.  It really didn't help my "Nellie" habit  that there were TWO sailboats up on the beach from some previous not nervous enough person!  After a bit Keith came back and picked up Mason and I and we explored the beach, the creatures, the sand dune and the boats up on the beach.   It felt great to get out and run and stretch our legs but I was anxious to get back to the boat to whip up dinner and call the day complete knowing we had another day of sailing ahead of us on Sunday.

Sunday we left a bit later, the distance being much shorter, and were anticipating light winds but again were treated to just about zero wind.  We did get about an hours worth of true sailing in with both Jib and Main but then the wind died and we were relegated to motor-sailing with just the main the rest of the way.  We pulled into Santa Barbara right around 2pm which turned out to perfect timing because a few boats had left and they actually had a slip for us available which they didn't when I called earlier in the day.  So here we are in Santa Barbara for a bit, getting ready for the work/school week and, with a West Marine literally at the end of the dock, I suspect it will turn out to be a boat project week for Keith.