Friday, November 5th, 1999
Log SV Francis from San Francisco to Morro Bay
We left Emery Cove Marina at 10:15 am. We planned to leave earlier but we were waiting for the fog to lift at the Golden Gate Bridge. There is just too much traffic through the Gate to go when the visibility is poor. Going across the North Bay we had the wind right on the nose at 22 mph and we are taking green water over the bow. As we got close to the Golden Gate there were several large ships and a barge heading out at the same time so we thought we would follow them out. We have about 2 miles of visibility so we go through.
11:45 we pass under the Golden Gate Bridge. Still have the wind in our face, looks like it’s going to be a long day. We round Point Lobos and crank a hard left heading south. Seas are up and we are pounding into large waves. The swell coming out of the Northwest can hardly be felt due to the large wind waves out of the south. We catch a glimpse of the shoreline once in a while, and have about 5 miles of visibility. With the recent change to standard time it’s now dark at 5:00. It sure gets dark early. I think we will have 13 hours of dark tonight.
11:00 The wind waves have died down a little. We are off Monterey and Carmel, I can see the city lights in the distance, we are only 8 miles offshore.
At 2:00 am Everybody’s awake, the boat is pounding into big seas, we are only making 4 to six knots and burying the bow every minute or so. We are rounding Point Sur and standing well off the point as the reefs extend 6 miles offshore. The Ocean is so rough! I’ve come close to heaving up everything a couple of times so I sit in the cockpit trying to keep a cool wind in my face. Finally at about 5:00am I’m feeling a little better so I go below to get some rest. It’s still very bumpy so I’m lying on the floor next to the engine room and the cat food bowl. Pretty glamorous! I finally did fall asleep. David woke me up around 6:30 am, so not much rest. I go back up for watch so he can try to rest. So far he’s had no sleep that I can tell. Its getting light and the wind is decreasing, that sure feels good. We are 9 miles off the Big Sur coast. As the light comes back we can see the hilly coast of the Big Sur Country. At 10:00am we are off Cape San Martin, we still have the wind out of the Southeast but its only blowing 15 mph. All of the sudden I see a few dolphins off to the side of the boat. They were swimming along side of us and darting back and forth in font of the bow. I yelled for David to come out. When he came out he exclaimed, “ look over there” as he pointed to the west. There were hundreds of dolphins! Jumping and playing. We were soon in the middle of this big herd of dolphins. What a glorious site after a rough night. The dolphins were with us for about 20 minutes and then went off in their own direction. At 12:20 we are close inshore off Point Pedrias Blancas and the wind dies out on us. We tried sailing another two hours and decided to power over to San Simeon bay. The big Hearst castle is just above us on the hill. We seemed to running low on fuel. We were sure we had enough to last until Santa Barbara, but we had been planning on sailing and not planning on beating the south wind for over 24 hours. Lucky for us my friend Rene lived close by so we gave her a call on the cell phone and her husband Brad met me at San Simeon. I had two of the ten gal jugs with me and picked up 5 gals of diesel in each one at a local gas station. Back to the beach David is waiting for me with the dinghy. We got a little wet in the swells getting back to the boat. Oh – no! The cell phone got soaked. I guess that’s the end of that. By 6:00pm we head out to Morro Bay. We had several dolphins swimming around us as we made for the bay; they made quite a sight, for at night the dinoflaglites in the water make a phosourences as the dolphins or we go through the water. The dolphins looked like lightening darts swimming along beside us. I sighed a big sigh of relief and said to David “ this has to be a good sign… being lead into Mooro bay by dolphins.” For I was pretty much a wreck by this time and going into Morro bay in the dark made me a little nervous. From everything we had read about this entrance it was one of the trickiest bar crossings and entrances on the California coast. It is usually plagued with thick fog, but on this clear warm night we had the stars and dolphins leading us in. we found all the channel buoys along the way and the next thing I knew it was 9:40 pm and we entered the Morro Bay bar, the conditions were good at the entrance and we were tied up to a buoy by 10:30. A nice little 36-hour trip with very little sleep.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH, 1999
We slept in late and then awoke to sunny day. We lowered the dinghy and went ashore to pay for our buoy anchor and get something to eat! We hadn’t had much to eat in the past 48 hours. For me mostly because of seasickness. I then called my high school friend Rene and hooked up with her family later for Dinner. We walked around Morro Bay exploring our new surroundings. It was a very cute tourist town that relies on the fishing industry and tourism. One could take a charter-fishing trip from this point. We heard stories about one boat that had 15 people on it and caught over 200 30-pound fish. Apparently there is no limit when you are out charter fishing on the ocean. My friend Rene came to pick us up for dinner for she lives in a little town called Los Osos, which is at the other end of the bay. When she brought us back to our dinghy it was pouring rain and our dinghy had a little water in the bottom. So once again we get wet on the way back the boat.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH, 1999
Awoke to a beautiful sunny day. We waited for slack tide and powered over to the fuel dock. 54 gals we took on… boy were we empty! But we did also fill up two of the jerry jugs. Then we went over to a public dock that had 3 hour parking limit. But we were able to wash all the salt off the boat and fill up with water. We also found all wet things and began to dry out. After some much need showers I called my friend Rene who came down to meet us at the boat. I took off with her for an afternoon of farmers markets and catching up.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 1999
Thought we would leave today. We got the boat all ready to go and sat down to listen to the weather channel and decided that it was not the best day to leave, for there were small craft advisory along the coastline where we were headed. So it was a day of resting and boat chores.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH, 1999
Today the weather looks better, the fog has lifted and so we are off. We left Mooro Bay at 8:15 am. And head south. Our major obstacle being point conception. It is the great cape of the West Coast. This is where the coast switches from running north/south to east/west, so the winds and the currents can be very rough around here. It looks like its going to be a beautiful day. The coastline along the way is spectacular. High cliffs with small mountainous backgrounds. We passed by Pismo Beach and then point Arguella with no problems. About 5:00 pm we head around Point Conception, there is no fog, the winds aren’t bad and the seas relatively calm. There was a Beautiful sunset on its way. As we rounded the Point Conception the winds and the waves picked up a bit, but not enough to make it miserable. A sigh of relief as the sun sunk below the horizon with a green flash as it snuck away. The next 6 to 7 hours along the coast down the Santa Barbara channel would be in the dark of the night. Once again it was a clear night and we had the stars and the lights of the oil rig towers to keep us company. We finally find the channel markers for the Santa Barbara harbor. We landed at the harbormaster dock at 11:30pm, another long day. We got our slip assignment and got settled in. The next morning we got up to explore our surroundings. We couldn’t believe our eyes! It was so
beautiful here. This is the sunny California I pictured. We went for a long walk to discover our new surroundings. What a place! There is a beach that stretches on for miles with a paved roller blading and bike path that goes along beside it, all lined with towering palm trees. Right across the parking lot form the marina is a 50-meter lap swimming pool. It’s so awesome. Its in a historic Spanish style building and is very well maintained. We walked to the down town area only to find a plethora of restaurants and high-end shops. We feel like we are at a fancy resort, except that the part of the marina they put us in is next to all the fishing boats and is somewhat rundown. But hey, that’s not where we hang out. We are also very close to the Santa Barbara City College. David found the track and is enjoying running there. He also is running the stairs in the stadium. Every once in awhile he gets me to go with him to run the stairs.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, 1999 – TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD, 1999
Enjoying life in Santa Barbara. David is running the stairs and running on the track every day. I go to walk and sometimes run the stairs or sometimes I go roller blading. I have been enjoying the 50-meter pool immensely, the first day I did 34 laps and the last day I did 60! Have been going almost every day. The rest of our time here is spent exploring and performing the regular boat maintenance and cleaning. We both really like Santa Barbara the town, but the area of the marina we were placed in is kind of run down and we are next to all the stinky fishing boats and the boat launching area. So we have a constant parade of boats going by, which isn’t very quit and makes for a lot of sloshing around most of the day. When we are really lucky we get to hear one of those big fishing boats roar its big motor around 3:00 am as it prepares to take off for fishing. They actually catch a lot of lobster in this area. When I asked them where they went to catch the fish and lobster they said mostly around the Channel Islands, which I thought interesting, since the Channel Islands are a national park and marine preserve! Strange how things work sometimes. The harbormaster here has a two-week limit on transient boats in this marina so we must prepare to leave. We drove one of cars to Ventura today so we would have a car when we arrive. The other we leave in Santa Barbara, hoping to return. I will miss Santa Barbara, but not this dock!
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 23RD, 1999
We prepare to leave for Ventura today. We left the marina around 10:30 am with great hopes of being to put up our beautiful turtle spinnaker and sail our way to Ventura. Once out in the channel it became apparent that sailing was not an option today, not a breath of wind. The ocean was what David called an oily sea, because it was so glassy from lack of wind. So once again we motor to our next destination. We arrive in Ventura around 1:30 PM. A nice trip along the central coast of California, the main scenery being that of all the off shore oils drilling rigs and a few dolphins. After we got settled in our new slip at Ventura Isle Marina we took off in our car to explore our new surroundings and find a grocery store to get Thanksgiving supplies.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 24TH, 1999
Off to more exploring of Ventura, we have some boat supplies to get, so it’s off to West Marine again. Too bad we don’t have stock in that company. We also got some Christmas lights to decorate the boat with. We hung the lights all around the exterior rail of the boat. When we turned them on, what a beautiful site. Now it really feels like a festive holiday. This had to be the first time in my life that I have had Christmas lights before Thanks giving!
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 25TH, 1999 “THANKSGIVING”
Well this will be our first Thanks Giving away from all our family and friends. It seems somewhat strange and exciting at the same time. We have a turkey to cook with all the thanks giving trimmings, plus we have our festive lights, so we will have festive day with a lot to be thankful for…. My health is much better and we’ve made it this far safely! I took a long 2 and half hour walk on the beach this afternoon, while David stayed behind to cook turkey. I explored much of the beach and saw many birds in an inland wetland. Then I walked up to the national park building but of course it was closed. When I returned it was time for turkey dinner….. David did an excellent job of cooking turkey this day, but we will be eating turkey and stuffing for sometime to come.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 26TH, 1999
Today we arise and start tarring the boat apart. David took the carpet out and washed it on the dock. It had a lot of oil spots on it from an oil change accident a few days before. I took apart all the cushions to take the covers up to wash. Later the sewing machine came out to make some minor repairs on the covers and clothes. David went back to work on the engine and finished up some cleaning. All these chores consume most of the day.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 27TH, 1999
Out and about to explore more of Ventura, we are not as impressed with this place as we have been with other places. Once again we are by the STINKING fishing boats. Sometime the stench is so bad you have to plug your nose. The rest of the day was for resting. David and I took a long walk by the beach at sunset. Then came back to relax.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 28TH, 1999
Found a Starbucks for my Sunday morning coffee, bet I won’t find that in Tahiti. I got an email from my bother mark today informing me that my father had a heart attack on Friday and is currently in the hospital. I will be trying to contact my mother today.
This afternoon I walked over to the beach and then to the national park building for a talk on tide pools by the park ranger. He was teaching us about echinoderms, the starfish and the sea urchin. The park ranger was telling us how when elnino came though a couple of years ago that it killed a lot of the kelp beds in the area, this greatly changes the kind of sea life that could live in the area. I also watched a movie on the Channel Islands.
MONDAY NOVEMBER 29TH, 1999
Today we drove along highway one down to the Venice Beach. It was a beautiful drive along the longest beach I’ve ever seen. There were many surfers out in the water today.
We drove through Malibu, what a place; it had some of the most interesting architecture and houses I’ve ever seen, probably at a pretty price too. When we got to Santa Monica we stopped to visit the famous peer. We took along walk along the beech enjoying the scenery and the beautiful hotels along the way. There is a great paved trail that goes the whole distance of the beach to Venice. Roller bladers and bikers heavily traveled this. We continued down the coast to Venice, after lunch at Islands (David’s new favorite place) we took off on another long walk. We found an area that had canals similar to the real Venice Italy. There were lots of cute cottages and houses along this cannel neighborhood. Seemed like everyone had a little dinghy in front of their homes. It was a very unique community. Then we headed back down to the beach, what a site. The sand stretched on for miles and miles. We walked along the Venice beach walkway and observed just about every element of human life you could imagine. We went by an area called muscle beach, where the big muscle heads hang out and lift weights. There also was a big skateboard park. The stores and streets vendors were definitely interesting. We walked for miles along this stretch, finally near sunset we decide to head back to Ventura, watching the beautiful sunset on the ocean along the way.
I got a hold of my mother tonight and my father had a long day of heart angio-plasty, but they think he will be ok.