No – we didn’t go back to Oregon, where most of the state is 70 degrees and sunny this week! We continued south after 6 days in Crescent City. We visited the coffee shops, cheese store, grocery store, historical society museum, a lighthouse, and a good selection of the town’s restaurants including the Chart Room, where Kim Kardashian ate just a few weeks ago. Their blackberry cobbler was excellent. While tied up in Crescent City our highest gust from the south was 46 knots (a bit over 50 mph). It then turned around and blew a gale from the north, but then settled down. We even had time to do our laundry! We read a lot of books, doubled up the dock lines, and spent a lot of time listening to sea lions. Ross also came and joined us for the rest of the trip south.
Things were getting a bit desperate, but we finally escaped the Crescent City vortex. We were extremely lucky with weather, both to not get stuck longer, and to be in Crescent City, which doesn’t have a bar entrance (it’s not a river and is deep coming in and out). When we left the swell was 13-15′ and had gone from a period of 9 seconds to a period of 14ish seconds. That’s a lot of numbers- it was really gross right before we left. It still felt sloppy coming out of Crescent City, but every bar on the Oregon coast was closed by the Coast Guard for boat’s Kuaka’s size. That means that we would have been stuck if we had gone in anywhere else.
We started off with a great day of sailing, followed by a mix of sailing and motoring. The swell got smaller, the wind waves more reasonable, and it kept getting warmer. During the worst of the seas we still managed to celebrate Pi day with canned pie filling purchased in Homer AK when we bought the boat.
It was great to experiment with both what the electric autopilot could handle (not much for waves) and what the windpilot could do. We also hand steered a bit both for entertainment and because certain conditions don’t work well for the self steering.
Just south of San Francisco Bay we had about 12 hours of southerlies. Luckily we headed due south from off the Faralons so could take a single long tack into Monterey Bay close hauled. The wind wrapped around to the W and dropped, so back to motoring.
It finally picked up again and we had a great sail around Point Conception. But not before Ross did his drone imitation.
It got windy again and the boat surfed very well, almost too well, so we were back to a short bit of hand steering.
We came around Point Conception with 20 kts right behind us and anchored in Cojo Anchorage.
It was great to anchor for the first time of the trip- and in a wild and beautiful place. There was just one other boat in the anchorage. We celebrated by playing Flotsam and drinking wine.
Frivolities continued into the morning with waffles for breakfast – although the smoke alarm necessitated airing the iron out through the overhead hatch.
We had a bit of a wilderness marine plumbing emergency later in the morning, and stuck around Cojo until mid day, when the wind was expected to come up. This photo was just the beginning – the rest would probably get censored.
We had some other company in the anchorage – both a sea otter in the kelp, which is quite rare – and a mooring buoy full of sea lions!
This afternoon we had a fantastic sail over to San Miguel with 15-20kts beam to broad reaching. The wind built as we entered the anchorage, where one other sailboat, and Outbound 46, was anchored. The wind stayed consistent at 20-22 knots, perfect for more sailing of another type.
Now the cruising part of the trip can begin! We were in a bit of a rush to get south of Point Conception both because of weather, and to meet the Kellogg’s family in the Channel Islands. We made it with one day to spare, all in good weather. It will feel good to slow down a bit and have a chance to explore. That’s all for now from the Kuakites!
-Ben
