05/24/2002 to 05/25/2002
Our plan to get to Santa Barbara required three reasonable day sails. Morro Bay to Avila Beach is 20 nautical miles, and would take about 4 hours. Avila Beach to Cojo Anchorage (pronounced "ko-ho") is 53 nautical miles from Avila Beach, and just the other side of Point Conception. This longest leg, would take about 8-9 hours. Cojo to Santa Barbara is another 39 nautical miles and would take about 5-6 hours. This would allow us to make the passage in tree short segments, without additional crew, and with the ability to get some rest at the daily stops.
Robin, feeling pleased with the chosen departure day and weather.
Robin tracked the weather every day (okay, 3-5 times every day) looking for a reasonable weather window to leave Morro Bay. The winds out along our intended coastal path ranged from 10 to 40 knots almost every day of our stay in Morro Bay. The conditions included significant wind-wave and swells that sounded too uncomfortable for us (6-12 ft). Our objective was to find a tranquil window where we could pass around Point Conception (the "Cape Horn" of the Pacific Coast) with minimal anxiety.
Finally, after days of gale force winds in the afternoon, it looked like Friday May 24th would be the day to make our way south.
I should note here that sailors that have made this trip several times before (we met several at the Morro Bay Yacht Club) take just the opposite approach we did - they WANTED good strong N-NW or W wind, to sail quickly around the point. They are used to this "coastal ocean" stuff and enjoy a good, vigorous sail. We had enough vigorous on our way down, and were looking for just the opposite - if we had to motor the whole way, that was fine - we could do it without shame. Since it was our first time around Point Conception, the saltier sailors seemed to cut us newbie's some slack.
A fisherman, works in a standing position as we motor sail by. The seas are pleasingly calm, but we're without sufficient wind to sail.
Morro Bay to Avila Beach
We left Morro Bay Yacht Club about an hour after first light and headed out a calm harbor entrance, and down a clear coastline. If you are familiar with the famous photo of George C. Scott's huge yacht pummeled by a giant wave while exiting Morro Bay, you will understand why we waited for VERY calm conditions to exit the harbor.
It was cool (52 degrees Fahrenheit), clearing early, with flat calm wind-wave on top of some very reasonable swells. Although this was shaping up to be a "motor-sail", we were okay with that. Northern California's coast has been a bit more wind, wind-wave, and large multi-directional swell than we had anticipated, so a calm day of motoring was not going to deter us from moving south.
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Just north of Port San Luis and Avila Beach. Well out of the security zone.
Our only event of the morning (other than the sea lions and otters along our path that came by to check us out) occurred while passing 3/4 nautical mile off of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. "Securité, Securité, Securité - this is the Port San Luis Harbormaster reminding all mariners that the U.S. Coast Guard has established a one nautical mile security zone around latitude blah, longitude blah, the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Any vessel within this zone must immediately exit." Yikes! We headed directly away from the plant before they scrambled the F-18's!
At anchor in Avila Beach
It was a very relaxing afternoon and early evening at anchor in Avila Beach. We took naps, caught a little national news on TV, and grilled teriyaki chicken skewers on the barbeque. We planned to spend a day or two in Avila Beach awaiting an optimum weather window and exploring the small town. However, based on the weather forecast, it looked like we might want to leave the next day. We hit the bed early in preparation for the big Point Conception milestone the next day. The combination of a very fitful night (nasty side swell that kept us rolling +/- 15 degrees most of the night), and a great weather window on Saturday -- influenced us to skip exploring Avila Beach. We decided to just keep going south.
Avila Beach to Point Conception and Cojo Anchorage
With very calm conditions and a smidge of fog and clouds, we left Avila Beach and headed down the coast toward Pt. Sal. Minor swell (less than 2 feet, 13 seconds apart), 2-4 knot winds, and zero wind-wave kept us motor sailing course down the coast. Except for a pair of small yellow birds that hitched a ride with us and one almost flew below, it was an uneventful motor cruise on toward Point Arguello.
Oil drilling platform "Irene". A dozen of these platforms are scattered along our route and down into the Santa Barbara Channel.
Because of the calm conditions and the good speed we were making under power (7-8 knots), we decided to trim our course line a bit around Point Arguello and head in closer to shore - catching up with our Point Conception Course line.
Our turn to the southeast presented us with very mellow following swell and a much more comfortable ride. Duncan felt a bit queasy most of the morning after deciding to leave without taking his 1/4 Bonine. After chewing 1/4 Bonine pill, and taking an Advil for his headache, he felt much better. Robin skipped her dose, but felt fine all morning.
Somewhere on the shortened course line, Duncan's "freak out" excited voice exclaimed "WHALES! WHALES! GET THE CAMERA!, GET THE CAMERA!" Unfortunately, the camera was buried in our cockpit bag and Robin was so excited watching the whales, she could not get the camera out in time. Okay, so everyone we've told this story to says, "yeah, cool, whatever". Without pictures, this is just another fish (mammal) story. A genuine "you had to be there" moment -- but try anyway. Less than 25 yards off our starboard bow, perpendicular to Whisper and heading right toward us -- was an enormous blue whale mother and her calf. The calf was as big as any whale I'd ever seen before. The top of the mother's head was 3-4 feet out of the water with about 25+ feet of her body exposed -- and they were both diving. Although the flukes did not completely emerge in the dive, it was amazing how many feet of the mother's body continued to roll by in her slow dive down. I was too awestruck to touch the helm or throttle, out of fear of confusing and possibly hitting them. We did not see them surface a second time and we looked for 30 minutes hoping to catch another glimpse (and get a picture this time?). Oh well, amazing as it was to us, I guess you had to be there...
Point Conception. Okay, so it doesn't look like Cape Horn of the Pacific -- but that's a good thing.
Decision Time, Stop at Cojo or Keep Going?
Just before we prepared to turn for our Cojo Anchorage, we assessed our level of tiredness, time of the day, desire to spend another rolling night at anchor, and the conditions/weather forecast for the Santa Barbara Channel. We looked at each other and said, "let's just keep going". So with that, we skipped Cojo, the final stop of the Chumash Indian spirits on their way to the afterlife - and we headed for Santa Barbara. Since Santa Barbara was our "home town" in 1998 and 1999, we had some "favorite places" to visit and friends to see.
Point Conception to Santa Barbara
Duncan is already getting into the mellow Southern California Lifestyle.
This approximate 6-hour cruise was wonderful. Calm seas, 7-10 knots of wind on our stern, a clearing sky as the "May Gray" started to finally burn back and the sun emerged in the late afternoon. The temperature climbed from the low 50's to the mid 60's to near 70 by the time we arrived in Santa Barbara.
We saw two big Ocean Sunfish (funny looking fish that swim sideways and look like they lost their hind-body and tail) feeding on the surface. A sea lion came us to show us the big squid he'd just caught and to fling it around with his jaws -- either to kill it or break it into smaller pieces. A dolphin swam by and checked us out. Several otters eyed us curiously as we cruised by. It was quite a day for sea life.
Robin, happy to be in Southern California.
For the first time since we had the water maker installed last summer, we made some serious water. I had prepared the water maker to make water (took it out of "extended storage" mode) in Morro Bay and tried to make water, but there was too much organic stuff in the water and the filter quickly gunked up. The high pressure Clark pump did not appreciate being dormant for a year and the seals scraped like fingernails on a chalkboard for the first hour of warm up. On the trip down the coast, we successfully made 25-30 gallons of water to give the water maker it's longest continuous duty (about 2 hours of run time) since we've installed it.
As the sun was setting, the oil rigs in the Santa Barbara Channel began lighting up and the air started to cool down, we readied the boat for arrival in Santa Barbara. The Santa Barbara harbor had an available slip, and "Brophy's" -- our favorite little seafood joint in the marina -- was calling our name. Life is good.