The final push: San Diego to Richmond, 6/19-7/8/11

Our first full day in San Diego was Father’s Day, so after a well-deserved sleep we wandered off in search of brunch and found one at Silvergate YC, where we were planning on moving the boat later.  Brunch and service were great, so we waddled off to West Marine where Patti and the boys wanted to get Jan something special – a Davis sextant, complete with water sight for practicing on dry land.  As Jan commented, “you know this means we have to do some blue-water sailing now, this won’t be much use in the Delta!”

On the way back we stopped at a parking lot sale and Jan bought a small well-made parachute drogue (for heavy weather survival) and Patti and boys got great jackets and t-shirts.

The next day Patti came down with a cold, Jan was doing PG&E work in the morning when a man had a massive heart attack at the bottom of the ramp.  Everyone turned out to help (Jan went to the marina office to get the IED), but after continuous CPR and many attempts with the defibrillator even the EMTs could not revive him; he seemed to have lived pretty hard.  Put quite a pall on the day, only enlivened by finding surplus Acer laptops for $300 each at Best Buy, of which we ordered three.

With Patti still under the weather in the morning, Jan and the boys headed off on the bus to Sea World, where we had a good if tiring time.  It was a bit too commercial for us, and we started laughing at the gift store at the exit to all the exhibits, but the animals and fish were indeed impressive, as was the clowning/acrobatic show and of course the finale with Shamu and friends.  Here are some of the pictures we took there…

Our Richmond neighbor Carson Fuller picked us up afterwards and joined us for dinner on board.  Carson is studying at UCSD and was looking for an internship; I invited him to crew on the first leg up from San Diego but in the end he needed to stay back and work.  But it was great to see the “kid” who once babysat for T&V out in the world.

Wednesday was laundry and boat-cleaning day, Patti still sick and others needing to rest a bit.  And Thursday was supposed to be the day Patti took the boys to the zoo, but it turned into another boys day out – this cold refused to die!

We all liked the zoo better than Sea World, and I think we saw just about every critter in the place, took the Skyride gondola, walked up a broken moving sidewalk, the whole works.  Stopped at food and drug stores on the way back, ate something for dinner, and collapsed.  Next day was cleaning, sorting, packing and resting; Jan still working out details of his northerly passage as crew availability was ebbing and flowing every day.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday we all piled into a taxi to get Patti and the boys to the Coast Starlight train.  We had to re-pack to get down to three checked pieces of luggage each plus two carry-ons, and this was repeated in LA when they switched trains and discovered that there was no such thing as baggage checked to Richmond.  But the train ride itself was fantastic, a great way to travel.

Jan took a while to get used to being alone on the boat, after provisioning and boat tasks he was feeling pretty lonely so tried to eat dinner at the club, but all the tables were either completely full or empty, and nobody seemed terribly friendly so he wandered back to eat leftovers – but met another guy who had the same experience and we made a date to have dinner the following night at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place.  Still searching for a swaging tool to fix the boom lift with, but at least hooked up the AIS and it seemed to work.

Monday morning finally borrowed the tool from a boatyard; made a final trip to West Marine; and met Chris Levaggi who mercifully picked me up outside WM, those walks back and forth from the club were getting to be a pain. Discovered that I had swaged the end of the wire before threading it through the sheave at the end of the boom, you can guess there was a sixteenth too little clearance. Wot the ell, we’ll fix it later.

Motorsail to Oceanside was uneventful, except that we intercepted a Beneteau 36 that was heading south and running low on fuel.  By the time we got to them their saildrive was acting up too, so they may have spent a very long night wallowing around anyway, but at least: 1) they had a 5-gal jerry jug to get them to SD or use in the future for emergencies, 2) I had one less jerry jug to store in the garage when we got home, and 3) I had $40 cash which they taped to a water bottle and tossed aboard after we had effected the rope-aided transfer.  Chris treated me to a nice dinner, and the berthing was free – at last those reciprocal privileges are starting to pay off.

Tuesday Chris and I finally fixed the boom lift for real, then headed off for Long Beach.  AIS proved handy, if nothing else to identify and allow me to radio a Hunter 41 that turned out to be on their maiden voyage but was hoping to do the HaHa in a few years (presumably with her owners ;-)  So I passed on tips about the passage down and Mexico; they passed on tips about the Channel Islands.  Dins at LBYC, this time dutch.

Next day was a long one, 68 miles to Pacific Corinthian in Channel Islands Harbor.  This time the AIS was useful to identify and actually tell me the speed and rate of turn of a big green container ship heading out of Port of Long Beach.  I was really appreciating Chris’ wonderful stories and extensive contacts from recycling/composting, windsurfing and bicycling circles.  We went past a lot of kite-surfers on the way up, and took this shot for David and Angie.

Pacific Corinthian is a very ritzy club, Chris and I lolled about the pool and hot tub when we weren’t advising David and Angie on what to procure when they drove into town.  They not only brought enough food for a small army, but also picked up Brian Fahey’s Guide to Central and Southern CA 10 minutes after I located a copy in a Barnes and Noble just off the freeway.  Just-in-time inventory control!

It was great to have D&A back aboard, and we chatted merrily on the way out to the Islands, while David designed circuit boards or debugged software using his cellphone’s internet connection.  Even I don’t do PG&E work underway!

We ended up at the famous Smugglers Cove, which is a large and inviting bay on the south side of Santa Cruz island. There used to be extensive olive groves there, and there is still a nice collection of buildings which we visited the next morning.  The real treat was seeing a Channel Islands fox loping across the path, though the views from the top of the hill weren’t too shabby either.  (A red fox trotted through the grove of trees where I was waiting with the groom’s party on our wedding day in 1997; that seemed a pretty good omen too!)  David and Chris tried to get us some fresh citrus, but all the fruit that hadn’t been severely pecked was unripe.  Oh well…

We were aiming for Caleta Prietas (black pigs) anchorage, but it was PACKED on July 4th weekend so we squeezed into Albert’s next door, which turned out to be a very sweet spot.  Visited the other two boats in Nano and they were SO appreciative, apparently nobody does that in America. Somehow we ended up with a baby octopus in the dink, and spent a few minutes happily photographing him and videotaping his attempts to climb the slick sides before releasing him to his element.

 

The other boats gushed so about Painted Cave that we determined to swing by on our way north the next day.  This meant rising very early and motorsailing out in light fog, but it was certainly worth it.  We stayed a few hundred yards offshore until the approach, which meant that the huge opening came up out of the fog, quite awesome and a bit nervous-making.  There was a large catamaran motoring slowly around outside, they were chartering and had no outside VHF(!) but eventually responded to our shouts that the cave was safe and impressive.  Chris and I Nano’d in first, cut the engine when we were inside and were blown away by the sights, smells and especially sounds of the seals when we got to the back.  Our dimming flashlights probably helped enhance the eeriness of the place, but even without that it is truly magical.

Our original destination was Cuyler anchorage on Santa Rosa Island, but halfway there we decided to push on to Cojo anchorage at Conception to take advantage of our weather window.  Things were going great, running low revs with main and Yankee jib both pulling well when first the AIS gave up the ghost, and then the diesel.  Of course this happened when we were crossing a tug with a long and large tow; but we kept track of them and had a mile clearance after all.  Thank goodness for the trusty radar!

             The engine problem seemed like a fuel issue, and indeed when we tried it for anchoring she fired right up. Determined to check/clean fuel filters at earliest opportunity – but first we needed to sleep!

Next day was the infamous Point Conception rounding.  We started off with a light southerly, so it was about as uneventful as you can get. Motorsailed through light fog, managed to avoid kelp, and never even saw Diablo Canyon or Port San Luis – again. Next time… folks say it’s a very nice place.  Morrow Bay seemed kinda touristy this time, we met Alex Malacatto and his wife at the dock and headed off for a decent fish dinner after doing some repairs on the dutchman.

Next day much ferrying ensued, as David had to get back to the car, Chris and Alex’s wife to the workaday world.  But first we had a fantastic breakfast (as usual), and I changed and cleaned the housing for one of the “secondary” (i.e. aftermarket) fuel filters.  We said goodbye to Westerly who was on the hook in the channel and left for the short passage to San Simeon at 1PM, got in just after 5.  The anchorage was almost deserted but there were lots of folks on shore for the holiday.  Then at night we saw the fireworks put on by the apparently well-off town of Cambria 6 miles down the coast.  The longest show I’ve ever experienced, we kept saying “is this the finale? No, it doesn’t seem quite big enough”. Made me nostalgic for KFOG Kaboom.

Next day was very long, 98 miles.  Original destination was Monterey, but it’s kinda out of the way so we kept on truckin to Santa Cruz.  Occasionally the fog parted enough to see the coast, it was actually very pretty around Pt. Sur.  Didn’t see a single boat all day!

Santa Cruz is a great town, we met David there and dashed off to dinner, which was great except for David and Alex’ skimpy servings of mussels.  We picked up a new on-engine fuel filter from the back of a pickup truck at the marine store, David had ordered it online for me.

Now it was finally time to slow down a bit.  We had a mellow morning, joined for breakfast by my friend Rob Seelig who we also saw on the way down. And changed the “primary” filter which apparently was from 1994; amazing that it lasted this long without gumming up. Rafted to a guy going through a divorce - his ex had taken the radar and master VHF from the boat, an act of spite that seemed downright criminal to me given the fog in these parts. On a happier note, we saw Hobo II on the next dock, and raised him on the VHF before we left, he was heading north the next day. 

Alex, Angie and I had another mellow motor-sail up to Pillar Point (Half Moon Bay); I showed Alex lots of stuff like radar, GPS navigation, autopilot and what to put on the binnacle as he has cruising plans and a twinkle in his eye.  David met us again at port (yes he drives a lot), and took Angie off the boat for a doctor’s appointment; Alex and his honey left to go to a wedding down south so I was alone on the boat again.

Thursday was a lay day, I spent it working on the computer and sharing weather forecasts with dock-mates, then had appetizers with Jim from Hobo II.  Rob had signed up to do the last leg, his parents brought him down and decided to take us all out to dinner (after I convinced Rob to sleep on the boat instead of in a hotel).  It was a great meal and Jim and I obtained insight into Jewish family dynamics – I think Rob uttered three words the entire meal, his father considerably more.

Brekky was fine as always; new crew Chris Fallis and Angie were dropped off by their respective mates so we were back to four on board.  Yet another mellow motor-sail until we got close to the Golden Gate bridge where the wind piped up to standard SF Bay conditions and we clocked 11.3kn (with the flood).  Also almost rounded up going past Angel Island, as we still had the full main up and it was getting puffy. Welcome to the Bay!

Patti and the boys were on the dock to welcome us in; also our boys’ buddy Sumit and his family, and my old sailing friend Bill Murphy.  John and Sam, Molly and Raven, and Lindsey and Sean came out to share dinner and drinks at the club, and the kids had a blast running around while us old folks chatted away upstairs.

We spent the night back on Neener at the guest dock, then cleaned her up a bit and puttered over to her home across the fairway.  We were back together as a family, and the adventure… was on to other parts of our lives.  She’s a great boat, so Neener Neener Neener to you, dear friends!