Tsunami Coast

Crescent City, California, USA

Believe it or not, we are finally in California.

A weather window opened up yesterday and we went for it.

Predicted 10 to 20 knot NW winds and moderate seas turned out to be no wind at all and moderate to light seas.  So once again, we ran the engine the entire way.  For a while, there was some threatening black clouds ahead of us, but by the afternoon the sky turned blue and the sun came out and we had a very calm ride into Crescent City  The wind never exceeded about 3 knots and what there was was coming from the south.  So much for forecasts.
 

As the distance we had to cover was not very far, we elected to take the long route out and around St. George's reef, instead of taking the shortcut through the reef - it was still only about 30 miles.  We left Brookings about 10:45 AM, rounded the lighthouse at the end of the reef (which seems to be out in the middle of nowhere) around 1 PM, and were safely in Crescent City harbour by 4:15 PM.

Upon arrival, being on a Sunday and after hours, we read the instructions on the harbour office door, instructing us to tie up at "H" dock and call security on the night line.  Strangely enough, there is no "H" dock, and security just sent us to a voice mailbox that was full.  So we tied up to the "Work" dock, slipped some money into the letter slot at the office and hoped for the best.  As you can see from the picture, this is yet again one of these extremely busy cruising destinations on this coast.  Where is everybody?  Is it really that late in the season?

This morning we were able to visit the harbour office during office hours and confirm that the transient "H" dock and most of "G" dock and some of "F" dock have been missing since November 2006, when a tsunami wiped them all out.  They assured us that the only boats that were damaged were a couple of transient cruising sailboats that ended up on top of the dock.  Very comforting.

Today we will take in the sights around Crescent City, and hopefully get an early start tomorrow morning towards Eureka, some 60+ miles down the coast.  So far, tomorrow looks like another good opportunity to make some distance southward before the next storm front arrives.

{GMST}41|44.8593|N|124|11.0235|W|Crescemt City, California, USA|Crescemt City, California, USA{GEND}