Santa Cruz, California, USA
We left Half Moon Bay with the first light, exiting the Pillar Point outer harbour by 7 AM. Another perfect day for a motorboat; flat seas and little wind.
We did get the fly the Genoa for a little over an hour this morning, when we had a bit of an east wind, allowing us to use the 8 or 9 knots of wind to assist the engine, on a beam reach. Not really enough to push us faster than about 3.5 knots without the engine, and we wanted to make sure we arrived in Santa Cruz before sunset, which meant we had to average better than 5 knots for the day. Even that little wind did not last long, and we were reduced to motoring the rest of the way. In the end, we averaged close to 6 knots and arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon.
Another tiring day, keeping a sharp lookout to crab pots the entire way. In fact, there were far less of these nasty hazards on this run, which was good and bad. Good because there were not so many to avoid. Bad because for an hour or more, you might not see any, and get lulled into a false sense of security. Notice the eager crew keeping up a constant vigilance.
Boy, thanksgiving is NOT the time to arrive in Santa Cruz. I could not get any answers from the harbour on their phone or the VHF radio, so I could not get a report on the entrance conditions or get a slip assignment.
According to our cruising guides, all of the end-ties are transient docks, so we managed to squeeze ourselves in behind some fancy power boat on what appeared to be the only spot left that was large enough to handle us. Of course, now we are stuck on the boat as we do not have a key for the dock gates (or the washrooms for that matter). Since the gates can be opened without a key from the dock side, I was able to leave Sue on the boat while I walked the mile or so to the harbormaster's office, only to find a sign explaining that they are closed for Thanksgiving. What a surprise! I guess this will all sort itself out in the morning.
As for tomorrow, we are not sure yet if we are going to hang around here, or press on for Monterey or beyond. Stay tuned.
Oh yah, it is also getting really cold here now. All day on the VHF weather channel, they have been repeating frost warnings for this area (Sensitive plants may be affected). So maybe my remarks about winter being not so bad here were premature. In case you are wondering how we keep warm on the boat, back in Newport, Oregon, when we had our first cool nights, we started using our diesel heater. Then, it occurred to us that this was stupid, since power is always included in the moorage prices on this coast. So, we went to the local Walmart and invested in a $15 electric heater (Since we were headed south, we had of course put our old one in storage before we left Nanaimo). We have used this little heater pretty well every day since Newport, except for the one night we spent at anchor - it has paid for itself many times over. I'm sure once we get to Mexico, we can use it as a boat anchor or something.
Note: The Santa Cruz amusement park is one of the landmarks you can use to find this place.
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Christmas music on the radio, Christmas trees on roofs of vehicles and, if can you imagine, outdoor ice skating in downtown Monterey. Last I checked, it was still November, but what do I know. Somehow this is not the California we had imagined.
Today, it was still cool and windy, but the sun was shining and we had a lovely walk around the harbour, visiting Fisherman's Wharf and, of course, Cannery Row. The hi-lite of the day was the Monterey Aquarium, well worth a look if you ever find yourself in this vicinity. They had a spectacular exhibit about the "Secret Lives of Seahorses". We saw Seadragons, creatures we did not even imagine existed. The huge kelp forest tank was also a show stopper. We were there for over 4 hours, and would recommend it to anyone.
