The Saga of the Vessel Circadian: November 2011

Much of this week was spent with Carol doing the tourist thing in Monterey. Made the forced layover more like a holiday. We visited the aquarium, which is truly world class, and had a delightful lunch in the elegant restaurant overlooking the water. Since she had a car, we also did the spectacular 17-mile drive and had lunch at the Pebble Beach Club. It was a great couple of days. But, alas, Carol had to go back to tend to her business, and I had to try to figure out how I was going to get down the coast. Since it seemed I might never get the 3 or 4 day window I wanted, I decided to settle for the 48 hours or so forecast for Monday, Tuesday, and early Wednesday. I would have to make the approximately 90 mile run along the rugged Big Sur coast in one jump. I figured by burning a lot of fuel I could average nearly 6.5 knots, and make it in about 14 hours.

I left Monterey harbor at 0722 on Monday morning. I cleared Cypress Point at 0900. By 1100 I was off Pt. Sur, notorious for rough seas. Even though there was little wind and I was a good 6 miles off the coast, the leftover swell was still large and the ride yucky, even with the main up. Having spent a week in harbor and therefore having lost my sea legs, I felt lousy, lethargic and cold. I took a couple of Meclizine tabs which might have helped. But things also settled down a bit after sunset. By 1638, I had rounded Cape San Martin. By 2130 I was feeling my way into San Simeon Cove. It was a very black moonless night, and there are no lights in the cove. Even the green buoy marking the rocks off the point was missing. I was essentially coming in by instruments. There appeared to be several fishing boats in the cove, with their tenders zipping around. One vessel had its running lights on, but didn’t seem to be moving. I had identified the pier and the peninsula on my radar, dodged the other boats as best I could until got to a depth of 25 feet when I dropped the hook. I made sure the hook was set and got into my berth as soon as possible. Because I wasn’t as close to the peninsula and the shore I would be if it were daylight and I could see something, I was still getting rolling from the swell that wrapped around the point. I was so tired, though, I didn’t give a damn. I just wedged myself into the bunk and fell asleep.

I was up by 0730 the next morning and greeted by warm sunshine. By 0900 I had brought up the hook and was on my way to Morro Bay. There was no wind, but it was relatively warm and sunny. The swell wasn’t quite so bad, and once in Estero Bay, it was quite pleasant. By 1300 I was making my way into Morro Bay. While it was an idyllic day for coming into the bay, and the tide was almost slack, I could still see why this is such a potentially treacherous entrance. It’s shallow (30 ft), there are strong tidal currents, and the beach is only a couple of hundred yards to leeward. Even under these ideal conditions, it was obvious how quickly you could find yourself on the rocks or the beach. The Morro Bay Yacht Club has a photo of George C. Scott’s boat trying to get out when a sea was running. The huge motoryacht is completely overwhelmed by a huge breaking wave right at the harbor entrance. Damn near lost the boat and his life, but was rescued. (The Coasties practice their rough water techniques here as well as at the Columbia River bar.)

Well, I made it in fine. My only problems were caused by tourist kayakers (adults and children) from the rental shop next to the yacht club. They think they’re at Disneyland and have no clue that they are in a channel used by real vessels. After blasting my horn and then waving them off, I finally got them to move away from the yacht club dock so I could get in. I got checked in, and chatted with a couple of the friendly club members. As I returned to my boat, I ran into the fellow who had bought my previous boat. We of course chatted, went out to see the boat and ended up having dinner together along with his wife. Wednesday, the Bobby McGee, a Hunter that I had passed along the Big Sur Coast and had anchored near me in San Simeon, came in and tied up behind me. Carol is coming up tomorrow and we plan to have Thanksgiving dinner at Windows on the Water, and excellent restaurant two blocks from the club.

The yacht club has a live webcam covering the guest dock, with Circadian right in the middle. So, if you’d like to see her (and perhaps me) right now in real time (for as long as I’m here) go to http://www.mbyc.net/webcam/ .

The front came through Pillar Point in the wee hours on Friday, and I spent the day anchored comfortably enjoying my cozy new propane heater/fireplace. The winds outside at the Half Moon Bay buoy were 14-29 knots; I was glad I was in a snug harbor! By Saturday morning things had cleared up and I weighed anchor and headed for Santa Cruz. Little wind and left-over swell made the trip less than smooth, but nothing truly unpleasant. By 4:30 that afternoon I was dropping the hook next to the pier opposite the famous Santa Cruz amusement park. While it was pretty, the lack of wind and the leftover swell made for an unpleasantly rolly anchorage. While I could have put out my flopper-stopper, it just didn’t seem worth the effort for a short overnight stop. I left Santa Cruz a little after eight the next morning. I had decided to head to Monterey where I could wait out what looked like as much as a week of unfavorable weather. High pressure could potentially create gale force winds and large swells for the next few days, and when that subsided, the next storm was expected. With the next segment a long passage along the treacherous Big Sur coast (which offers no shelter from heavy weather), discretion is the better part of valor. Moreover, there’d be lots to do in Monterey while I waited. Well, out of the frying pan, into the fire. Six to eight foot swells were coming through Monterey Bay precisely parallel to the rhumb line from Santa Cruz to Monterey, and there was too little wind for the sails to do any good. After enduring some pretty nasty rolling for the first couple of hours, I altered course about 10 degrees which helped significantly. Once in the lee of Cypress Point, things calmed down nicely. I called the harbormaster and was assigned a transient slip. (So now I’m not only an unemployed, homeless orphan, I’m a transient as well!) Do to the crosswind, I missed getting into the slip on my first try. Not a big deal in itself, except I found myself being blown crosswise down the channel toward a very nasty-looking pier and unable to turn the boat around into the wind in the narrow channel. On the verge of panic, I made a last-ditch effort to back the boat out of danger. It worked. I made it into the slip on the second try, although I did get blown a bit into the corner of the leeward finger. Fortunately, it was well padded and there was no damage at all. Later I watched the big commercial boats get into their neighboring slips under similar conditions. The trick is to turn in like you are going to clip the windward finger; the wind blows the boat down enough to clear and you make it in beautifully. At least you do if you’ve done it a thousand times in the same slip. Once tied up, I checked in at the Harbormaster’s office. Very helpful and friendly. Only $30/night, too.

I spent the next few days exploring Monterey on foot, getting some needed provisions and gear, and doing a few little boat projects. Getting further south is going to be tight at best, but it might be possible to get around the point to Carmel on Sunday afternoon. From there I’d need to make a marathon 85-mile passage to San Simeon and then the next day hustle down to Morro Bay to wait out the next storm expected to arrive midweek. (San Simeon Cove is open to the south, which is where storm winds come from, so it’s a suicidal lee shore in a storm.) In the meantime, Carol is going to drive up from LA to spend a few days with me, which will really be a treat. I expect her to arrive some time this evening.

That's about it for this week. I think there is wifi available near the Harbormaster’s office; if not I spied a Starbucks in town, so getting this posted should be less of a challenge than it was in Pillar Point.

Well, there was indeed wifi at the Harbormaster's office, so I did this post while doing laundry at the coin machines just below the office.