Monterey To Morro Bay: October 1st - 4th, 2023
Monterey. -It seems like we were there so long ago! Feels as though we’ve been moving, moving, moving. Well, I guess that’s because we have. The luxury that we would have had, if we didn’t have all the chaos at the end of September was lost. So, it’s basically just a night at each place. -We hope to slow down a bit soon.
We left Monterey just after 4 PM. -So we were pretty much on schedule. It was the 1st night sail of this journey & we were not looking too forward to it. -You can read it for yourself. It was posted a year ago.
I was trying to be optimistic. On the other hand, the PTSD from last year does linger a little bit in the back of my head.
The start of this passage was fairly nice. There were decent winds to begin with & we took out the genoa for about an hour. Then the winds died & we headed down the coast of Carmel & Big Sur motoring. Matt had tweeked Harriet a bit earlier in the day & we were hoping she would be good as new. -No such luck. At least she worked a little bit of the time; off & on.
Unfortunately the swells were 6 feet. And unfortunately Matt didn’t quite have his sea legs back yet. So he ended up getting sick around 9:30 PM. I didn’t want him to have to be at the helm feeling awful. Big Sur is dark. You can’t see the horizon. So anyone that is seasick is going to have a hard time not feeling bad. He worked so hard the last few weeks leading up to this trip that I just let him rest all night.
For the most part, I think the swells didn’t get much higher than 7 - 8 feet at the most. They died down around 2 AM. The gusts only got as high as 25 knots. And that was just a few times. The wind also died down to about 10 knots around 2 AM also.
OMG! The cockpit panels I made were incredible! It was definitely much warmer than last year. -A much more pleasant atmosphere than before. So glad I took the time to make them.
The day broke with a gorgeous sunrise! Matt was also feeling much better.
When we entered the anchorage there was only 1 other boat. So we got to choose the best place to anchor! Yay for us!
I slept for pretty much most of the day. Matt worked on stuff & Zephyr watched him. Actually, Zephyr stayed by my sleeping side for the majority of my resting hours.
One annoying thing about San Simeon are the flies that invade your boat. It was pretty insane. They don’t bite but just constantly land on you. Zephyr was actually kept very occupied by this. -Trying to chase them or eat them. So I guess they had some kind of purpose?
Wayfinder made it into anchorage just as the sun was setting. Fun to see another boat you “know” in different ports.
We left for Morro Bay later than we had wanted. Although, it wasn’t a long, long way, so it worked out.
Again, Harriet acted up. So Matt performed surgery right then & there. In other words, he replaced the motor to our autopilot. This basically means that Harriet is just about all new. Don’t tell her that. We love her just the same.
The fog decided to really, really roll in. I think I could see maybe 30 feet in front of us. And of course our AIS decided not to work during this time. It worked before & it works now. It just decided not to work when we could have really used it.
This is definitely more of a sailing trip than last year. -Even if it’s not very much. We sailed the genoa a little bit. Matt put the whisker pole up! -We were headed downwind.
We got to Morro Bay & our prayers were answered! -We got a dock spot at the Morro Bay Yacht Club! It’s so nice to be able to just be right there. For $30 a night you get: friendly people to greet you, showers, laundry, shore power, walkability all over Morro Bay! So lovely. The only sad thing was that we could only stay one night. Such a bummer!
And yes! It’s a video week! It was a challenge to make this, as I have limited access to Wi-Fi. Furthermore, when I do, it’s not usually free. So, it’s something I’ll hopefully master sooner than later. And hopefully you find it entertaining!
Click on Photo to see us in action!
And that is where I must leave you for this week. I need to get this out before we don’t have access to Wi-Fi any longer! I’m sure it will be a common theme in the months to come.
“I wore these for about 10 seconds! I think I deserve a treat!”
Thanks so much for reading! Come back next week after we’ve moved on from Morro Bay & beyond!
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