Monterey Harbour the morning we arrived, calm ahhh.Hey everyone...well we didn't get very far did we? I think we logged about 190 nm in our triangular sail. On leaving Alameda at about 8.30am the day was perfect, light winds and blue skies forecast and the same over the next two days. Sailing out under the golden gate was a buzz and I think I took too many photo's? We were happy and excited to be on our way.
The first day sailing was wonderful, flat seas, warm, 5 -10 knots and Sea Otter sailing fast at around 5.5 - 6.5 knots a good turn of speed, more than we were used to on Timana. As the day became night we were enjoying ourselves and the forecast was for increasing winds. Not alot but increasing, I was thinking 'okay it's going to be a fast ride' We had a beautiful sunset...and a light meal.
The first night of shifts went well too, we happily chatted about being too excited to sleep but finally settled on shifts. Geoff first up 9 pm to midnight, me midnight to 3 am, Geoff 3 am to 4.30 am and then me to daylight. And it all went easy, the motion of the boat was smooth and we each enjoyed sleeping in the aft cabin laying with head to foot across the width of the boat. Again another treat after our sleeping arrangements on Timana at sea. Geoff's shift during the early morning saw the wind pickup alittle and he let me sleep through my shift. By the time I was up at 6 am the wind had increased to 15 knots the seas were lumpier and the motion on the not as smooth. All good till I noticed fast scudding low clouds from behind? Then I noticed a bank of them.....FOG!! Just as I was telling Geoff, the forecast came in.....a low embedded in a trough was approaching and the forecast was for wind strengthening tomorrow to 15 - 25 knots, then increasing that night to 25 -30 knots with occasional gusts of 40 knots. And staying like that for four days, lordy!! Not a good forecast for the third day out at sea on a new yacht. So we went through the options...
1. Keep going and ride it out with reduced sails.
2. Head for an anchorage to the east of us, closer the better.
Problem was that most of the coastline closer to us was not very friendly and the anchorage options were not recommended in stronger conditions. Our next choice was Catalina Island about 200 nm away, too far and it would mean reaching it in the strong conditions. Not favourable. Or head north east to Monterey 74 nm away, back tracking a bit, but a good harbour easy to get into, which we would need as we would be reaching it in the dark about 10 hours sailing. It was a depressing decision, Geoff was particularly bummed. The logical and safe choice was head for Monterey. And we did.
It became a fast ride and a foggy ride with visibility down to 1 nm at times. Lucky we had not seen one single vessel since we left San Fran!! The arrival at the outer Monterey Bay area late was a bit nerve racking as it strong wind by now and trying to make out the lights to enter the harbour in a new place is never easy, especially with all the suburb lights behind them. We also had a little moment with the engine, where we thought it was going to conk out on us, but it turned out we had some water from a jerry can that had spilt in the engine bay during the rough seas. Anyway we got in okay, stressed but safely thanks to GPS and Radar. And to the sound of honking sea lions and the cold of the wind chilling us at 6 degrees. The harbour is tight and calm. I think it was near midnight by the time Geoff checked in with the Harbour Master (yes one on shift 24 hours a day) and we sat down to a hot chocolate to compose our thoughts. We slept well that night!!
The morning broke very windy and we were glad we were here. The place has oodles of character and is an old fishing village with a pier of restaurants and a bay full of sea lions and sea otters! It is the place where John Steinbeck wrote 'Cannery Row', and you can get a sense of the fishing history all over town. In the end it is a great place to visit. We spent four hours in the Aquarium this morning and I am writing this Blog from a Kinko's as no Internet connection available on the boat. Oh yeah, and a Sea Otter was lolling about in our new berth when we motored there the morning after we got in....a very good omen I think.
So, I will leave off this blog with saying, "we will wait for a good weather forecast and this current blow to clear out, then we will look for a good four to five day window of weather, then we shall try again"
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