Made it to Pillar Point harbor at Half Moon Bay on the first day. some decent sailing, after very light winds out the Golden Gate. Motored most of the way past San Francisco before we could sail. Auto pilot not working correctly, compass goes crazy when we try to go any where but southerly direction.
Decided to move the compass to a location further from the new water maker pump to try to eliminate interference. We Got lucky this time and it cleared up the issues, but in the analysis of this, we discovered that most of our "stainless" cutlery is magnetic and influences the flux of the flux gate compass. You can put a knife next to the compass and it throws the reading off by 30 degrees.
Had a very quiet night anchored inside the breakwaters of this secure harbor.
Sailed down the coast in good winds making about 10 knots most of the day, but had a new issue with the autopilot. The Drive arm connecting the ram to the tiller comes unscrewed and stops being connected every couple of hours. We headed into Santa Cruz to anchor for the night. Surf coming around the point makes for a bit of a rolly anchorage.
Sailed down the coast to Pebble Beach next to Carmel, and anchored in a small kelp filled cove off the golf course. Lots of birds and otters here. Heavy fog showed up mid afternoon. Rolly anchorage as the surf rolled around the point and bounced us about.
Fogged in early, but as the morning wore on, it started to break up. We headed out early for a long sail to anchor in San Simeon on the other end of Big Sur. Got back into fairly heavy fog after a few hours and the radar began to earn its keep. Got to sail some, but wind shifted to directly behind us and dropped to below 10 knots. not enough to steady the boat in some pretty lumpy seas. We motored with sail up for the next 12 hours or so, and reached San Simeon too early to enter, so we continued to San Luis Obispo. As we entered the harbor, we decided that we could just go the rest of the day and we could round Point Conception before dark.
Since this point marks the end of northern California and the entry to warm, southern waters, we rounded the point an hour before sunset and anchored at Cojo anchorage just to the east of this major milestone. Pretty nice night, windy and cold, but not too bouncy.
Got up early next day and motored to Santa Barbara for a quiet night tied to a dock in a marina. Hot showers, a nice restaurant meal and all is well.
Decided to go out to the anchorage outside ht harbor for the next night as most of our land side duties were complete by mid day and we wanted an early start for warmer climates the next day. Lots of boat out there but not many were occupied. We discovered why later at night when the swells bounced us all night long.
Headed out for Channel Island Harbor the next morning early. Uneventful trip, motoring all the way. Boats were coming out and putting up sail as we entered the harbor, but wind was only about 10 knots. This was the pattern for the rest of the trip, whenever we got near the destination, an evening breeze came up that we could have sailed in for a couple of hours.
Next morning we headed out for Santa Barbara Island just west of Catalina Island. It was a full days motoring and motor sailing till we anchored just before sunset. It was pretty windy, but quiet enough to get to sleep easily. Several times in the night big waves just about bounced us out of bed. I think it was ships passing in the Santa Barbara ship channel, but who knows. We were eager to leave in the morning, so we headed out for San Diego.
Arrived at the entry to San Diego bay at about 4 am on Monday. Got to the area of the marina, found a vacant end tie and moored for a nap till business hours. Found out we were at the wrong marina, and got re-directed to the correct dock. We go stuffed in front of a derelict catamaran with a great garden of sea life rotting at its water line. It reeked, and we were at the corner by the entry to a huge harbor and lots of boats bounced us about all day long. San Diego is the noisiest place er have ever seen. Between the airport next door and the Navy helicopters and fighter jet s flying all around it is quite disturbing. We decided to move to another marina billing itself as the newest in San Diego. It was so new that they hadn't built the dockside facilities. So no bathrooms or showers or parking or any of the normal amenities existed. It was much closer to all the businesses we would need to interact with.
Tomorrow we will be moving to the harbor police dock, which has the same rate, but also has showers, and other human necessities. We are waiting to see how an Alaskan cold front will play out before we move on to Mexico. We will probably leave on Sunday or Monday after the weather settles down.
