Wind, Finally.

Today we had good sailing. The effect on both of our attitudes cannot be overstated. We’re giddy with the giddy-up. Before today, we had been motoring at least a third of the time, and the rest has been just with very light wind, which results in a bumpy, go-nowhere kind of ride. But today, at long last (have we really only been out here a week?) we had wind. Glorious wind. We sailed downwind at 4to5to6 knots for much of the day which felt like we were at light speed, practically. I mean, on a sailing scale.
In other news, the wildlife viewing has been outstanding. So far, we’ve seen about a million whales. Seriously. I had one stalk me for at least an hour last night. It was rather unnerving, as the night was the darkest, maybe ever. Really, really dark. Except for the fact that every so often, we would go through a patch in the ocean that was teeming with bioluminescence. It felt like driving a spaceship. There were no stars in the sky, but boy were there ever some in the sea. I honestly have never felt so apart from the human world. So I was out there, on watch, alone, with a whale sort of stalking me. And out of nowhere, there come huge long undulating streaks of glowing water, straight at the boat. It wasn’t until they’d popped up on the other side and took breaths that I realized that it was a few dolphins, swerving and flying though the water. I yelled for Chris to come out, which he did, armed with our giant spotlight. He immediately caught one mid-leap, in the air. Like at SeaWorld, only sort of glowing in the dark, in the middle of the ocean. Wow.
And, although it doesn’t seem quite as otherworldly, we had another amazing spotting when we saw a sea turtle, I think a leatherback. He was just chillin’, partially submerged. When we came by, he lifted his big old head out of the water for a look-see. I think we got too close on our second turn around, because he dove to the depths and out of sight. I looooovvve sea turtles. They are just so hulking but somehow incredibly graceful. My one demand of this trip was to see a sea turtle, so missions accomplished, now I just get to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Tonight we are anchored out in San Simeon in a very picturesque little cove, with two other ketches. It’s a ketch party. Woo hoo.

Cruising, Days 1-5

Me: Brrrrrr

Chris: Oh, it's not that cold

Me: Brrrrr

Chris: Damn, it's cold!

Me: Brrrrrr

So, sailing in August does not guarantee sunny skies and warmth. Nor does it guarantee those steady NW winds the folks talk about. So far, the sailing itself has been iffy. But the experience is just about all we could ask for. Except for the better sailing part.

Day 1! We left San Francisco on the morning after our send off soiree (it was fabulous - thanks to all who came out) and headed for Half Moon Bay. The seas were pretty calm but the wind was coming from the southwest, so we had a motor-sail combo going on to speed us on our way. A porpoise or two crossed our bow as we were headed out the Golden Gate, which I will take as a fortuitous sign. Once we tucked into Pillar Point Harbor, we ate and slept like the dead. I had been up most of the night before with a cross between Christmas Eve excitement and final exam trepidation whirling around in my belly and brain.

Day 2! Chris headed for a surf at the jetty, a convenient 2 minute dinghy ride from our anchored Liberte, while I watched and read a bit from Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is making me smarter by the paragraph. We went to a produce stand and fish market for a sole-ful dinner. We checked the weather forecasts, watched Men Who Stare At Goats (funny!) and headed to bed as we planned for an early start.

Day 3! Woke to drizzle and fog. Refused to be deterred. Made our way slowly down the coast, once again with wind from the wrong direction. Saw a whale spout, and possibly a fin. I learned that I need to inform Chris what I'm yelling about when I scream his name while I'm at the helm (he came up quickly and looked rather frightened but after learning it was just a SWEET WILDLIFE SIGHTING calmed down and we both spotted the whale spout). Motored a little, got drizzled upon. Decided, in a fit of backwards logic to go on to Monterey because we were going so slowly we weren't going to make it to Santa Cruz until the middle of the night so might as well go further and get to Monterey in the morning. Our first overnight - wheee! Saw some amazing bioluminescence coming off our bow, got freaked out by a bird or two that squawked loudly as we came by, marveled at the stars for the brief time they were visible, then marveled at the nearly impenetrable darkness. And we finally got some light winds behind us, so managed to sail much of the night. Arrived in Monterey just after sunrise. Slept.

Day 4! Showered. Ahhhh, best $1.25 I've ever spent. Walked to Trader Joe's. Scooted around in the dinghy. Feared that the sea lions that dominate the marina would claim our dinghy as their own. How do you convince them to get off once they are laying in your boat?

Day 5! Today! We're planning a dive and a propane tank fill - woo hoo!

The Long Goodbye

Technically, our journey has begun. Though we have not yet left the Bay, Chris and I puttered out of our "home" for the last three years, the Loch Lomond Marina on Sunday. So far, we've just sort of criss crossed the SF and San Pablo Bays, up to Benicia for a birthday party (Hi Tom!), to Sausalito for an evening, over to the City and back over to Fort Baker to our yacht club where we will have our official going-away soiree tomorrow evening.

So far, I've just been underwhelmed by the weather, which is reminiscent of the August four years ago when Chris and I settled down in San Francisco and I could be heard regularly griping, "What the *$*%)#, isn't this supposed to be SUMMER?!?" while watching the temperature drop as the fog rolled steadily down the street in front of our Richmond district apartment. So, it's cold. Boo.

We did get in a great day of activities yesterday - went for a visit to the spectacular California Academy of Sciences Museum, which houses an indoor rainforest, aquarium and exhibits on such subjects as the evolution of tortoises in the Galapagos islands and an amusing video of lemurs. A few in our party actually watched a live scientist as she was stuffing a bird, ostensibly as part of a future attraction. Not dinner.

Speaking of dinner, the second excellent activity was dinner at the restaurant Burma Superstar on Clement. Back when that area of the city was our stomping grounds, Chris and I made a few futile and admittedly half-hearted attempts to dine at the always-packed little place, but were always deterred by the long wait, our rumbling stomachs, or a combination of both. I am now rather sad that we didn't go there before last night, because it was fantastic. Especially the samusa soup, which is a local secret. Actually, it's been featured on the Food Network, apparently, which means we were probably the last to know what we were missing. Even people in Idaho knew what we were missing.

So in the case of the Museum, we knocked something off our list (of things TO DO BEFORE WE GO), and in the case of Burma Superstar we hadn't had it on the list, but should have. Now it will just go on the list of FOOD ITEMS THAT AMANDA WILL CRAVE SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND MOAN INCESSANTLY ABOUT NOT HAVING THEM. It will be in the company of Sol Food, Double Rainbow Ice Cream, and Teresa and Johnny's french toast. Tasty company, indeed.

Provisions.

Today we spent more on groceries than we ever have before. We used carts, people. For years I have been a wee basket girl. We hit up the United and Trader Joe's, because we can, they're right next to each other. Hoping I'm actually prepared for a lifestyle without daily access to diverse fresh produce and convenience foods. Our cupboards (and bilge) are full. Would anyone like to guess, Price is Right style, how much we spent on these items?

Untethered. Or, leaving all your stuff behind.

Living on a boat is a fairly simple way of life. There are, by sheer constraints of size, limits to what you can own, collect, stash away. That being said, cruising on a boat is a different way of life. You must take everything with you. And you must be able to secure your various items so they don't disappear when a wave hits you unexpectedly or hit you in the head after flying across the cabin.

The task of winnowing and securing is the one we have been tackling the last few days. The surfboards have been moved onto the boat and given a nice strappy resting place. SCUBA tanks, jerry cans for diesel, and many spare engine and mechanical parts have been moved aboard and found their places tucked away. Chris designed a nifty little wooden contraption to stabilize our new propane tanks to the mast. The deck and cockpit of the Liberté, which have always seemed spacious, are getting crowded. Our boat looks like the self-sufficient vessel she needs to be.

On the way out are winter clothes, books and cds, art supplies and some of my less important girly things, like a curling iron. I sold my bike - it was kind of sad.

Things, possessions have never been all that important to me, but it is never easy to choose the things to carry with you and those to leave behind. Some have memories attached, good times and good lessons. Gifts from loved ones, super finds at thrift stores. Letting go is a decision, but it's never an easy one. Well, sometimes it is - does anybody want a DiscMan?

The Green Machine

I haven't been surfing for very long, five years and a day or two. I started with an eight and a half foot Johnny Rice longboard that Amanda and I shared. It wasn't too long before I ended up breaking it in half on a big day at Sloat Street, Ocean Beach. Since then I've had a bunch of boards, some I liked and some that didn't quite fit me. Since I hope to spend a fair amount of time surfing some deserted waves in the next year, I wanted to get myself a perfect board.

I'd seen some boards that caught my eye at 2 Mile with a Mystic logo, and had met the shaper, John Moore a few times before. We chatted a bit and I said the hell with it, lets do this, lets make something for me, a board that is exactly what I want.

I'd had this really great JD Rockets board, 7'3" an orange pintail that was nice and wide and fat. It helped me get a lot of bigger waves and I definitely became a better surfer on it. John was able to get the dimensions for that board and we mixed it into a couple other designs I liked. A few hundred bucks, a trip to OSH to pick out a color (freakin' jungle green) and wham, bam, shiny new ride. John was awesome about everything, he understood what I wanted and was totally able to turn it into a board.

No One Left Behind!

Today we experienced a near tragedy - an important team member went overboard. We got ‘im back, but it was close. We almost lost a SunShower.

This is the little guy. He’s in recovery. The SunShower is basically a bag that is made out of thick magic plastic, and somehow heats up magically to about the same degree as a car interior on a hot day (Chris says it's something about solar radiation, but I say MAGIC). We have procured two of these to provide ourselves with an occasional fresh, warm shower. Each holds four gallons of water, and it may not seem like it, but two bodies can definitely get a good rinse from one bag-full. We’ve tested it out a couple of times, here on the boat and on a recent camping trip. They’re marvelous.

We were sailing along, heeled over fairly well on a starboard tack. Headed toward Treasure Island, we were going through the infamous wind tunnel known to SF Bay sailors as the “Slot” when Chris yells,

“Oh shit, we lost a SunShower!”

We’d settled them on the cabin top as we sailed, to let them heat up. We caught a quick wave, heeled over hard and then, PLOP, there it went. Well, the next few minutes were pretty chaotic. We immediately began to round up to come back to it, but failed to take into account how much we were getting bounced around by the waves and wind. Our sails were all swinging and flapping with the quick tack, and I was trying to keep the little bag in sight. I got out the boat hook, Chris pulled alongside, but I couldn’t pull it in. Then we decided to take down the sails and turn on the motor to give us a little more control. After wrestling with the main and jib for a few minutes, we got it under control and turned around to try to grab Sunny. I took the helm, and Chris had a shot with the boat hook. Again, no cigar. We almost gave up. The wind was howling and we couldn’t spot the SunShower in the choppy water. Then Chris saw it, just off the port bow. He lunged with the boat hook, snagged the handle, and pulled it onboard. Hurrah for Chris!

So another Bay sailing adventure under our belt, we’re tucked in here at Clipper Cove for the night.

In other news, we wore our almost matching new jackets today for the first time - don’t we just look soooo nautical?