We stayed two days at Elkhorn Yacht Club in Moss Landing. Moss Landing is a sleepy spot in the middle of the Monterey Bay agricultural zone. Two miles to the south is Castroville; “the artichoke capital of the world”. Everyone at the yacht club was very nice. It’s a funky little club that I bet is real fun. Here is the yacht club as we came in:
On Monday the 5th we took the dingy and explored the Elkhorn slough. Unfortunately we didn’t anticipate how cold it was going to get since it was nice and sunny at the marina. We were in just a t-shirt and shorts and got very cold. The slough is just a large flat plain with a wide, shallow river running up it. After several miles in we decided that we had more wildlife to see off our boat and ran back to the warmth of Sunny. We also bicycled into Castroville to get some provisions, this is a largely Mexican immigrant town but seems like it is doing well. Monday night the yacht club had a spaghetti and meatball dinner while we watched football and talked with many of the members, once again everyone was very nice and welcoming.
Tuesday morning we decided to make a jump for Morro Bay. It’s roughly 120 nautical miles and at an average speed of 5 knots, it would take us 24 hours. One of has to be on watch at all times so we switch back and forth as to who is in charge while the other person (hopefully) sleeps. It’s going to be a long night.
The forecast for the trip from Moss Landing to Morro Bay was for north west winds, 10-20 knots, which would make for perfect sailing. Unfortunately we never saw over 10 and the direction was variable and we once again had a swell on our beam. We unrolled the jib to try to stabilize us but pretty much motored the whole way. We got into Morro Bay the next morning, tired but still functioning well. There were no available moorings so we anchored in the north end of the bay and relaxed for the rest of the day. Here we are in Morro (yes I know our fenders are dangling at anchor, a faux pas, but we were just at the public dock (my excuse)):
After a good night’s sleep, we spent a little time exploring the town. Morro is mainly a fishing town with some sport fishing and seafood related tourism. Between the depressed economy, and the decline in fishing the town was pretty gloomy and many of the people on the street are not really rude, but didn’t look very happy. You would say hi and get a grunt in return, what a contrast to our last few stops. Hopefully things start to improve.
Not everyone is feeling too much of a financial pinch, this little boat pulled in for lunch:
We met Tom’s sister Ann and her family Thursday for a wonderful dinner (thanks Ann), plus Ann gave me some great looking scfi books. Afterward everyone went back to Sunny and we showed the two boys where we lived. It was wonderful to see everyone but we were pretty tired afterwards, Tom and I both agree we would not have the stanima for two active, inquisitive boys, I don’t know how Cathy and Ann do it, we slept well that night :-)
Here’s Tom steering the dingy with Morro Bay Rock in the background, our dingy is like the family car and our only way to get to shore when we are at anchor:
We frequently monitor the weather since it can affect us much more than when we lived on the land. The weather guys were predicting a system coming through in a few days bringing strong SE winds and a chance of rain. While Morro Bay is a secure anchorage, we were getting a bit bored with the town and anxious to get beyond Point Conception before the winter storms started. Conception is where California coast “turns” from being mainly north/south to more east/west and is the unofficial line between northern and southern California (at least to sailors). We decided to make the jump around Conception while the weather was calm rather than being stuck in Morro a week or more.
We left Morro Saturday October 10th in the morning hoping for the predicted NW winds but once again motored the entire way. Here’s Tom at the helm leaving Morro:
We had a nice calm passage around Conception, motoring the whole way. Pretty soon we need to find some wind or we’re going to forget how to sail! ;-) The passage took about 26 hours, but we’re both getting better at getting at least a little sleep underway so we’re not as tired.
We’re currently in the Ventura Isle Marina, a little expensive ($70/night) but very secure. It rained quite a bit last night and is predicted to be windy tonight so we’ll stay put until this clears. We’re not sure what our next stop will be, I want to go over to Santa Cruz Island, but only if this SE wind ceases. We’ll see... ‘til next time.
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