Cruise of the Confidence 2013-10-15 to 10-20

Santa Barbara:

Santa Barbara looked like a beautiful place.

 But after cleaning up we were too tired to do anything except go for dinner and watch the fishermen bring in their catch. The most interesting was the sea urchins - they looked cool but it is mostly the Japanese who are interested in them.David tried them once and was not impressed.

We called Homeland Security and we received mixed information about checking in - again! - as to what is required when checking in from one district to another. San Fran told us that we would not have to check in again until San Diego. LA says we have to check in at Long Beach if we wanted to go to Catalina Island - which we tried to explain is a 60 mile trip one way and at an average speed of 5 knots we were looking at a 24 hour detour.The phone was being passed around to 3 officers and none of them could agree as to what the protocol is. After a lengthy discussion and David's diplomatic demeaner we were able to come up with a compromise. We could stay at Santa Barbara for 48 hours and then sail down to Ventura where they would meet us and clear us in for Santa Barbara and Catalina and clear us out for both places as well. Of course they wanted $19 for each so we shelled out another $76. Because our boat is licensed in Washington State and registered in Canada it does not qualify for a cruising license which would eliminate all of this so they treat us as if we are a commercial vessel and are required to check in and out of every port we enter at $19 a pop. Oh well - I guess it is still cheaper than paying all that duty which we avoided by not bringing the boat into Canada.

So once that was settled we decided to enjoy Santa Barbara and walked down to the pier and then into town to get some fresh fruit and vegetables.



Then we came back to the boat. I did a large laundry - which was a bit of a hike just because the marina is so big but it was clean and you could use your credit card instead of trying to find $10 dollars in quarters.
When I got back to the boat it was a pleasant surprise to see that David had cleaned the boat inside and out and it looked great. Then I cleaned out the fridge - something you tend to do more often on a boat. And I am pleased to announce that there has been next to no spoilage of food on this trip so far. Part of it has to do with planning meals around what is thawed and ripe, not overstocking and finding better ways to store things.

Below are some things that I have found to be successful and you may even start considering them in your own homes. Keep different types of vegetables packed separately as the acids that they give off will cause things to ripen faster. This is especially true for bananas. The use of vacuum packed bags or those Debbie Meyer greenbags (as seen on TV) are fantastic. Tightly wrapping your cheese in tin foil also works - I bought a 5 lb loaf of chedder in Bellingham and I never had any mold on it and just finished it this week. Wrapping apples and potatoes in foil also seems to work.

I also took inventory of the freezer and the few things that I had left from stocking in Bellingham were still frozen solid. I believe that vacuum packing those things also helped. Also putting your bread at the top of the freezer as this part does not get that cold prevented the bread from going moldy - which was always a problem when I just kept it in the hanging baskets.

Made sandwiches for the next day - mixed the mayo and cranberries and diced roasted chicken together like chicken salad and then put that in between 2 slices of bread. Very good. And as a note - when you get into Mexico and Central America you will find lots of chicken and maybe even some turkey but you will not frind cranberry sauce!! Prepared a beautiful porketta roast with the last pork tenderloin along with potatoes and carrots, put it in the oven and then went over to Dave & Michelle's boat along with Al and Sandy for happy hour!

0915 October 17: sunglasses and sunscreen on already but flat calm. Oh well - I guess you cannot have everything.

1000 to 1130: passed 6 more production platforms - A, B, C, Houchin, Hogan and Henry
You can see Santa Cruz Island, Santa \rosa and San Miguel to the south.

1350: Tied up at the Harbor Patrol in Ventura after a day of motoring.

1415: Border Patrol showed up and cleared us in and out and in and out and in!There was a Yanmar dealer (our motor) next to the building and we were able to pick up a fuel filter for the engine.

Ventura: 34*14.77 N 119*16.30W
We made use of our Tuktayuktuk Yacht Club membership and stayed at the Ventura Yacht Club for 2 nights - $30. David and the boys had made it an official club in the days when they were working in the Arctic. He told the guy at the marina that it was probably the most northerly club they would ever hear about! The guy welcomed us in and invited us to the Prime Rib buffet that evening. We met some great people and one couple showed up to our boat the next day with the keys to their car so we could go get supplies. The town is beautiful with lots of canals with beautiful houses all along them. As we were driving into town we went past fields of lemon trees and avocados and strawberries. I had the windows down and the air actually smelt like lemons. It was glorious. Sorry I did not have the camera with me so no pictures - just the ones in my head.

We stayed the extra day just because it was such a beautiful place.

0606: departed Ventura with a slight breeze and a 2-4 foot swell.There was the silouette of pelicans against the rising sun as we departed.
We were noticing the occasional drop in rpm's in the motor and David figured that it was time to change that filter.  We would keep our ears opened if it continued.

0703: sunrise

0752: BLT for breakfast.Just past Gina Production platform. Low lying clouds on the hills on shore and on the islands but it will probably burn off. The main sail and jib are up but we have to keep the motor running to keep them full.

Live fire exercise going on by the military by Santa Barbara Island - it is a little out of our way but you are required to stay 10 miles distance out of the area. Similar to the exercises that they carry out in the Whiskey Gulf area north of Nanaimo.

0818 Full sails and we are are cruising at 6.5 knots.

Sail Lesson: Sometimes I use the name jib and sometimes I say genoa - well a genoa is just a big jib. And it is the sail at the bow of the boat. Our boat is a cutter so we also have a smaller stay sail that sits just behind the genoa and before the mast. It helps to stabilize the boat. The main sail is the big sail that is attached to the boom. And it is the combination of the direction of the wind and the amount of wind that determines which sail you put up. The general rule is the more wind you have the less sail area you put out. When it is blowing 20-25 knots we usually put a reef in the main which means we lower it a little bit and fold the bottom of it on the boom to reduce the sail area. When it is really blowing then you take all your sails down and put up a storm sail which is about the size of a diaper (okay maybe a tad bigger) to help keep the boat stable but prevent it from healing over too much.

0823: Abeam Pt. Hueneme.
We are into the main stratus clouds which means that the sun is not getting through but at least there is no fog. In fact we have been extremely lucky so far as we have had next to no fog - something that the entire west coast is known for and only that one hour or so of rain up in Washington. This is a restricted area because it is a military and container port for the US Navy and naval Construction Battalion Center. The commercial terminal supports cargo vessels, commercial and sport fisheries and oil support vessels for the many offshore rigs.

0900: coffee break and dolphin sighting. 30+ came over to the boat to play. We are in the middle of the Channel Islands. 8 in total over 130 miles from San Diego to Point Conception. They are relatively natural and the only one that has moorings is Catalina. In the South are San Clemente, Santa Catalina, San Nicolas and Santa Barbara and are separated from the mainland by San Pedro Channel. In the North are San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa and are separated from the mainland by Santa Barbara Channel.

1408: abeam of Los Angeles but the marine clouds are preventing a clear sighting of the shore.

1445: motor rpm's decreased again so I pulled back on the throttle a little and of course the captain immediately appeared - he is like a mother who wakes up any time her newborn baby cries! The wind has picked up so we decided to hoist the sails.

1505: we are on a beam reach and cruising at 6.3 knots with the motor running at 1200 rpm's. We  usually have it running about 1700. David makes the decision to change the filter. So we turn the motor off and our speed reduces to 5 knots. Upon changing the filter David notices that the secondary filter has been removed for some reason which means the fuel is only getting filtered once at 10 microns before going into the engine. This is not good practice. We are not sure if the guy who did our engine overall did this or not. Anyway we were at a comfortable point of sail and the filter change went quite well. That is - until we tried to prime the engine and restart the motor. We tried everything with no success. We were afraid if we continued to try bleeding the lines that we would burn out the starter. So we had to make a change of plans and cancel our visit to Catalina because you can only hook onto a buoy and we did not want to go into a place like that with no motor. Oh well - probably just a lot of shops that do not really interest me any more and restaurants - well I can cook just as well. So I found some Mulligatawny soup instead.

It is 95 miles to San Diego and the winds have decided to die down and our speed is slowly dwindling. This could be a very long sail into San Diego.

2013-10-21: passing abeam long point light on Santa Catalina island, about 7 nm offshore. The lights of Avalon in sight and the winds are light 1-3 knots.3 Cruise ships passing ahead - inbound to LA.

0330: Pod of dolphins playint at the stern for 20-30 minutes

0600: BA up and it is flat calm. 0.0 knots. I got excited when I had a puff of wind and made it to 1.8 - well at least we were going forward. It is really difficult trying to keep ones eyes open. I guess this is good practice for the Doldrums. I Better put some music on.

0712: more dolphins and the sun is up. We are dead in the water and have been looking at Catalina Island all night.

1010: Captain is up and decided to make one more stab at getting the motor started. Disconnected all hoses from the injection pump to the primary filter and filled it with diesel from a paper cup. After 3 attempts we finally got it to turn over. Kisses for the Captain.

1050: I made some fresh coffee and banana pancakes with maple syrup. No boat rules today - I also did the clean up. Regardless, David says that it should not be that difficult to prime the engine so we will get someone to look at it in S.D. and come up with a solution.

Shorts are on. Sunscreen is on. I am wearing Debbie's purple hat. And last night is behind us. Part of the experience. We will focus on the lessons learnt and the beauty of the moment and go forward - at this time we are just happy to be going forward. We may not have had wind but we stayed out of the shipping lane and there was no traffic and the moon was out and the stars and lots of dolphins.

1258: David did not have a great sleep as his brain was working overtime trying to figure out how to get the engine started. So he has gone to bed to get caught up.

Now I know this is a long blog but just think of us being out there for the last 12 hours just since the motor died and we have not gone anywhere. And we are still 18 hours away from S.D. And we had been on the water 24 hours before that started!!And we are still smiling!!

1304: Motor sailing but do not want to test fate and turn the motor off even though the winds are strong enough. Seas are rippled with a 2 foot swell with winds from the SW at 5-10 knots.

1430: The sun is like diamonds on the ocean. The engine is purring like a kitten. Wind has picked up to 10-15

1858: sun is setting and it is as beautiful as ever. I wonder if we will ever get bored with beautiful sunsets?

1950: Main is down and it is time for tea and cookies. No Stuart - no heated tea pot and no china cups today. But it still tasted good!

2020: Moon is up.

2200: Entering into San Diego Harbor around Point Loma. I am out on the bowsprit with a flashlight helping David to avoid the many lobster traps. It is like driving through a mine field but you sure do not want to snag one of those in your prop.

2330: tied up at he Police Dock. Phoned into Customs and they said we could check in in the morning. So we plugged in and I climbed into bed. Fell asleep immediately. Then 5 minutes later David woke me up telling me that we could not stay on the dock in case there was a Police emergency so we had to go find the quarantine mooring buoy. I do not think that I was laughing!! I said to David - didn't you tell the cop that we were the emergency?

0012: 2013-10-22 Finally we are in bed and sleep for the next 9 hours solid. Tomorrow is another day!

Cruise of the Confidence 2013-10-15

0800: First time for bringing the dinghy on board from an anchorage onto the deck of the boat. It was pretty seamless with the use of a block and tackle. David thinks he can come up with something that is a little less complicated and more permanent for the future. You can buy harnesses for over $200.00 but why spend the money when you have Captain Fantastic on the project!

0835:We left the moorage and motored down to the visitor's dock to pump out the holding tank and fill the water tanks.

1130: Away

1154: Jib out and Motor off.
4.5 knots without a cloud in the sky and the winds coming from the North at 5-10 knots.We both agree that Morro Bay was our favourite stop so far when it comes to atmosphere and friendliness. It just had a nice feel to it - kind of like La Conner.

1230: winds started to pick up and we were making our course at 6.5 knots which is basically our hull speed.

Explaination Time: What is hull speed? It is actually a formula: the square root of the waterline length X 1.5.
On a displacement hull (which is what we have) the hull displaces the equivalent amount of water as it moves forward. When you exceed hull speed the boat is pushed down into the water and the efficiency of the boat decreases. When this happens it is necessary to slow the boat down by reducing sail or pulling back on the throttle or in especially rare instances putting out a sea anchor.

1304: 30-40 dolphins all around the boat. They were mottled grey with a black dorsal fin. A few of them jumped right out of the water and others were criss-crossing under our bowsprit. Cool!

1320: winds died off and we had to roll in the jib and start the motor. It was good while it lasted.
Valencia Peak the Point Buchin Diablo Canyon Power Plant

1400: wind back and thus the sails are back and the motor is off. Another school of dolphins came to visit us.

1600: Even though the wind was up the seas were still relatively calm so I was able to make one of our favourites - Pasta Salsitsea (Sault Ste. Marie Italian sausage). This time I changed it up a little and used Paparedelli noodles and added sicilian olives which really made for it nice. We rated it as one of the best i have made.

1800: BA takes a nap to prepare for the night watch.

2000: BA up, sails down and motor on. Seas were calm and the moon was at 76%.
It was a pleasant night with the stars and the lights on shore marking my way. The lights from  Point Arguello and the Naval Missile Gantry were especially bright. One of the boats that we met had been past this site when they were launching a satellite. That would have been cool to see.
We heard from Al and Sandy: they were having fuel problems and were about 15-20 miles behind us.

2223: abeam oil rigs about 5 miles North of Pr. Arguello. I can make out 3 more in alignment running down the coast.
I can also see a cruise ship about 5 miles off to starboard. It could be one of those repositioning cruises. He seems to be travelling relatively slowly so I am guessing that he is waiting for daylight to head into \Santa Barbara.
I absolutely love sailing on nights like this!!!

On night watches you are constantly looking around and checking things out. One thing that I still find comforting is picking up the different buoys or lighthouse flashing patterns and matching them up with the GPS or chart so you know exactly where you are.

I am supposed to wake the Captain up but I think I will let him sleep for another hour. Me and Blue Rodeo are enjoying this too much and are not ready to go to bed. The moon is so bright and the lights from the stars are magnificent. David says just wait until we are on the open ocean and there is no light from the shore. I can't imagine!

1132: altered course to 135. Orion is starting to rise in the east.

0020: abeam the second oil rig - Harvest. These suckers are big.

0042 passed the third one - Hermosa.

0100: I am tired. Time to wake up the captain.But I can see a white light coming from down below. Guess he just senses when it is his time to take over.

0120: the rigs are actually production platforms with Hidalgo, Harvest and Hermosa situated between Point Arguella and Point Conception.

0240: off Point Conception with light winds and calm seas. It can get pretty ugly rounding this point due to the cape affect so we won't complain.

0645: coming abeam of the last of the next three platforms - Heritage, Harmony and Hondo - lit up like hotels and flaring gas. ETA to Santa Barbara round 1100. One of David's previous careers was on drilling platforms similar to these in the arctic - except they were not permanent structures but rather drill ships exploring for oil.

0800: witness crew change on the platforms with the supply boat as well as the helicopters

0815: BA up. Rats - another sunny day and the shorts are on already. Morning greetings by another pod of dolphins .They are completely airborne and skimming just above the waterline. Fleece off and suntan lotion on.

0704: abeam Holly and you can smell the oil and actually see an oily film on the water. Apparently their excuse is that this is natural seepage! I am not sure how much I believe that. all I know that if there was any evidence of fuel from our bilge around the boat at our marina were could be subject to heavy fines. You were expected to put out absorbancy pads, fix the problem or have the boat hauled. I just don't get it.

1230: lots more dolphins. Then we noticed the Saphire Princess anchored in the bay at Santa Barbara ( the cruise ship that passed us in the night)

1240: Arrived at Santa Barbara' We got a slip for $44.00 dollars a night with very nice facilities. Santa Barbara is a beautiful place but we were not able to enjoy it immediately as we had a Head issue (toilet) - it was plugged! So the shit jokes were flying - especially as David had to replace the joker valve! But he found the plug and cleaned that out. He removed the entire toilet to do that and I took it on the dock and cleaned it all up till it looked like new. David resealed the sucker and then we went for our shower.

We were both too tired to do any more work so we walked up to the pub for dinner and watched the fishermen bring in their catch. The most interesting was the load of sea urchins - a favourite with the Japanese.

Cruise of the Confidence 2013-10-11 to 10-15

Monteray to Morro Bay:  left at 1215 on the 11th of October.

1230: raised the main, stay sail and genoa
Winds were about 15 knows from the SE. Skies are clear and we are cruising at 6.8 knots.
For a while the boat is perfectly balanced. As a result with the combination of the sails and wind and sea conditions the boat is sailing itself with no assistance from me or the autopilot or the windvane.

1800: squeaked past Cypress Point Bouy without having to tack again.
Doing 4-5 knots at 180 due South

1930: BA up and Dave down. Winds have died off so I had to roll in the jib. Then I went down below and heated up some stew. 

2300: watch swap. Not much happening so we are both able to get some half decent sleep on our watches.

0400: I am back on watch again listening to Carol King and Bob Dylan pretending it is the 70's

0608: first sighting of Point Piedro Blanco. 16 miles away

0703: sun is up and the seas are starting to pick. They are still relatively calm with a 2 foot swell. Just sitting here waiting for the world to wake up

0800: time for my nap but not before making my gourmet peanut butter and banana sandwiches. When you do these long treks you do not always have a lot of energy to put into meals. That is why it is always a good idea to have some meals done ahead of time.

0950: rounding the big rock at Cape Piedro Blanco. It looks like a lion!

1030: Battery overcharge alarm has sounded so Dave shut off the engine to investigate. It appears that our voltage regulator may have failed. Disconnected the "field" wire from the alternator. Now there is no charge from the alternator. We will have to rely on the solar panels for now until we can get into port to investigate further.

1045: back to motor sailing. The winds are light from the north west. Morro Bay is 22 miles away.
You can see the Hearst Castle way up on the hill - unbelievable.

1532: last jibe into Morro Bay. Phoned Paul and he said the "Cookie !!" was in the driveway. Thanksgiving dinner will be at Mom's which is also Patricia's birthday. We will be there in spirit.

1645: sails are down

1745: cross the bar and pass the big rock that marks Morro Bay which is spanish for rock.

Morro Bay:35*21.69N  200*51.23W
We had not planned to stay more than one night as the pictures showed 3 large stacks from a power plant. Assumed that the place would be pretty industrial.

Dropped anchor and had a very pleasant greeting from the harbor patrol. Forgot how quiet it is to be at an anchorage. No lines squeaking in the night and no fish boats leaving early in the morning. But there were a lot of sea otters and those noisy sea lions. But we are getting used to that noise.

Next day we practices putting the dinghy into the water from the deck and then went over to the shore. We found out that the power plant (coal) in no longer in operation and the town is mainly a tourist and fishing town. It had a real nice feel to it and so we decided to stay for a couple of days.

We ran into Al and Sandy again. Happy Hour on their boat where we met 2 more Canadians from Victoria on Woodwind. We ended up in the restaurant for a bite to eat and shared some more stories.It is starting to be fun meeting up with other cruisers.

Next day we went over to the Yacht Club where Al and Sandy were tied up and hooked into their Wifi. I left David to get caught up on emails and banking and walked into town. In the meantime the winds started to really pick up. By the time I got back to David we had noticed that our boat was not in the same position as where we had put it. Looks as if we were dragging the anchor. So we immediately got in the dinghy and headed towards the boat - which was about half a mile away. I am in the front and getting soaked - something I think David took much pleasure in. We probably dragged anchor about 100 feet but then it settled in again and we did not more any more. So we did not have to pull up and reset.

We had made arrangements with Al and Sandy to go and see the Tom Hanks move: Captain Phillips. It is based on a true story about a commercial container ship that is hi-jacked by pirates. Sandy and I kept looking at each other wondering what the hell we were doing going to see a movie like that. But the two captains said that it was very authentic and well done. Warning: anyone who has reservations about this adventure that we are partaking in should  NOT see this movie.

Next day David replaced the alternator. That almost resulted in a catastrophic event when I dropped the main bolt that attaches the alternator to the motor into the bilge. We were unable to retrieve it as it is beyond arm length and there are no hardware stores close by. I reminded David that we had these plastic containers with a lot of spare bolts and nuts and things from the previous owner. Any chance we could get lucky and there could be something in there that we could use? You could imagine my sigh of relief when we were successful. And kudos to the captain for no profanity was expressed in my direction even though I wanted to cry.

Morro Bay is a very quiet anchorage protected by a large sand dune. We took the dinghy over to explore. Think of Pancake Bay but 50 times bigger!

 And found some very pretty plant life.

This one was just a rainbow of colour!

Ended the day with some crib and I skunked David so now we are tied at 7 games each.

Cruise of the Confidence 2013-10-04 to 10-11

L

Left slip 427 at the Clipper Yacht Club Marina at 1750. Winds have finally died down in the inner harbor to allow us to get away from the dock. It had been blowing greater than 30 knots all day from the West keeping us pinned on the dock. So I spent the day relaxing.Our neighbour Linda was kind enough to give me a lift to the pharmacy so I could pick up a few things including hair cutting scissors. Jamie would be appauled to know that I trimmed my own bangs. David had a nap. Then we put a reef in the main and headed out.

It was a beautiful evening. I know this is starting to sound repetitious but the sun was shining, no clouds in sight and no fog. The forecast is 5-15 from the north so it should be a good night.

 

1848: sunset as we sail under the Golden Gate Bridge. So could anything be more romantic than this?

2205 abeam of Point Montara Light at 4 nautical miles off shore. Motor sailing with just enough wind to deep sails full most of the time. Light northwesterly swell and sky is clear.

2245: abeam the entrance to Halfmoon Bay. Winds have shifted from the north. Also blowing northerly at Monteray |Bay. Pidgeon Point Light visible at 19 miles.

Explanation Time: for those of you who are not sailors - I keep saying that we are abeam of a certain place. This means that a particular place is 90 degrees from dead ahead of the direction that we are sailing

2357: Change of Shift. David makes me a cup of tea. Music is on. Life is good. And lots of time to reflect.

Events happen in your life and at the time they appear to have no significance. And then years later you find yourself on a starlit night, with only you and your thoughts and your music and that memory comes back to you as clear as if it happened yesterday.

I was driving down highway 17 North from Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie. It was the summer of 1981 and Christopher Cross was on the radio "Sailing". I can see myself looking out at Lake Superior and as corny as it may seem those words "Sailing takes me away to where I've always heard it could. Just the dream of wind to carry me - Soon I will be free. Well those words kind of grabbed something in me - not the romance of it all but rather the freedom and balance that one might reach. Tonight I have reached that place and life could not be more perfect.

0130: saw a shooting star

0206: another shooting star

0209: abeam Pidgeon Point and adjusted course to 150 degrees.
 
0326: Pt Aiio Nelevo

0500: Jib is out and motor is off. Speed of 4 knots.

0630: wind died and motor off. That did not last long. Jib is furled.

0830: BA up and DM down. 16-5 miles to go. Sighting of two humpback whales with their tails up wishing me a good morning. I seem to have more luck with the whale sightings than David does.

1220: Arrive at slip A15 in Monteray. The sea lions are making a racket. And believe me there are a lot of them. The people of Oak Bay would never complain again if they could see what this bay tolerates. At one of the docks they actually put up electric fences to keep them off the docks. At our bay the port employees go around in their skiffs every once in a while and nudge them off.

Checked into the Marina and started to clean up. We had a pleasant visit from a fellow Canadian - Dave - form Vancouver. Dave and Michelle knew the other 2 Canadians that we had met in Sausalito.

Then we started up a conversation with our neighbour, Sam, who is a squid fisherman. He asked us if we knew how to clean squid - NO - I only know how to order it in a restaurant. He said he would have given us some but it was a lot of work to clean. Then he changed his mind and said that he would clean a couple for us. We immediately showed an interest and before long David was on his boat learning how to clean squid (calamari by any other name).I watched. We now had enough for a meal. But Sam had to leave with a fifth of the pail still sitting there. So he told us to continue cleaning what we wanted and throw the rest into the water for the sea lions. Well - then I got into it and spent the next 2 hours cleaning those suckers. Yes it is a bit of work but it was kind of fun. All I could think of was Susan - who would never clean any fish that she caught - which |I sometimes think is the only reason why she took me along. So now I have a bag full and no idea how to cook them. So time to do some research.

Cleaning squid; pull the head off from the body and if you are lucky and do it right all the innards will come with it. Put a nitch into the semi-permanent membrane (skin) and then get a hold of it with your nails and you can peel it right off. You can save the tentacles by cutting them off just behind the eyeball. You may have to squeeze out any left over stuff from the intestines. Remove the cuttle bone and rinse everything off.

Cooking squid: the most popular way is to make a batter and deep fry but we do not want to do that on the boat. So I mixed some panko bread crumbs with quite a bit of chopped garlic and olive oil until crispy,. Just before they were done I threw in small strips of squid and tossed in with the bread crumbs for a minute or so. Then we sprinkled the mixture over a tossed salad. Not bad for a first attempt.

Spent the rest of the day checking out the wharf and market. Then we were invited to Dave and \Michelle's for happy hour - wihich turned into happy hours! Shared stories and discovered that the crew member that they had on board for the first part of their journey was someone that David knew from his earlier cruising days with Pete.He had gotten off in Sausalito so we just missed him. But David has since been able to reconnect with emails.

Next day we rented a car and drove to the 17 mile drive to Carmel and onto Big Sur. It is a wild section of highway - and I was more nervous than the night that we sailed in the gale. I was driving David crazy as a back seat driver. Had a picnic on Sandollar Beach
 

, walked around Carmel




 , visited the Mission
 

 and then back to the marina.


David got up early and returned the car. I went to do some blogging and realized that my ipad was not in my bag. This was only about 2 hours after dropping off the vehicle. So we immediately phoned Enterprise and they said they had already cleaned the car and rented it out. I had pulled out the ipad to take a picture of the sunset in Carmel and put it beside my leg in the front seat. After many phone calls it never showed up. Let's just assume that it dropped out of my bag when we got out of the car and not that the person who cleaned the car got an early Christmas present. I was a little bummed for the next couple of days but finally got over it. Such is life and the only person to blame is myself.

So now you know the real reason why I have been backed up with my blog. It is a little different doing it on the PC, especially the inserting of photographs. But I think I got it figured out.

So we spent another day hanging around in the hope that the ipad would show up - went to a fantastic farmer's market. Stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables, spiced nuts, roast chicken.

Prepared for departure the next day. Played a bit of crib - I started to make my comeback and now David was only up by two: 7-5.

Sea Otter came by to see us off.

Cruise of the Confidence 20`13-09-26 to 10-04 cont'd

Next day we took the ferry over to San Francisco to try our luck at getting baseball tickets. It was the last game of the season - Giants and the Padres - and neither team had any hope of getting into the playoffs - so we figured we would have no problem Wrong! The Giant fans are really dedicated fans. But we did get lucky and managed to score 2 tickets in the section overlooking the bay where all the boats anchor out. Boaters have given a whole new meaning to the practice of tailgate parties!!

It was a great afternoon as both teams played as if they were competing for a pennant. The Giants were down 6-2 in the bottom of the 7th. Barry Zito came in as
 one of the closers and held the Padres to no hits. The fans gave him a standing ovation as it was to be his last game before retirement. Then Buster Posey fired a double in the bottom of the ninth and Pence sent him home. So the Giants ended up winning 7-6.I have been following the \Giants for the last couple of years so it was cool to see some of those players in action.

After the gme we took the trolley down to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. We did not stay very long as it was just too touristy for us. So we got back on the ferry and returned to Sausalito.

The winds were blowing at gale force the next day so we extended our stay. There was an excellent grocery 10 minutes from the Marina so I provisioned for the next leg. David went to West Marine and bought us a new dinghy which the insurance will cover so the loss was not too painful.

We met a couple from Vancouver on Murova and chatted with them for a bit. Then I went for a walk into town as I was craving ice cream. It is a 45 minute walk into the Italian Ice Cream shop which means there is a 45 minute walk back but it was worth every step. spent the rest if the afternoon just hanging around, catching rays, reading my book and checking emails.

I received emails from Kelly and Pat and Lillian and Brian. It just made my day. As I said to Roz - doing th blog is great and I am quite surprised at how easily the words flow off my fingers. But it does feel like a one way conversation. So I really do appreciate the emails.

David and I are listening to the marine forecast and it looks like we may have a 3 day window that we will take advantage of. The grab bag has been filled with chicken sandwiches and ham and swiss on sour dough - San Francisco sour dough - that is - so we won't starve if it gets too rough.

We went for a little walk to check out some of the funky boat houses. Kelly's mosaics would look wonderful along these docks. There were a few but nothing that even comes close to the fabulous creations that Kelly comes up with.

Now off to bed so we can be ready to leave tomorrow.

I apologize for the lack of pictures at this time. I am doing this blog on the computer instead of the ipad and have to do some rearranging of the picture files before I can insert. But I thought I better get something posted or you will stop reading or think that something dreadful has happened to us.

The adventure continues!!!

W

Cruise of the Confidence 2013-09-26 to 10-04

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have 3 reasons. The first is not in my control as we have had a very difficult time obtaining wifi access which is surprising considering the fact that we are in California. I had completed this entry complete with pictures but was unable to publish it - kept getting an error 400 code which I could not find a correction for. Then I turned off the ipad and after a couple of days tried to find my draft and it was gone - into blogger cyberspace - and I just did not have the incentive to recreate everything that I had done. Then I lost my ipad and really lost my incentive. Now I am trying to do this on the computer and the rules for inserting pictures and editing seem to be different from what I just figured out with the ipad. Am I frustrated? Just a little.

But if figured I will send you the written word until I can figure out the picture thing again. So no photos at this time.

Sausalito was wonderful. We got caught up on some much needed sleep and then we spent the day cleaning up - getting the crust of salt off of the boat, doing laundry, reorganizing and regrouping.

Next day we walked into the main part of the town and acted like tourists - checking out the shops and the restaurants. I was hoping to find t-shirts from the America's Cup - thought we could get them cheap as the KiWI's had won. Shows you how out of touch we were. The KIWI's were ahead 8-1 and on the last day the Americans came back and won it 9-8. So their were no t-shirts to be found. Sorry Paul and Tim. The only one I could find was in white and it was a women's so I bought it for myself.

Sausalito has quite an Italian presence - found a great deli and loaded up on all kinds of special things for the pantry - sausage, grilled onions, grilled artichokes,cheeses and olives. Then we went for lunch and \i had one of the best cheeseburgers (in paradise) that I have ever had. David had MahiMahi fish and chips and enjoyed that also.

Then we meandered back to the marina checking out other boats - like we can't get enough of that.

Go to same date "cont'd" on the blog for the continuation of this story!!

Cruise of the Confidence 2013-09-26 to 10-04

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have 3 excuses. One was out of my control and had to do with the problem we have been having acquiring WiFi connections. Second was due to the fact that I had the draft of this particular entry all completed but I kept getting an error message when I tried to post it. Then when I tried to access the draft a few days later the draft had gone into cyber blogger space. As a result I had lost my incentive to rethink and rewrite this entry. And the third is that we have been having just too much fun and I did not get around to it. But I have been conversing with a lot of you by phone so I do not have to feel too guilty.

Sausalito was wonderful.  37*51.58N  122*28.71W
We got caught up on some much needed sleep and then spent the day cleaning up - getting the crust of salt off of the boat and doing laundry. 6 loads later - including all the bedding and our outdoor clothes. We washed the floors, reorganized and regrouped. That was an all day affair.

The next day we played tourists and walked into the main downtown core to check out the ferry schedule to San Francisco - checked out some shops - looked around. I was hoping to find t-shirts from the America's Cup race that went on last week. I thought that I would be able to score some cheap ones as the KiWi's had one. Shows how much we were out of touch because the last we had heard the KiWi's were up 8to1. Then we find out that the American's came back on the last day and won 9-8. Consequently there wasn't much left in the area of souvenirs.Sorry Tim and Paul. I did find one women's long sleeve sailing shirt in white which I did buy for myself.