Santa Cruz to Monterey

Docked Day 1 Santa Cruz, CA
I am so sore today! Are those really MY muscles? Today we are making those fixes and repairs I wrote about yesterday. Our daughter-in-love came to see us and we had lunch together, then coffee at Verve. She then shuttled us around to the stores to reload our provisions and get the parts we needed to make our fixes. My left knee is so tight that I cannot really bend it back to stretch it. I’m working it today in hopes that it will release. I have super tight muscles from balancing yesterday. Tim and I are so tired today. We are discussing the option of staying on here another day. We have some serious miles to make that are going to require us to sail during the night so we can make San Simeon during the day, it's 70 miles from our next stop. If we make 5 knots per hour that’s 14 hours of working time. If 46 miles exhausted us, we had better be ready for this next big jump.  
We met a really nice couple, they sailed their boat around the world and took particular interest in us. He offered his car if we needed it, any help fixing, tuning or gear. Great advice and yet another really great guy in the cruising world. 


Sea Day 4 Santa Cruz to Monterey, CA

We spent the morning tidying up and getting ready to pull out after our fixes. We left about 1330 for Monterey Bay Marina. It was a quick 4 hour motor sail in smooth seas and light winds. Coming into the harbor was a bit scary with so little room to maneuver. We were set hard by the wind and current so that we had to abort our initial run into the slip and came back around for a success. The surge was huge! The dock we tied up to was pulling very hard on the dock lines and our boat was surging forward and back as the concrete dock slammed the pier posts. (see the video below) We went up to eat at the London Pub. It was great food and good service. We made some changes to our dock line set up and went to bed.


Docked Day 2 Monterey, CA

First thing in the morning Tim went out to assess our dock lines only to find they had already started chafing! He made a switch so some really thick lines we had in one of our aft lockers. The switch helped our ride inside the slip be less rough with more line stretch. There is never a dull moment in this arena.  

I set about getting some laundry done at the marina which had rather public machines. There is only one set and I had it most of the day for 3 loads. I was delayed returning for my last load of 12 or so microfiber clothes which are essential for cleaning, drying, polishing and catching our little leaks we are still chasing. During that delay a lady had taken a FEW of my cloths out, folded them on my running dryer load and inserted her things into the washer. I was quite ticked off to find my cloths missing! I noticed in the window of the front loader that it looked like my cloths were in there, bright yellow and all. I staged a watch until that load was done and I opened the door to find the last 10 of my clothes in the washer. I was removing them when the lady returned and acted like she didn’t know they were there. Good grief! Frankly I was rather rude and direct. I just said these are MY cloths, picked them up and walked off with the rest of my dried laundry.

Our boat seems to be the subject of photo ops as every time we look out, a tourist on the pier is taking a picture of it. Lots of German and Chinese people. 

We really want to rest up as the weather is looking such that we will have to make a run for Morro Bay skipping San Simeon. We aren’t sure that San Simeon will protect us enough from the high winds that are predicted. Also a local in Santa Cruz who sails a great deal in the area said that it can be full and the anchorages and moorings have become less available.

We are happy to be in Monterey as our nephew we haven’t seen since he was about 3 years old is here with his work. He treated us to dinner and visited us on the boat. He’s a fine young man now.

We met a young man named Clint who is in the process of taking his newly purchased Cal 29 to San Fransisco Bay. We chatted a bit and he was keen to swap resources for accessing, collecting and evaluating information from the different boat systems. He had some great ideas and tips for electronics that are fabulous and inexpensive! He is a very fortuitous connection.