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| Approaching Morro Bay |
October
31st around 1:45p.m. we left our guest slip in Monterey and headed
to Morro Bay. It was such a perfect sunny warm day. The sky so blue and the
water the deepest of blues! As soon as we emerged from the Harbor, the wind was
straight on our bow and the swells were growing the further and further out we
got. So we were sort of “bashing” along and just motoring at this point. For
the first time on this trip I was feeling a little scared. This was not only an
uncomfortable sail to start the long sail ahead with, but it was the first time
Rick and I had gone beyond Monterey alone…in our own sailboat.
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| Passing one of Pebble Beach's Golf Links |
After
we turned more down wind (South) things got a little better but the seas were
still sloppy and uncomfortable! My entire body was tense. I was really hoping
for the swells to be behind us and not on our beam. It never really happened
the entire trip. We were able to turn off the motor and throw up our jib sail,
which seemed to balance the boat better. We scooted right along sometimes up to
8 knots. The wind was a whipping 22-24 knots.
Two
whale sightings again! Both times the whale totally breached. It was very cool!
No pictures…of course.
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| Are we there yet? |
Night
came quicker than I’d hoped. I wanted to see more of the sights and also to
stay warm. But we had to put on our fowl weather gear, which turned us from sailors
into abominable snowmen! Silly as we looked, we were warm.
For
night watch, Rick and I decided to go on two-hour shifts. It didn’t really turn out that way. I think we each only were able to take
little catnaps during the night. It’s hard to sleep while you are trying to
balance yourself to prevent from thrashing around. When it was Rick’s time
to rest/sleep, he got down in the floor of the cockpit and made a makeshift bed
out of the West Marine chair, and a wool blanket. I felt some comfort knowing
he was close by incase I ran into any trouble. For my off shift, I was lucky enough to go down inside the boat and climb onto
the V-berth to sleep for a short time. It was still hard, because I was rolling
all over the place. I maybe got a total 1 ½ hour during our 22 hour sail. I
think Rick got about the same.
The
night was magical! The sky was lit up with millions of stars and you could see
the bioluminescence in our wake. Later
the moon rose over the mountains, which was fantastic. The moon was big enough to lighten up
our night even more.
Even
though the night was spectacular looking, the actual sail was pretty much
miserable. We never got a break
from the swells. We stayed tethered in even when we were just sitting in the
cockpit. We had to constantly be
holding onto something. The inside of the boat looked like an explosion had hit
it. Every time you went down below for something, you had to dodge or pick up
something that had flown across the boat.
Since
going down below was such a dreaded task, I planned ahead before we left the
dock and made several sandwiches and put together little bags of healthy snacks
to just grab quickly while we were under way. That was a big help. Neither of us got seasick but we did
take a second dose of seasickness medicine just in case.
We
finally made it to Morro Bay shortly before 10:00a.m. We were worried when we
were first approaching Morro Bay because the fog had rolled in and we
could not see a thing! And, Morro Bay is notorious for rogue waves; strong
currents and shoaling can be dangerous especially in FOG!
But
by some power beyond the fog lifted just as we got close to this dreaded Harbor
entrance! We could see clearly! We also called in on channel 16 to the
Harbormaster to get his input on a safe entry. It was such a big sigh of relief when we made it through
with no problems whatsoever!
As
we got more inside the Harbor, we picked up a mooring ball right in front of
the Morro Bay Yacht Club. For boats under 40’ the fee is only $20.00 a night.
Anything over is $25.00 a night. We plan to stay here at least until Thursday. The
YC has very nice showers, and a Laundromat we can use.
Since
we’ve been here, we’ve checked in with MBYC, took Harley to do her long overdue
business, cleaned up the boat and took naps out in the cockpit. When we were
checking in at the YC, my body was feeling like it was still in motion with the
swells. And when I closed my eyes, I could see them. Sleeping was the only cure.
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| Please don't wake me!! |
We
don’t have any big plans during this week. But we do plan do get together with
Rick’s daughter, Danielle, who is nearby at Cal Poly.
More
on Morro to come….
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