Our first day at Morro Bay was a wet one! Rick and I woke
up to a cold dark cloudy morning and learned from the weather forecast that
rain was on the way. So, we thought we’d better hurry and get ready, dinghy to
shore and walk to the nearest grocery store to get provisions for our day stuck
inside the boat. We walked up the hill several blocks and over a few blocks to
the Albertson’s market. I ran in, bought the groceries, and as I was standing in
line a very nice man started a conversation with me and by the end of it he
offered to drive me, Rick and Harley back to the Yacht Club (where our dinghy
was). I said, thank you but we’d be ok (besides what’s a little rain?).
No sooner did we leave the shelter of the Albertson’s
Market the rain came! It was not a light sprinkle or any old rain……it was a torrential
downpour! We were totally soaked within a minute or two. As we walked briskly
down the road, squishing our toes in our wet tennis shoes, we noticed the gutters
were filled with water forming little rushing rivers. It was the biggest rain
storm I’d ever been caught in.
We finally made it back to the Yacht Club, jumped in our
dinghy and zipped over to the boat. We got on board, and took our wet clothes
off and left them in the cockpit. I dried off Harley with a towel and sent her
to her little tent, which she was not happy about! She wanted to go down below
with us.
After drying ourselves off, we started a fire in the
diesel heater, watched movies and ate snacks for most of the day and through
the night.
Backing up a bit….Just after we had dried off and put on
dry clothes, Rick had to go up on deck to take care of a loose halyard that was
slapping against the mast. While he was doing that, I got my iphone, stood on
the steps in the companionway part way up trying not to let the cold in and at
the same time taking pictures of Harley (with the camera on the phone). A
moment later, Rick decided he wanted out of the rain and pushed on the hatch
with tremendous force and my head was in perfect position for it to take a
cracking blow! It hit me so hard that I flew off the stairs and into the Salon.
On my way in flight, my phone was thrown out of my hand and landed in the sink.
And my glasses went another direction and landed on the couch also in the Salon
area. OUCH!! Needless to say I was a bit stunned and my head hurt. Rick jumped
down from the stairs and quickly grabbed me, put his arms around me, and
apologized profusely! He then checked my forehead to see what the damage was. I
thought for sure my head had been cut open and was envisioning a hospital
visit, stitches etc. But fortunately there was no cut just a lump and a
headache.
What an eventful morning!
The next day, Tuesday, we woke to a perfectly blue sky, bright
sunshine and still water.
We got all of our laundry and garbage together and went
to shore. After we landed at the Yacht Club dock, I walked up with Harley ahead
of Rick. As I was standing close to the road entrance getting ready to take
Harley across the street, I saw this young woman jogging by. This was not just
any woman, it was Kim Hampton from our old marina at Brickyard Cove in Point
Richmond! We both made eye contact and blurted, “OH MY GOD”…at the same time! How
random is that? Anyway, we talked and got briefly caught up. It was very cool
to see her!
After that we started doing our laundry, which was going
to be a long process since there was only one washer and one dryer and we had
several loads to do. So, in between loads, we took walks along the Embarcadero.
Later near the end of this process we decided to just sit
on a bench at the Yacht Club and soak up some sunshine. As we were waiting, we
bumped into a young couple from Canada who were also moored out near us. They
had hopes of doing their laundry too. Anyways, we got to talking with them and
visited for quite a while. As we were talking another couple came up to do
their laundry as well. We had actually met them the day we landed here. This
couple was from Truckee. What we all had in common, along with wanting to do
our laundry, was that we all were heading to Mexico and we all had similar
plans to sail indefinitely or until the cruising kitty runs out. You hear a lot
from other cruisers that on your travels, you will run into a lot of cool
people. So far, we have found that to be very true! We have plans to all get
together for a bite to eat on Wednesday night.
When the laundry was done, we decided we’d take a bit of
a longer walk, enjoying the nice weather, to the other end of the marina to
have lunch at the Bayside Cafe, which is quite a long walk. And, you have to
walk some of it on the road.
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| Cool Sculpture we saw on our walk |
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| Bayside Cafe |
When we finally arrived and were waiting in line at the
Café, a man driving a hotrod drove slowly past where we were waiting.
Apparently this man and his dog, drive by here a couple of times a day. Not
only does he drive an out of the ordinary car, his passenger was a large
chocolate colored Labradoodle wearing Doggles (goggles for dogs). He was the
coolest part of the whole thing! The man’s name was Glen and his dog was Rufus.
Glen was very happy to oblige the onlookers wanting to take pictures. He’d
maneuver the car for the best view and position the dog so you could get a good
shot of him. It was too cute!
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| Rufus and Glen in front of the Bayside Cafe |
Later that afternoon/early evening, we took the dinghy to
shore again to meet Rick’s daughter, Danielle, who was going to go to dinner
with us in town. It was great to see her! She is quite busy with school and
work, but we plan to meet up a couple more times during our stay.
Wednesday we woke up to another perfect day! We started
it off with a delicious breakfast onboard in the cockpit, then the three of got
into the dinghy and dashed over to the sand dunes. We parked the dinghy and
went exploring on the dunes. We reached the other side of the dunes, which was
a huge long uninhabited beach with the ocean in the background. The waves were
breaking in long rows down the beach in several sets. It was really pretty. We
ran and walked along the beach checking out all of the interesting things we’d
find in the sand. We found tons of sand dollars! I’ve never seen so many in one
place and all in perfect condition. I kept a few….well, a lot and put them in
my coat pockets for safe keeping. Rick is curious to where I plan to place all
of these.
We spent a few hours here on the beach. There is more to
see but we will try again tomorrow!
We love Morro Bay and think we will spend a few more days
here then move over to Avila Beach. We are hoping our friends Heidi and Kirk
will be here soon so we can go together past Point Conception together and on to Santa Barbara.
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| Notre Isle (on the left) |
Did
you know that more than 20 million years ago Morro Rock was a volcanic rock
buried below a thousand feet of layered sedimentary rock from an ancient sea?
During the millions of years that followed, softer sedimentary material eroded
away, exposing the Rock we know now.
Now
the Rock stands 581 feet above the shore. During the last glacial period,
20,000 years ago, sea level was 300 feet lower and the Rock stood several miles
inland from shore.
As
the great glaciers melted, the sea rose to surround the rock. This rising sea
flooded Chorro Valley to form an estuary. Morro Rock impeded the long shore
currents that move along the coast, causing more sand to be deposited than
could be carried away. The Rock therefore played a major part in forming the
sandspit.
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