After a month in San Diego we are now on the Baja Ha Ha with over 180 other boats of all types. We now have an extra crew member Paul from he Three-Quarter Time. He is another Fairbanks-ian. We now have a 40 Gallon Per Hour watermaker as well. As soon as we get solar panels we should be completely self sufficient outside of food.
5.5 knots apparent wind and we are going 4.5… dead downwind… this will be so worth it…
This came in the mail today.
Caroline is a My Little Pony nut. India is too but she’ll never admit to it. I’m glad ponies and dinghys don’t mix or Rover would have a friend: https://youtu.be/MkMOpb3HVxM
Ryan is a morning person and I am not. Left to my own devices I would stay awake until 2AM and roll out of bed around 11AM. Ryan, on the other hand, is one of those people who is awake and ready to start the day at 6AM… every day. This made working out a watch schedule between the two of us pretty easy. He would go to bed around 8PM and I would stand watch until around 3:30AM. This worked pretty well between Santa Cruz and Morro Bay, so we decided to use this schedule as we proceeded south. We rounded Point Conception shortly after sunset on the first night out of Morro Bay. The light pollution of Los Angeles was too far away to dampen the stars set out in a clear, moonless sky. I could see countless constellations twinkling as they wound their way through the Milky…
We made a straight sail from Morro Bay to San Diego over 48 hours. Our watches work like this. 8PM: I go to bed. 8P – 3:30AM: Caroline is a night owl so she stays up late on watch. (I think she likes this) 3:30A – Sometime around noon: Caroline wakes me up at 3:30, just 30 minutes earlier than my un-natural trained wake time of 4AM and I keep watch. Noonish-8PM: We both keep watch. The darkness. At night it is complete darkness. There is no light pollution. The Waponi Woo is the only thing creating light. We have red lights in the cockpit to see by and everything else is turned down as low as it will go. A few things happen at night that are a little odd: You cannot see the waves that are lifting the boat into the air and setting it down. This wave action gives…
Everyone look closely. According to the CBP folks that ‘shadowed us through the marina.’ in their adorable police boat. We somehow entered Mexico and then came back into the United States. Interactions: CBP: why did you go so far south to come into the MarinaMe: Because that entry (pointing 100 yards away) is the only way in here.CBP: No the big marinaMe: What big marina.CBP: The one you came into by (insert local landmark here).Me: I have no idea what you are talking about. I just got here.CBP: You know, where you came in about 2 hours ago.Me: You mean San Diego BAY?CBP: Uh, I don’t know.Me: Where the big Pacific Ocean meets this body of Water?CBP: Yeah!Me: I have to follow channel markers. ‘cutting the corner’ around the channel markers puts me at risk of getting into the surf and possibly dying.CBP: I don’t understand.Me: My head damn near…
We made it to San Diego.
We are currently on a mooring ball in Morro Bay. We will most likely be here until Saturday morning. Originally, we were going to leave today, but there is a bit of a storm coming in. Please see the below image: This is the conservative forecast. By Saturday morning it should blow through giving us a nice weather window for the remaining 290 or so miles to San Diego. If we average 6knts/hour we will be on the water for a little less than 48 hours. Ideally, we will be in San Diego Monday morning. Morro Bay is really pretty. As far as places go to be stuck for a week, this one is good. There are a lot of little shops, places to hike and just about everything you might need is within biking distance. As a bonus, the sunsets have a definite Goonies feel.
Me: I think Rover needs to go to shore. Ryan: Why? Me: He is in the dinghy.