Morro Bay to Moss Landing

Morro Bay is a cool little sea side town that you might expect to find on the East Coast – see pictures. It has a challenging entry way however; Jim masterfully maneuvered the boat into the bay and even did a 180 degree spin to put it on a starboard tie up and into our slip for the evening.

The Yacht Club manager, Roger, looked the part of a crusty boat captain. He could not have been any nicer, staying a little late to help tie us up and provide us with the keys to the facilities.

Roger gave Michael a ride to the local store (and then a ride back) so that he could pick up some provisions.

Dinner was (again) outstanding; Grilled steak on the BBQ (see photo) sliced thin for fajitas with guacamole and chips, a spicy bean side dish, Spanish rice, corn and tortillas. The promise of a long hot shower drew everyone up to the shower facilities with unending water! Several of us downloaded our emails, made calls and addressed pressing work demands.

Today we are pressing onward to Moss Landing (just north of Monterey) – once again up at 0400 to slip off into the morning darkness. Jim and I have a routine that involves warming up the engine, switching off the shore power, examination of the tides and making a line removal plan (the order in which the ropes are released). Jim goes on top to operate the boat and Lara is on the dock. The lines are removed as quickly and safely as possible. Lara bundles the lines and heaves them up and on to the deck. Jim attempts to hold the boat in position and Lara gets on the boat. She then pulls up all of the lines, removes them from the cleats, coils them into bundles and hangs them up. Then she pulls up and stows the fenders. Meanwhile Jim is driving the boat slowly out of the harbor.

Once we are out of the harbor and past the buoys, Lara starts the kettle and whips up coffee and some breakfast for the Captain. Once he is satisfied, she heads back down to crawl back into bed. The Captain typically catches a nap some time before noon once the light is up and everything is settled down.

The ocean has been so calm today that it resembles a lake! There is so little wave action that the water is glassy which has made it easy to see some different marine life (among the sharp cloud reflections!). We saw many jelly fish in a wide variety of sizes and two sharks! With the calm water it is easy to see the shark dorsal fin and the movement of their tail fin swishing. These were probably about 5’ long and just cruising along the surface. These were seen just south of Point Sur. This was about the time that we saw some False Killer Whales (you can Google these to see what they look like). They are grayish-white, mottled in coloring. They were slowly diving in the same area going down and up and turning in unison. There were about four of them appearing to be working together.

This area is a Sea Otter refuge (however we saw a lot more of the darlings yesterday than we have seen today – I think that we a just too far out to sea for them – see photo).

Jim spoke to the Raymarine/SIMRAD representative today who said all of the local Boat Captains are commenting heavily on the amazingly calm sea. I am thinking “calm before the storm???” It sure is easy to get spoiled with conditions like these!