September 26, 2004
Fry's Harbor (34o 03' N 119o 45' W)
We left Morro Bay yesterday afternoon after spending the morning running errands. Sharon found a garage sale but didn't feel like sleeping with the wine rack she found so decided not to buy it. I found the reported 'coldest toilet seat on the west coast' and decided that it looked very cold, but was not willing to test to find out.
The trip over the bar was uneventful and we were able to set sail after motoring a few miles out from Morro Bay.
I checked the weather reports from Pt. Arguello frequently. I'm not sure why I do this since it's not like we're going to turn around if I know it's blowing 30 kts, but at least it's nice to know what we're in for.
The area west of Pt. Sal had incredible wildlife. More shearwaters then I've ever seen in one place and a huge pod of Pacific White Sided Dolphins. Unfortunately, they were too busy chasing each other to come play in our bow wave. Even with the low overcast the evening was bright because of the nearly full moon, and the sailing was pleasant.
At about 2200 the wind started to come up as we were approaching Pt Arguello and the fog dropped right down to the water. By 2300 we were down to our 'storm' rig of staysail only, the main being doused without incident. We sailed on like this all the way around Pt. Conception, being careful to avoid the oil rigs and their associated buoys using the radar.
Of course after rounding Pt. Conception the fog cleared and the wind died making it necessary to raise the mainsail again. I had to turn the boat upwind a little to be able to do this and, because the wind was so light, the boat would only lie beam to the sea. The resulting rolling caused the rest of the crew to get out of bed and complain about being hit by objects flying around the cabin. Sharon said, "I didn't sign up for a Rodeo!"
The wind continued to die and after an hour or two we were motoring toward Santa Cruz Island. We arrived around 1000 and looked into Lady's Anchorage and decided against it (the swell being too high), and continued on to Fry's where we dropped bow and stern anchors as is the custom here.
After a two hour power nap we all felt a little better and made plans to take the dinghy out tomorrow morning and try to make it to the Painted Cave. It's a few miles along the island shore in the ocean swells but I think if we take it slow we'll make it.
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