Stuck in Morro Bay

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Morro Bay, CA

Hi Again,

You may have gotten multiply posts for the last post. I had been trying to post the last story all day but it did not go. I am still going around with the tech staff without an answer. I believe it may have something to do with a major DNS server going down today by hackers. But my work around is I am able to do this next story on my PC.

You may ask how I can be writing this as we were to be sailing around Point Conception tonight.

After arriving at Morro Bay this morning, we first refueled and then tied up at the local Yacht Club. We then walked to lunch, to have a heart meal, as we planned to sail through the night tonight. We came back to the club, showered and had cat naps.

We met fellow Baja Ha-Ha-er’s on the dock. Three fellows who were excited about the trip and we discussed the possibility of going around the point together. Point Conception is known as the “Cape of Good Hope” of California. It is where the warm water and winds of southern California meet the cold waters and winds of Northern California plus you have the convection of the warm air coming off the warm central valley and meeting the cool airs of the Pacific Ocean. The makings of a cluster fu@k (sailor terminology) of weather for sailors!

As the day worn on out new friends found that they had a cracked packing gland and needed to get it repaired. The packing gland keeps the ocean water coming in to the boat around the propeller. so they will have their boat pulled out of the water tomorrow and will delay their trip south.

We were still ready for out 18:00 departure. Vickie made sandwiches and we heated tomato soup and put it in a thermos to have in the evening.

The yacht club has a happy hour at 18:00 Friday with food and drink, that we were invited to. At the last moment we decided to go up and partake, just for 15 minutes.

I left a few minutes early, to start preparing our boat for the nighttime passage. The fog had started coming in earlier but now was so thick the visibility was less than an 1/8 of mile. I reviewed the weather projections. Some said the wind and seas would be calm and the travel would be calm. Others had 20-25knt winds with gust up to 30 and seas at 7-8′ but the time in between at 9 seconds. When the time between is less than the wave height, then you have the possibility of an “E” ticket of Mr. Toads ride! Combine this with the heavy fog and nighttime, we decided to postpone tonight’s passage till the morning. It would have been a 15 hour passage with the best of circumstances, with a lot of those hours under high winds and fog, a stressful adventure.

The winds are to subside tomorrow, so we plan now on leaving at 4:00 in the morning. This will get us at the point around 16:00. But the winds are expected to drop considerably. If we have fog, we won’t, at least, have the darkness of night and the wind.

Everyone has tucked in and it is time for me. I’ll let you know how it goes, hopefully tomorrow afternoon in Santa Barbara, sipping an umbrella drink! Once around the point we go from layers of clothing to shorts!!!

Fair Winds,

Dennis