Hopping down the Oregon and California coast, part 2

(Once again, I'm behind, but this gets us up to Monterey. I'm working on getting all our photos off the camera and I think the next post will be a photo dump with captions to get up date.)

After a second night in Eureka, we left around 1:00 in order to not get to Fort Bragg ridiculously 
early. Rounding Cape Mendocino (another one of those capes you have to be careful about) was a big
nothing. The seas were gentle and we joined a group of sailboats outside of Fort Bragg, waiting for
daylight in order to negotiate the Noyo River bar crossing. 

That was an interesting entrance. A bit of waves to buck through, but nothing concerning. However, 
the river has a narrow navigable channel, as well as twists and turns to negotiate. It was fun to go through
for multiple reasons. Years ago, Joe and I spent our anniversary in Fort Bragg and watched boats go
through that entrance in the middle of a December storm. While we had no desire to repeat that
performance, we did think it would be fun to take a boat of our own into Fort Bragg someday. Also, being
big fans of the movie Overboard (the original with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell!), we were looking forward to being docked somewhere near where a lot of the scenes from the movie were filmed.

Once we managed to get into the harbor, it took some doing to figure out where our assigned slip was as the float letters and slip numbers weren't easy to see. We ended up in the wrong spot, but thankfully the slip's owner didn't mind! Despite being tired after an overnight run, Joe and I managed to get Kyrie safely backed into the slip and tied off. Four other sailboats followed us in that morning, including a fellow Ha-ha'er--SV Indy.

We ended up staying in Fort Bragg for four days while a storm blew through and then the seas calmed down. Fort Bragg was a neat place, but our problem was that to get into the downtown area, we either had to commit to a two-mile walk one way, or pay for the bus. The bus won out for our one visit to downtown! When it was time, we were itching to get moving again. The other boats we had arrived with had planned to stop in the Bay Area, but Kyrie's crew planned to bypass San Francisco and beeline straight to Monterey. Friends and the aquarium awaited!

It was a relatively uneventful trip, except for my round of "Dodge the container ships." While approaching the shipping lanes outside the Golden Gate, I had to turn to avoid a cargo ship coming our way. For whatever reason, I turned to port instead of turning to starboard. A turn to starboard would have kept us on our chosen path outside the Farallon Islands, which sit about 30 miles outside of the Golden Gate. That goofball moment meant we were now on the inside of the shipping lanes. Ugh! The first cargo ship steamed by and then I had to wait for two more to go by before there was a break large enough for us to get across the lane. When those big ships are traveling at 12 knots and rapidly gaining speed, it's not a good idea for a 6-knot boat to play chicken with them! So, trying not to grumble at my mistake, I waited for those other ships, before turning 90 degrees to starboard to "dart" across. Of course, then there was another ship going the other direction, so I had to alter course yet again to make sure I crossed the lane behind that ship! Naturally, that course put the waves directly on our nose... Joe woke up and asked me if the seas had shifted or something. At that point I was completely disgusted with myself and our situation and I said rather snottily, "No, we're going the wrong way right now, but I'm getting us back on course. Go back to sleep." Once I had us back on track, according to the chart plotter, I turned the autopilot back on, relaxed, and had a good laugh at myself!

The next day was--surprise, surprise--fairly light winds. We did see a bunch of whales, dolphins and sea lions, all along the edges of the Monterey Canyon. It was a quiet day, but we were glad to finally roll into the anchorage outside Monterey's harbor, just after sunset. After a calm night and good sleep, we felt ready to explore a little bit. I called friends who live in Pebble Beach--Alan and Ingrid have been friends with my parents since college, so they are like another set of parents to me. Perfect timing! Their son Doug was visiting with his family and were leaving to go home that afternoon. Did we want Alan and Ingrid to come pick us up and have lunch over there? Yes please!

That night was awful--the storm we weren't expecting until the following afternoon decided to roll in early and set Kyrie to rolling. The wind kept us beam to the waves and kept Joe and me up most of the night. The coffeepot relocated to the floor a time or two, as well as some of our books. Finally, we gave up trying to sleep around 5:30 and watched TV until first light, when Joe called the harbormaster's after-hours line and practically demanded a slip be found for us! Leaving the anchorage required a trip through 3 to 4-foot waves--no wonder we were rocking so much!--but it was lovely and calm inside the harbor. Once tied up safely, Joe and I decided a nap was in order before we did anything else!

Hopping Down the Oregon & California Coast, part 1

(Obviously I’m behind in posts again! These next few posts will be an attempt to catch us up to present day!)

After leaving Newport, Kyrie pointed her bows south again, hoping to make it to Brookings or Crescent City as another weather front was approaching. The weather came up a bit sooner than anticipated, so we ducked into Port Orford as it was supposed to provide nice protection from the Northerly blow that was running up our tails.

That turned out to be an interesting stop. As we pulled in around 6am, we got a crab pot line caught in our prop. Thankfully there was a little wind, so we raised the sails and sailed onto anchor. Later on that morning, about 20 minutes in the dinghy and the offending rope was removed with thankfully no damage to the engine, transmission, or outdrive. We moved Kyrie a little further into the harbor before the real blow started up.

About noon we met a couple guys on S/V Rainbird who warned us that the wind really howls through the area we were anchored in a northerly, and they suggested we move over by them. After an hour or two, we decided they were right - the wind was gusting well above 40 and we were jerking pretty hard on the anchor chain.

So - we moved a little outside of the harbor in the lee of a large bluff that would protect us better from the wind. It did help a bunch, but we were still getting steady winds over 30 with gusts to 45 or more, even in this more protected area, so it made for a loud night, and too much chop to put the dinghy in and go ashore.

The next 4 days were rinse-and-repeat for us--fairly calm mornings with the wind coming up in the afternoons. We were really glad to be in a semi-protected area but the swell did wrap around the point and kept us bouncing around pretty good for 3 straight days. We were able to get ashore twice during our stay in Port Orford, and it was a cute little town. It has one very noticeable oddity--no official harbor, even though they have a fishing fleet. Instead, all the fishing boats are outfitted with extra-strong chainplates at their bow and stern. To enter the “harbor,” a boat approaches the pier and attaches cables from a crane to those chainplates. Then it’s up, up, and away, onto the pier and then on a boat trailer. Each trailer has a parking spot, complete with power hook-ups. It was a fascinating operation to watch. Unfortunately, the whole situation made it complicated for us to go ashore. We ended up tying the dinghy to a ladder and the whole family, Megan included, climbed up to the pier!

By the morning of the 5th day, we were going stir crazy and noticed a sailboat heading south on the outside of us, so we asked them for a weather report. The end result of the conversation was that it was good enough, and at 3pm we were on our way motoring south again.

It was a very lumpy motor through the night with virtually no wind, so the next afternoon we pulled into Eureka, California, to catch up on sleep.

Eureka was the break we needed. We pulled into a slip and slept the sleep of the dead for 12 hours as we really hadn't gotten a single good night sleep since leaving Newport. We were able to get some laundry and shopping done--there was a farmer’s market in Old Town, as well as a Costco and a couple other grocery stores within walking distance.