Leaving San Francisco was harder to do than we thought it would be. What a great city, so much natural beauty and creative architecture.
We are off to Half Moon Bay for the first night going south along the California coast. Having come down a couple of weeks prior helped us find our way. We got to HMB anchored went to bed and got up early.
Early was 04:30(am) and true to it’s reputation it was really foggy. Using the radar we inched our way past the other boats. As we got to the opening of the channel a white light was blinding us and also one behind us. We wondered if it was the channel marker, no it can’t be its white and moving. That is when we realized we were passing an in coming fishing vessel and then one was right behind us. Note to self leave a little later so it is a bit brighter even with dense fog.
We traveled the whole day in dense fog. We saw one other sailboat that became a ghost ship as he traveled to the West and we were headed South. As we reached Santa Cruz our overnight destination the fog lifted and we could see the beautiful California coast and mountains.
We anchored off of the pier and watched the people enjoying their strolls along the wharf. The amusement park was not open but people were swimming at the beach. You could just imagine all of the fun, noise and memories that have been made at such a well known place
Next we are headed to Monterey to wait out some weather we see coming along the coast.
Monterey Bay is a little over 20 miles away and stunning. We had a nice sail over Monterey Canyon which is 3,000 + feet deep and has a rich diverse marine life. As we come into the town we are flanked by millions of brown jellyfish.
We take a slip at the marina which we find to be one of the nicest places we’ve been. They pride themselves at being a yes marina anything they can do to make your experience better.
The jellyfish are everywhere in the marina and getting to hear the squeals of delight from children as they walked along the path outside of the marina was priceless.
Monterey was such a fun and friendly place to discover. We walked all over learning a lot about the sardine and anchovy industry and the town’s important place in CA history. They take this to the ultimate level by oxygenating the marina water. In the nineties huge amounts of anchovies died by lack of oxygen in the water. Apparently they used all of the available oxygen and then some.
The main attraction for us though was the aquarium 🐙🦀🐠. A very good friend Lowell helped design and consult on the creation of this project in the 80’s. We were happy to let him know everything he did is well appreciated and still running smoothly.
We needed to fuel up before leaving and at the dock we saw otters on there back merrily eating breakfast.
We are on our way to Morro Bay.

HMB-Monterey

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