A lot of the cruising experience has been similar to what we expected, but there are a few things that have surprised us, so in honor of one week of cruising, we present 'A Retrospective - Week 1'

Light Winds + Swell = Unhappy
On the San Francisco Bay light winds means either motor, or just enjoy a slow but steady sail to your destination. On the ocean, light winds can still be accompanied by swell. This combo makes for a very unhappy boat (and hence an unhappy crew). As you are picked up by a swell the apparent wind rushes forward, causing the sails to backwind. As you are dropped down into the trough the wind returns to it's original position, causing the sails to crash back to where they started.

The sound of the boom doing this over and over can drive you insane, but if you drop the main, you may find yourself rolling from rail to rail. Before leaving on the trip we knew we would need a preventer setup for heavy weather sailing, but this week has taught us the preventer is possibly even more important in light winds to minimize the slatting of the sails.

What matters is When, not Where
We thought the hard part of navigation would be the getting to your destination without running into anything or getting lost. So far, what has actually been hard is getting where you want to go, when you want to be there. It's never a great idea to enter an unfamiliar harbor or anchorage at night, so, in these short winter days you have a narrow window of time at which to arrive. Couple that with a large spread of possible boat speeds, and you end up with a tricky situation.

As an example of the sort of planning we have been consumed with, the trek from Morro Bay around Pt. Conception is about an 80 mile trip. If you maintain an average speed of 6 knots VMG (velocity made good) if it's a good strong wind or you are motoring, it's a 13 hour trip. If you maintain an average of 3 knots VMG if the wind is light or from an unfavorable direction, it's a 26 hour trip. Ideally you would round Pt. Conception during daylight, but not in the late afternoon when the wind picks up. So what time do you leave Morro Bay? Further, this 80 miles doesn't even include the additional distance to a suitable anchorage (which of course you don't want to arrive at in the dark)!

Steering
Hand steering is brutal. It's cold, tiring, and boring. The Monitor windvane is worth it's weight in stainless steel (which seems to cost roughly the same as gold).

Weather Forecasts are Wrong (but nice to have)
Not having instant access to multiple sources of weather information over the internet can be a bit anxiety producing. We are learning strategies to cope, including finding alternate sources for weather information, such as NOAA weather radio and calls to local harbor masters. Although 'knowing' the upcoming weather is a relief, so far the forecasts seem to be batting 0. We had an evening of light winds out of the South West, when the forecast was for strong winds out of the North East to drive home the point that weather forecasting involves a good deal of art rather than science.

Wildlife
The California coast is absolutely vibrant with life. Being so close to nature has been a true highlight, and already we feel privileged to have been allowed to play silent observers to the coastal marine life.

Between Half Moon Bay and Monterey we started noticing some strange shapes in the water. Quickly we realized that we were sailing among a school of thousands upon thousands of Jellyfish. There were groups of hundreds of babies the size of your fist right near the surface, and below them in the deeper water, the somber form of the adults with tentacles up to 15 feet long.

Off the Big Sur Coast we saw a feeding frenzy of seals, breaching out of the water and breaking into what looked like teams that would sweep across from one side to the other in a line, no doubt herding their prey. Minutes later a line on the horizon turned out to be hundreds of dolphins rushing towards where we had left the seals. They were leaping out of the water, often 5 and 6 feet clear of the swell. Groups of them swam right under the boat. Standing on the bowsprit we had an amazing view of them passing below us, and it even seemed that you could hear their calls.

Leaving Morro Bay we were the lone boat among hundreds of sea otters, lying on their backs cracking mussels. We have had night watches accompanied by dolphins, and anchored in a cove surrounded by dive bombing pelicans.

And that's it, we are currently crossing the Santa Barbara Channel headed to Prisoner's Harbor on Santa Cruz Island to meet our friend Greg on Night Cap. After that we will probably head to Catalina Island where we plan to wait out a storm which is dropping down from the Pacific Northwest (or so the forecast says).

Lat 34 Degrees 14' N, Long 119 Degrees 50' W