Leaving the US

Here we are already at the next milestone in our cruising/sailing journey. Specifically, we are at 32°56.841'N 117°33.021'W. The seas are flat, the sun is shining. Jud is sitting under the sunshade studying weather systems. I’m down below chilling. We are motor sailing super light winds towards our first port of call in Mexico. Ensenada here we come!

The US coast, despite niggling trepidation, has been all in all, pretty sweet. After San Francisco, we hopped to Half Moon Bay, then Santa Cruz- anchoring right by a huge wharf, an amusement park (sadly closed) and a cacophony of sea lions. We had another great sail across the other side of the bay to Monterey. We really like Monterey. I won’t attempt to write poetry of all that repetition! We anchored out right by a beach and rented bikes for a day. Our very long tour took us past the very quaint Cannery Row immortalized by John Steinbeck, stunning sand dunes and jagged cliffs, and the famous pebble beach golf course. We peddled some more, the next two hours being uphill. I chose to walk my bike up some of those hills as after all those miles, I didn’t have an ounce of energy left. We were rewarded in the end with the looooooooongest downhill stretch, right back into the city. Like I mentioned before, there are days of complete lassitude interspersed with occasional epic activity. I’m not sure if they equal things out, but that’s what we do. 

We wanted to get to San Simeon next to see the Hearst Castle. I was prepared to pass it up as the sailing was so good and I have seen so many castles in Europe. But I’m glad that Jud changed my mind. We anchored again just off the beach and decided we would dinghy into shore as there was no dock or pier to tie up to. It looked pretty intimidating as there were some pretty big rollers crashing. We watched closely and tried to time our beach landing on the quietest wave. It was looking pretty good and Jud jumped out of the dinghy close to shore first to attempt to bring it in. Alas, he turned the dinghy sideways and we broached, flipping the dinghy and me in the water. 

Fortunately the water was warm and I didn’t mind being completely soaked.  Unfortunately I was wearing my very cool sun hat, styling sunglasses, and an over the shoulder bag with my iPhone and wallet in them. Fortunately I was able to salvage my bag and after a rinse, the phones and wallet were fine. Unfortunately my expensive prescription sunglasses were gone. We spent the next hour or so digging in the sand between the breaking waves and walking the beach looking and had no luck in finding them. We did get to meet some pretty nice people who helped us search, however. And I’m not sure what law it is that ensures that if you think everything is good, a little bad luck is sure to come your way?  Or is it pride before a fall?  Cause I was feeling really glam in my get up thinking aren’t we cool dinghying in to go to a castle?  After letting the sun dry us off somewhat, and in a little less put together state, we walked a half a mile and took a bus to the castle. 

It was gobsmacking what money will buy. Hearst was a miserable media mogul (as portrayed by Orson Welles in Citizen Cane) and he happened to own a stunning amount of land he inherited from his father and built an opulent castle. The person who realized his crazy visions was one of the first female architects, Julia Morgan. It was incredible how she worked with some of the antiquities and art that he possessed from Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Spain and elsewhere and showcased them with such genius and artistry: 15th century Spanish wooden ceilings, Italian marble sculpture, Egyptian sun gods, Greek columns, enormous tapestries, reflecting pools. It was unbelievable. And beautiful. He tore down and rebuilt things several times because he would expand or revision. He had the latest technology and his finger in every media enterprise.  He was credited for starting “yellow journalism”. He started his career being interested in working for “the people” and once he inherited his wealth, became isolationist and conservative and worked to influence elections. Can you see parallels with the unearned influence of the uber wealthy, media obsessed today?

After the castle it was a date with the Hearst wineries overlooking Sputnik anchored out. There is a certain kind of wonder to be able to look at your boat in a gorgeous anchorage that you sailed to. Don’t think I’ll get over it. Coming in at the same time were Rob and Sophia from Anuri, the other sailboat anchored out. So we all decided to look at our boats from the winery while tasting and devouring some fabulous food and being entertained and hosted by a very young sommelier named Ivan. Very fun!

We took whatever advice we could from the waiters and our friends. We were coached on how we might make it back to Sputnik without a repeat of the morning flip. We made sure we put all of our phones, wallets and glasses into a plastic bag procured from the winery, chose the quietest edge of the beach possible, counted the waves, and each taking a side handle, ran furiously in the water and launched ourselves like sea lions onto the dinghy. We made it! We got wet running in, but what the hey, the water was warm.

We sailed to Morro Bay next with this beautiful rock dominating our anchorage.

After that we sailed out to the Channel Islands for a few days off of LA (no giant city for us) and then sailed into Newport Beach. We ended up spending a week here as it is such an easy place to hang. We tied on a mooring ball hosted by the harbour sheriff. Deputy Matt was so friendly, it was surprising to be so welcomed!  And the sailor’s famous consignment store, Minney’s, is in Newport, so, of course, we made a couple of trips there. There is no end of goodies to find including pad-eyes, hinges, and you guessed it, another anchor!

Our last night in Newport had us living large and we were feeling pretty darn lucky. It had been once again, a very hot sultry day, and I had started it by taking a bus to a big box store to purchase a small appliance.  I didn’t make it back to Sputnik until the later afternoon, and by that time I was pretty hot and sticky. We quickly set up said appliance. It seem embarrassingly ridiculous for a sailboat to have such a thing and it definitely is the kind of purchase you would question others for doing; however, within 10 minutes we were scooping ice cubes into our freshly made lemonade. Oh my goodness! We do not regret this purchase. We have been making ice almost non- stop to fill our drinks and freezer. 

And last night it was a perfect end to our time in California. After a swim and paddle board in the bay, the Santa Ana winds dying down and the seas flat calm, Jud and I lounged in the cockpit sipping our iced drinks and celebrated the crescent moon, night sky and our incredible fortune. 

Jud was also feeling a little provocative and put up our large Canadian flag and lit it from below. His reasoned that there were giant American flags surrounding us and Trump continues to be atrocious. All true, but I don’t want to be a target for anything. He was hoping to get reactions from the partiers in the incredibly numerous harbour boats toodling around the anchorage. Reactions were pretty mild and muted, fortunately. Newport Beach is part of Orange County which is MAGA country after all. Lots of wealth here. And it doesn’t seem that diverse a population in the harbour, that’s for sure. Anyway, icy drinks and the night sky was a pretty sweet way to end our time here. And now we have one, albeit luxurious, way to tackle some of the heat that is sure to come as we make our way south. 

Those small electric cruisers in the harbour are pretty neat and it definitely seems to be a thing here. People take out their own (tied up right beside their yachts which are right in front of their waterfront houses), or rent them and crowd family or a dozen of their friends and cruise around the harbour for a couple of hours. There are dozens and dozens of these little cruisers performing these rituals every night.  Almost like the nightly walks after dinner on the ramblas in Barcelona, or even reminds me of the lunch hour cruising ritual with a boyfriend in high school. I would squeeze up next to him and he drove his souped up car back and forth down the two minute main drag of Burns Lake. We would be looking for other such cruisers and hope others noticed us. Humans and their social rituals - to see and be seen. Good times. Usually by 8 pm in Newport Beach, it’s all over, and waters are quiet again except for the odd party yacht. 

Heat. It is an El Niño year and it certainly has been felt around here. The heatwaves in SoCal are numerous and continue to set records. That combined with the warming ocean has produced a kelvin wave that flooded parts of Newport Beach.  There has also been an unusual number of tropical depressions and hurricanes for this coast. Rachel traveled further north than hurricanes have on record and touched Ensenada. Fortunately there was only flooding and a small amount of structural damage. We are definitely paying attention. We won’t head down further south after Ensenada until most of the risk is gone- perhaps mid to late December. 

Meanwhile, we motor sail along, overnight, and will cross another border tomorrow. Ensenada, Mexico, here we come. 

All my relations

Leah