Commander #155 'Mephisto Cat'

[Rico]

The Mephisto Cat is now safely in SF Bay. Just in time too as there are several COLD storm systems coming through starting tomorrow. (The bar at the Golden gate does not look too pleasant even now...)

We postponed our departure from Santa Cruz for a day due to a bit of heavy-er weather, but because of this one day delay we fortunately got to meet Ed Ekers and had a great chat. We visited 'Pathfinder' (Ed's Ariel) and another Ariel in the SC Marina.

It is great to see more of these great boats. Another benefit of the delay was that Kerry was able to join us for the last leg to San Francisco. And were still happy to have TWO day's rest to enjoy Santa Cruz after the long haul from Morro Bay!

We set off from Santa Cruz on December 9th at day-break (Pic #1 below) and covered the 50 miles to Half Moon Bay by 8:00 pm. A bit later than expected, but generally on-schedule.

Half Moon Bay is a tricky harbor to get into especially when you've never been there before - and especially when the first time is during a dark night... There are some shallow reefs to get around and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out which lights were channel markers and which were lights on shore...

We approached from the South, as it seemed like the safest approach, and thought we had it right as we approached the harbor entry; but suddenly Kerry had an inkling of a doubt and then we all simultaneoulsly concluded that we, in fact, had it all wrong!

Out came the big spotlight and we shined it all over... as we neared the shore, the navegation lights became more obvious against the backlit scenery and we corrected our course. We were actually headed into an anchorage area on the wrong side of the inner harbour jetty... we made a quick turn and finally made it into the harbor.

There was no-one to be found, so we tied up to what appeared to be a guest dock adjacent to the fuel dock. It all seemed deserted.


Kerry & Carol were eager to go grab a warm bite while I looked forward to a bit of sleep before we shoved off again to cover the remaining 26 miles to the Golden Gate and San Francisco. I poured some more of our spare fuel into the tank and got ready to have a bit of sleep in preparation for our departure for San Francisco scheduled for a few hours later... 2 am, to be precise. This is so that we can take advantage of the flooding current into San Francisco Bay).

Kerry & Carol were much happier after sharing a good meal in front of the fire (they shared a Cioppino, I found out later...) in a warm little joint at the harbor. Once they ate and warmed-up, they returned to the boat and went right to sleep.

We planned to leave at about 2:00am, but around midnight Carol woke up 'not feeling so good'... I guess she was unlucky and ended-up with the 'bad clam', or something else in the stew. She was quickly feeling completely miserable and soon became violently sick. Kerry & Carol went off to the on-shore facilities to take care of things (although from the sounds, I gathered that the side of the dock had to do initially! ), and after a painful while, they eventually came back to bed.

After a couple more trips to "take in the view" at the edge of the dock, 2:00am finally came around and we faced the decision wheather we'd continue north or not, considering Carol's state... She had clearly eaten something bad, and it'd been bad enough to stir up her strong stomach.

No one on the trip had any trouble with seasickness even as we faced heavy seas in the pitch dark, but bad seafood is a different issue...

The call for a colder front for the following days made me a bit hesitant to delay our departure, but I was also very aware of Carol's misery and did not want to go if she was not up for it... I was hopeful that she'd be fine since whatever had made her sick was probably now long gone.

Carol decided that we should continue and she'd try to sleep it off...

We shoved off at around 2:00 am from Half Moon Bay to match the early morning flood tide into the (Golden) gate... 2:00am is certainly NOT the most desirable time for a departure, but attempting entry into the bay during an ebbing tide would be most frustrating and futile... The timing also allowed a morning (daylight) entry into the bay through the often busy ship's channel.

Again, we enjoyed very nice weather and calm seas on departure, but after a few hours, the wind started picking up... Until it eventually got quite a bit rough around Montara point with strong Easterly winds gusting at about 30-35 knots at around 4:30 am or so. Fortunately, this blow only lasted for about 1 hour just before sunrise as we passed the slot opposite Coyote point which typically funnels the wind the opposite way.

These were the worst wind conditions of the whole voyage and coincidentally came with the coldest temperatures of the whole trip. Uggh! The reported temperatures were in the high 40's (Brrr...) as reported by NOAA over the VHF. Winter was announcing its arrival, and I eagerly awaited the sunrise...

Carol was managing to sleep fairly soundly down below, and she was being spared the wetness up above (although there was a leak or two that had remained undiscovered until these heavy seas, and the drops landing on her head contributed to her misery...)

This was definitely the wettest portion of the trip as water kept splashing on the bow and was blown across the boat. The easterlies took most of the water directly across the bow, but some of it would inevitably get Kerry & I in the cockpit - just often enough to make it annoying. I am glad it was not too severe... Just before sunrise, and once things started settling, Kerry readily agreed to go back below into the cabin and try to get warm & get some sleep after sticking it out with me in the cockpit for quite a while.

I am not attempting even a remote comparison here, but as we were being tossed around, I thought of the comments of the crew of the 'Gitana 13' upon reaching SF bay on their record breaking NY to SF run around Cape Horn. -They mentioned that the worst conditions they encountered on the whole voyage were the during the hours just prior to entering the bay from the South, and as a result they recorded their second slowest day in that stretch.


Pict #2
So close to the Bay entrance that we can taste it! -Do I really want the trip to be over!?
You can just barely see the top of one of the towers of the Golden Gate bridge rising above the hill... (Look for a reddish speck poking above the hills at about 1/8" aft of the forward-lower stay)

We were running with a favourable current and about a 15-20kt wind under a reefed main... After the sudden winds we saw at Montara Point, my crew felt more confortable if we left the jib down... As we were doing about 7kt over the bottom (accounting for the aid of the flood-tide current) I did not feel too bad about leaving it down...

Pict #3
The Gate is in full view and we are now under a full Main. Still making about 7 kts. over the bottom. Carol was feeling much better and she joined us in the cockpit at around this time to enjoy the view. It was nice to see her come back to 'life'. We were about to reach our eagerly awaited destination...

Pict #4
We have the Golden Gate in full view. The picture was taken just shy of the middle of the channel, as we headed towards the North side.
There were a few large ships awaiting their entry at the convergence zone outside the Gate, but fortunately not a lot of traffic under the gate at this time.
We had a bulk material freighter cross into the gate just ahead of us, but we were well clear of traffic on our stern. This gave us the ability to take advantage of the wind and crossing over to the North side of the channel and into Sausalito without having to worry about the traffic in the ship's lanes.

We passed underneath the Golden Gate at about 9:30am on December 10th. It was a beautiful sight on an absolutely beautiful morning... (I was tempted to go for a sail around Alcatraz, but I got the impression that my crew would rather wait for another day...

We went straight to Sausalito, and got a slip to spend the day there - and that night. We had lunch sitting on the docks while I tried to get some of the salt off the boat and sails.

We walked to town to hang out for a bit and to see Carol off on the ferry home to the city. We were looking forward to a long restful night after a good dinner in town, but the flood tide that would aid our sail to the North Bay forced a departure time of 4:00 am the following morning (Dec 11th). Yeech!

For the time being, the Mephisto Cat will be at the Vallejo Marina while I complete some remaining odds, ends, and little projects. I may tie up at some other locations around the bay to see what suits us.

Upon arrival, I noticed that my old slip there was available, so I parked in the same spot I left almost two years ago...