Commander #155 'Mephisto Cat'

[Ed Ekers]

Rico, Here is some shots of what is going on up in this area. If you don’t know, Maverick is just south of the Gate at Half Moon Bay…..ed
http://www.maverickssurf.com/Common/...x?albumId=3570

[Rico]

Thanks Ed,
I heard about the 15ft breakers - it looks like fun - on a surfboard! (maybe...)

I will wait for the next weather window to continue North. It looks like this system will bring 10 - 12 ft swells... with the wind on the nose. There is no fun being in that.

I am planning to make a stop in Santa Cruz. I'll keep you posted. It would be great to meet a fellow A-C owner.

Thank you for tips on Point Sur, I can use all the info I can get...

The rounding of Point Conception was a great adventure. It was fairly mild as we were shooting for what looked like, and ended-up being a very good weather window (Certainly by Point Conception terms) but it was still a long passage and a lot of work.

We left Santa Barbara at about 7:30pm and I went to sleep at about 9:00pm. Up until that point, it had been a clear, starry night. My watch started at midnight when I was awakened. It was quite different then. I was surprised to feel the boat moving quite a bit in the swells and the sound of strong winds. I went up on deck and assumed watch with Kirstin. We were feeling the swells and wind as if funneled around the point already.

It was a very dark cloudy / foggy night which had Kristin & I navigating by instruments only while Carol slept. This is not the best way to hold a steady course in such messy seas... (Our GPS track proves this!) Our intended course took us about 15 miles offshore and the scant lights on shore were no longer visible. In fact the fog was so thick that the only light we could occasionally see was the glow from the offshore drilling platforms. This gave us at least a temporary reference to steer a course by before they quickly disappeared in the fog... Not even a faint glow was apparent for reference after that.

There was supposed to be a bright moon out that night, but he cloud cover was so thick that the glow of the moon was not at all visible, and the oil rigs were obscured by the fog just as quickly as they appeared! We could only see the glow from a distance of about 1-2 miles away. Further away it was just pure darkness everywhere. I did the 'hold your hand in front of your face' test - I could not see a thing!

We had some spectacular sightings of whales & dolphins. It was particularly impressive as we experienced bright luminescence which showed the trails of dolphins as they speeded underneath us, and jumped around the boat leaving ribbons of light... It was a spectacular sight!

The hightlight happened at about 3:30am as a bright luminescent glow became apparent, and then grew brighter just underneath and all around us in the boat... This became increasingly brighter & brighter... As I lifted my hand to point it out to Kristen -who was staring at the lit GPS a this time-, this huge fin rose out of the water only a couple of feet away from the starboard rail, and up to some 4 feet above the level of the deck! (This was at about 3:30am and it was pitch dark as I described above... but I could see the large shape of the whales due to the bright luminescent glow created as its body disturbed the water.) I could not make out what sort of giant it was closest to us on that side; but it was BIG.

I tried to hold a steady course as it was now apparent that we were in the milddle of a pod of whales of some sort... I could see them swimming all around us. They were holding our exact course...

I was uncomfortable at the thought of ending-up between a cow and her calf... or having one of these giants come up directly underneath us! - Just as this thought gelled in my mind... a loud BLOW screamed loudly just at the port side of the boat. This loud breath from a whale's blowhole and the sight of a big FIN coming up from the water caused Kristin to scream and jump down to the middle of the cockpit! I was It was quite a rush! I was too shocked to say anything and just held on to the tiller! Then, just as fast as they had appeared, they dove and as they did so, the glow faded back into darkness...

The whole thing happened quickly, but it seemed like it was much longer... It was an exciting moment during this long passage! It certainly made the time pass quickly as we talked about it for the next hour or so.

Carol slept through the whole thing... (fortunately Kristin's reaction was one of excited laughter - and not fear!) We almost woke Carol to tell her about what we'd witnessed, and so she could see this in case that they came up again close to the boat, but decided not to... Warmth & sleep are so highly valued! And I was hoping that they would not come up that close to us again!

About 30 min later I let Kirstin know that it was time for her turn to have a bit of sleep, and she responded: "Are you kidding!! I cannot sleep! After that I feel like I'm high on drugs!" this was followed quickly by: "Oh, and you are not going to sleep either!!" as she quickly realized what my next thought would be...

So Carol got lucky and got to stay asleep through to morning. She awoke at sun-up, eager to take over the steering; a task she is not only good at, but she seemed to enjoy for long periods at a time.

I performed our first refueling at-sea as the sun came up a few miles after rounding Point Arguello. We took advantage of calming seas while I re-fueled and managed to not spill a drop...



Pictures -

a.- The Morro Bay yacht club. I've been here a few times now and the people are great. There's not a lot of room, but everyone is very accommodating. This is their clubhouse. The whole waterfront is very picturesque and active - but calm & quiet. A great spot to spend some time.

b - Morro rock in the morning after our arrival. The light had an amazing quality for most of the morning... It reminded me of Holland.

c - My relaxed and fearless crew who made the trip very enjoyable... There are not many people I'd feel so comfortable having as crew. This picture was taken just after rounding point Conception (Point Arguello is visible in the background). I was incredibly fortunate to have Kristin and Carol along for the trip. It is amazing how many people said they'd want to join the crew, but in the end very few actually have the courage to do this sort of thing... Courage not because it is dangerous (although it could be!), but courage to get out of one's element and go do something out of the routine for a few days.

d- The Morro Bay Yacht Club's Resident Otter having a little snooze. We felt very welcome at the yacht club. We stayed there for three days a the guest dock and then left the boat out on a mooring while Carol & I headed up to San Francisco for a few days while the two weather systems passed...

We met couples from a handful of other boats that were cruising past (heading both North & South) during our stay. I was happy to see others out there as even freighter sightings were rare... Everyone seemed very comfortable, and having a good time. The weather was certainly
cooperating at this time...