TravelTales: Catalina to San Francisco Bay
S/V Moonshine, The Ocean
Daniel and Lauren
6/1/202610 min read
Week something or another: Santa Catalina Island to San Francisco Bay
Mylar Balloons Retrieved from Mother Ocean Total on Moonshine: 54
We were getting pretty comfortable in the Two Harbors area. Our routines were becoming, well, routine. It became easy to live on the boat. We knew where to get groceries. Where to get water. Which locals we could count on for some good conversation in passing. Then one day, after 7 weeks living on our boat at the island, I saw it. The perfect window. In just a few days time we would have an opening to slip north around Point Conception and make our way to San Francisco. Arrangements were made. Boomer was flying out in two days. Tom had plans to head to Santa Barbara via train. After hours, days, weeks, months of planning and learning and watching, it basically set itself in motion. This trip is hard logistically because once we were to leave Santa Barabara there was a possibility of getting stuck out at Cojo Anchorage for a few days, unable to round Point Conception. But there was no stopping this trip now!
Lauren and I had a few things to work on Monday before leaving Catalina. Justin had been kind enough to mule parts from the mainland the weekend before. For 3 hours, Lauren pulled as I pushed to snake the new wet exhaust hose through the boat. It all went smoothly. I then replaced the raw water intake pump and cranked up the engine. Success! No more salt water leaking into the boat.
LEG 1, DAY 1: CATALINA TO CHANNEL ISLANDS HARBOR–9 HOURS
We dropped the mooring lines around 05:30 the next morning still undecided if we wanted to head to an anchorage on Santa Cruz Island or go to Channel Islands Harbor. I have been dying to head to Santa Cruz Island and cruise around there. It didn’t happen in August of last year thanks to the swells and the weather. After carefully watching the afternoon winds, we decided CIH was the go to. I guess the northern Channel Islands will have to always be my Bali Hai. Santa Rosa Island was still on fire. 14,000 acres were gone at this point and the winds were blowing the smoke directly at SCI. After a nine hour trip, we stopped to get fuel before heading to our guest dock for the night. The lady there gave us the whole story about the man that set Santa Rosa Island on fire. He had previously been at their transient dock after being kicked out of his marina for many years by the big bad wolf, Safe Harbor. He had nowhere else to go. His distress signal on SRI after washing aground set the island ablaze. Sad story indeed.
LEG 2, DAY 2: CHANNEL ISLANDS HARBOR TO SANTA BARBARA–4.5 HOURS
The next day, we set off for Santa Barbara. Four and a half hours later, we pulled into the police dock. We paid our dues for the night and got some things at West Marine. As we walked back down the dock the fire boat there was testing its water cannons. It was incredible to see how far those things can shoot! We were put at quite possibly the longest dock I’ve ever seen. It was perfect being at the end because our back porch view was unobstructed mountains over Santa Barbara. Boomer arrived mid day. His infectious smile gave new life to this adventure. The three of us got an amazing lunch filled with chowder and blackened fish sandwiches. This part is always hard for me. I get very land-sick and sitting at a table in a crowded restaurant makes me nauseous. We decided to walk to the grocery store to provision for the trip. Trying to figure out food for 4 people for an unknown amount of time is difficult. We made our way back to the dock to stash it all away. We just finished a fresh oil change when Tom made his arrival! We checked weather reports and it all looked like a go for leg 3 in the morning.
LEG 3, DAY 3: SANTA BARBARA TO COJO ANCHORAGE– 6 HOURS
Day 3 started out like any normal day until I went to crank the engine. Apparently from starting the engine several times the day before and not letting the battery recharge from the alternator kills the battery…who knew? Well this was the biggest moment of the trip for us. New crew on board and the start of the trip where nothing can go wrong aaaaaaand nothing. The engine wouldn’t turn over. I was able to get a quick crank when combining the batteries which told me what the problem was but Lauren wasn’t having it. She didn’t want to leave the dock until we were all certain that was the issue. I wasn’t happy but ultimately decided she was right. This is probably why women live longer than men. We let the engine run for 20 minutes. Shut it off and cranked it back up. SUCCESS! We headed off. This predicted calmest day of the trip was a wild one. Some northwest swell was wrapping around Point Conception and shooting down the coast. Some larger south swell that NONE of the buoys or predictors told us about was mixing across the NW swell. As the day lengthened, the wind kicked up from our stern out of the east. WTF is going on here? Now the wind swell was mashing with the two other swells. It was rough. Boomer and Lauren were down below trying to make sandwiches and both had to come topside as they were feeling queasy and worried they could get seasick. Moonshine handled the mixed up seas like a champ and we continued on to the anchorage! As we arrived just inside the infamous Point Conception, the south swell was working on a break we didn’t even know existed. After anchoring 200 yards off the coast, Lauren and I hopped in for an afternoon windy surf sesh. The wind came over the top of Point Conception and barreled down on Moonshine at 20+ knots for the better half of the night. We had 1 hour anchor watches to get up and make sure we weren’t dragging. It was hard to come back in the boat after stepping out to check our position. The stars were incredible. The Milky Way was so bright, you didn’t need a headlamp. Being that far from any light pollution on the edge of the ocean was pure magic. Sleep was critical though and the thought of rounding Point Conception, “The Graveyard of the Pacific”, always brought me back to bed.
LEG 4, DAY 4: COJO TO MORRO BAY– 12 HOURS
This day played over and over in my head for almost a year. I intentionally did not look at pictures of Point Conception because I wanted to see it for myself for the first time. This is what everyone asks about. “How was Point Conception?” The Cape Horn of the Pacific. We sailors love to embellish. The wind and waves looked good. It was time. Tom and Boomer hauled up the anchor and we were off at 0515. At the base of the point, just outside the anchorage, we were escorted by a couple of whales at sunrise. They were headed north for the summer, just like us. The main word that came to mind as I watched the light house slowly pass by was MOODY. The remoteness of this place, its reputation, and the unknown sea state, paired with some lingering fog, had me surprisingly at ease. I can’t figure out why. I felt at home. I’ve always loved pushing the limits of things unknown. I know we weren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last, but something about rounding PC made this an adventure for the books!
Point Conception. Point Arguello. Point Sal. Point Buchon. Steady up the coast, Moonshine’s Universal engine rumbled on. The winds and the waves were calm. We picked the right window. While Lauren and I were off watch trying to get some rest down below, we heard Boomer yell, “whats that?? WHALE!.” Lauren flung herself up and ran to see what all the commotion was about. Next thing I hear is Lauren screaming down below for me to wake up. By the time I managed to get up and out to the cockpit, the three of them were wide eyed and I had missed the action. According to Tom and Boomer a whale was taking a mid afternoon nap when Moonshine almost hit it. Lauren saw the whale at last second go under the boat and then reappear next to Moonshine’s starboard side. That was the first out of an estimated 25 whales we saw that day. We also saw 100’s of dolphins and a few occasional Mola Mola. The ocean was alive!
Twelve hours later we were passing Morro Rock. It was the day before the opening day of salmon season. The first time recreational salmon fishing was open for 3 years. The place was hoppin! This was also unfortunate because the few guest docks were all taken up. I called the harbor patrol on the radio thinking that what I was seeing for the fuel dock wasn’t really the fuel dock. After getting confirmation, we moored up to a dock and had to climb a 15 foot ladder to get onto it and find the guy to get us fuel. Wild times! We happened by the Morro Bay Yacht Club and I hollered at the guy launching a dinghy. He happened to be the admiral of the yacht club and said he was moving his boat to the mooring field and we were welcome to tie up to their dock for the night. What a score! Fresh king salmon for dinner nearby and even a shower!
LEG 5, DAY 5: MORRO BAY YACHT CLUB TO MONTEREY BAY– 16.5 HOURS
We didn’t celebrate our success up the coast just yet. We had a long day ahead of us so we got to bed early. At 0300 the next morning, we were off from the Yacht Club and headed back out to sea. This section is long and there isn’t anywhere to stop. We had another relatively calm day filled with whales and dolphins. Lauren and I have passed through Big Sur many times but seeing it all from the water gave us a different perspective as to just how big it really is. Half of the day it was socked in fog and low cloud coverage but it broke out in the afternoon. Towards the end of this trip we found out the Spinnaker Cup, a sailboat race from San Francisco to Monterey Harbor, was going to occupy all the guest slips. We were either going to anchor outside the harbor for the night or head across Monterey Bay as the sun set and come into Santa Cruz at night. As we approached Point Pinos, we heard a distress call from some fishermen having engine trouble just north of our position. Their call to the coast guard yielded no results. Coast Guard was 6 hours from being able to get them and TowBoat was not in the area. It still seems insane to me at the amount of fishermen and vessels transiting in and around Monterey Bay and this is a response you’d get from the CG. We decided to tow the vessel into Monterey Harbor about 40 minutes away. When I called, the lady I had been speaking with about a slip said she would have one of their harbor patrol boats meet us out to tow the fishermen the rest of the way in. In doing so, she informed me of a slip opening from a sailboat backing out of their windless race. To our surprise, many many sailboats bobbed out in the bay with the current all night and never made it to the harbor.
LEG 6, DAY 6: MONTEREY HARBOR TO PILLAR POINT HARBOR– 9.5 HOURS
Nine and a half hours on the water? Seems easy at this point! We had expected some epic whale spotting crossing Monterey Bay but saw none. Boomer was on watch and spotted a shark cruising the surface. We turned around and got close enough to get some good pics. It was at least 6 feet if not more and didn’t seem to be bothered by us at all. We started to spot whales on our last hour of the trip coming in. Unfortunately we also encountered a large commercial fishing vessel that made some questionable moves, making us alter course 3 times when he was clearly the give way vessel and even dumping his black water tank illegally within 2 miles of shore as he crossed in front of us. I would love to write a sternly written letter to his mother but I was advised against it. We made it safe and sound to Pillar Point Harbor and headed straight to Sam’s Chowder House for our favorite lobster rolls! They never disappoint!!!
LEG 7, DAY 7: THE GOLDEN GATE
This area is special to us. We lived through covid in Pacifica overlooking the ocean. We’d only toured bits and pieces of San Francisco. The history behind the Golden Gate alone without the bridge is long and storied. We had made good time. We hadn't seen much wind this entire trip. As we came into the shipping convergence zone outside the Gate, the wind finally turned on. For the first time in 7 days, we were able to hoist the sails and shut down the engine. It was a glorious downwind entrance as the clouds lifted and the sun beat down on the towering red bridge overhead. We couldn’t have scripted it any better. This was the last day for us to make it here for a week as gale force winds and 10-15 foot seas were forecasted starting the following day. We almost had an issue as it was Memorial Day and in typical fashion, we didn’t have a slip booked or somewhere to dock. There is always the anchor. After many calls, Schoonmaker Harbor finally called us back. They hid a key for us and were happy to accommodate us and our last minute shenanigans. Our arrival was met by a rambunctious new crew of family that gave us a proper welcome with cookies, cupcakes, beer, and smiles!
I will be forever grateful for the time spent with Boomer, Tom, and Lauren. We couldn’t have done it without our faithful crew and I’ll remember this trip until the day that I die. I’m stoked for more adventures moving forward as we explore the San Francisco Bay and continue our planning for the around the world trip. Stay tuned! Fair winds and following seas. And for now, we’re still afloat. YEW!
