Morro Bay and an unexpected new crew member

We left Monterey last night at 4 p.m. and arrived in Morro Bay at noon today, with some very heavy wind during the middle of the night. We sailed under reefed main alone, and still did better than 7 knots with waves breaking around us. It was my first overnight passage as skipper, and I was awake most of the night. Doug was seasick, Rick was up a good part of the night too, and Catherine (who is usually seasick) was fine due to the help of a scopalamine patch. We sailed the whole length of Big Sur in the dark, only seeing the big lighthouses along that stretch of coast, Point Pinos, Big Sur Light, Point Piedras Blancas and finally, Morro Bay Light. Not so bad for a first night time passage as skipper, I'll be a lot less anxious next time. Our departure was before dark so that new crew could "learn the ropes" aboard Pearl before having to sail in darkness. It worked out great, we reefed the main in daylight, and left it that way all night. And the stars are no less gorgeous when you're skipper!

It was beautiful sailing this morning, and we picked up a passenger, a little yellow finch (meadowlark?). The bird stayed on the boat, mostly right in the cockpit with us, until we tied up in at the Morro Bay Yacht Club. Doug named it Morris of Morro Bay, and Morris clearly prefers sailing. We picked him up about 10 miles out to sea, but he certainly is a land bird. Perhaps he makes a habit of this kind of hitchhiking, as he certainly seemed comfortable to join us in the cockpit of the boat this morning.

Our original plan was to have stopped at San Simeon anchorage, but we weren't certain how well protected it would be from swells in this weather pattern, so we continued on to Morro Bay. The sea lions here are better behaved, and don't seem to like sleeping on boats that slowly sinking.

It's really windy here in Morro Bay, we're glad to not have stopped in a semi-protected anchorage, and instead to have tied up to a nice yacht club with showers. As soon as everyone is done sleeping off the overnight passage, we'll decide about what we will do tomorrow, as the forecast is fairly dicey for the next couple of days.