Northbound

We're halfway home! Sorry, no pictures, I can't find the cord to download photos to the computer, so they'll have to come later. Tom and I left Oceanside at 4 a.m. on Monday morning, and arrived at Newport Beach by 10 a.m. Leigh, Paul and Mara all flew in to Orange County airport, and were shuttled down to the boat by Karen. Karen took Tom back to the airport. In case anyone is worried that Tom might become a sailor, they should know he slept most of the way to Newport Beach. (Editor's note: Tom was up for the 3:45 a.m. departure and did get in a few hours nap after sunrise. He also noted someone else briefly sawing logs before arriving, even though she claims otherwise.)

The rest of us departed at about 5 p.m., and resumed the passage north. It was fairly diecy traveling through the Long Beach/San Pedro area, lots of big ships to negoatiate around. We were making great time, mostly motor sailing, until we hit Conception. It lived up to it's reputation, unfortunately. The National Weather Service and Sailflow had both forecast a pond like passage around Points Conception and Arguello, but....that wasn't the case. We rounded Conception in the dark, bashing and bashing into wind and waves, uncertain about where we were, with our faces glued to the two charting GPS systems at the helm. It was tough sailing, and getting tougher, as were hardly making any headway against the big waves. At about 9 p.m., I decided I'd had enough, could hardly stabilize myself on the boat, and we swung around 180 degrees and headed back down to Cojo anchorage, just below Point Conception. Luckily I had been there on the southbound passage, and it was fine coming into the anchorage in the dark. And it was great to get a full night's sleep in the middle of along passage.

We all figured out why Point Conception is so difficult: it keeps the southern California sailors out of our northern California waters. It really felt like a brick wall today, and it's easy to see how one could get complacent sailing the smooth water and low wind area off the coast of Los Angeles.

This morning we headed back out and spent the whole morning trying to make northward headway past Point Arguello. By about noon we were safely past, the sailing became much more civilized and manageable. Half a day to travel 12 nautical miles! It was still a rough passage, but we are now at Point San Luis, tied up to a morring ball. We'll leave early in the morning to round the point towards Morro Bay (20+ miles) where we'll refuel and take showers. The weather (strong wind forecast-up to gale force) is dicey regarding continuing north tomorrow, we might wait until Friday morning. But it does look good for us to be back in Berkeley by Sunday.