The last time I wrote we were in Eureka desperately needing a better selection of wine and waiting on weather. We finally got both!
We seem to keep running into people we know. We thought this was over, with the exception of running into other cruisers, but we got one last surprise. We were walking down the dock on Thursday and someone we knew from Portland has been helping a family move down the coast. They were only moored 4 boats over from us. It was a nice reunion and he was very complementary of the progress on Reisender.
Well, Friday dawned and we had the window we needed to make our next run to Bodega Bay (where they filmed "The Birds"). It was 180 miles and we had Cape Mendocino ahead of us. Cape Mendocino is called the Cape Horn of the west coast. We've done it twice before on other boats and we knew it would be bumping, but staying off shore by 10 miles would keep us a safe distance. The only problem was the offshore report for 10 miles or more was much worse than that of 10 miles and closer. We decided of a course about 8 miles off. I must say it was the smoothest rounding of Mendocino we've ever experienced. This was such a relief as we left Eureka with only about 300 yards of visibility. Thank Goodness for radar! The morning we left was the first decent weather window and it looked like a parade of boats leaving the harbor. There were 5 or 6 that I know of, which means there must be another 3 or 4 after that all heading to different locations. As I said, our rounding went smoothly, which is a blessing. It doesn't always go that well for most people. The afternoon went along rather boringly, another blessing. I'd rather had a boring passage than an exciting one. We did have a little excitement, We raised the jib for an hour or so. It's the first time we've ever been able to do that. Reisender is officially a sailboat!!! Well, a little excitement was worth it, but then the winds started to kick up and we were back to motoring. We didn't mind that! WE'D RAISED THE SAIL!!!!! Well, the night came and went, but a little bumpy, but again we didn't mind. Then the winds clocked around to southerlies. YUCK!! But we persisted, Bodega Bay was only a few hours away. Then the swells began to build. So now we have 15-20 knot southerlies on our nose and intermittent 12 foot swells out of the northwest and 3 foot out of the southwest. Scott said I did a great job as we rounded Bodega head. I was a little nervous, but we had been in stuff just as bad earlier on our leg and we did have daylight with us. We came around and finally made our way into the shadow and protection of Bodega head. We tied off at Spud Point Marina just at sunset. It's always a call for wine or cocktails after a crazy passage. That night we were warm with wine and accomplishment as we watched Alfred Hitchcock's classic "The Birds".
Monday would have been the last weather window for a few days to make it to San Francisco, the highlight of our US west coast trip. To say we LOVE San Francisco is an understatement. We both feel at home here and have never failed to enjoy the time we spend here. I also want to see a couple of museums that we haven't seen yet. We had talked about passing as the weather windows are getting shorter, but after everything we've been through in the past 6 years, we decided we deserved this indulgence. We left on Monday at 8 am. FOG! followed by RAIN! That was our entire trip down to San Francisco. We also had southerlies again, but that was only an issue for the first third of the trip, then we turned east to make our way into the Bay. The fog stayed with us all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, but we were on a flood tide, so we had a really smooth crossing under the bridge. The fog was so thick we couldn't see the top of the bridge. It's the first time I wasn't really nervous about the fog. We had AIS, our chart plotter, and radar. Between the 3 items we could identify all shipping traffic with AIC, right down to ship name, destination, size of vessel, and speed. Well, to shorten the story we were tied down to Emeryville Marina on the east bay. It's a very full, very maze like marina, but we found our slip and I'm happy with the mooring rate. We are convenient to the city and are looking forward to seeing some good friends.
Well, I think I've rattled on for a while and I need to go handle checking into the marina and get some fresh produce, meat, and of course wine!
We are safe, sound, and happy!
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