Cygnus' GPS track log from Olympia through Santa Barbara

The link below is to a kmz file showing the voyage of Cygnus to date. Enjoy. :)

Track log: Olympia through Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA

We left Morro Bay on Wednesday with a favorable wind in the forecast. The first hour or so was all motoring, then the wind came up and we were able to sail all the way to Point Conception. This is where the California coast turns eastward into the Santa Barbara Channel and on to Los Angeles. We are now officially in Southern California and, until this morning, have been enjoying clear skies and very warm days. Today the weather has turned foul, just as forecast, and we are moored in the marina here to wait for better sailing and a trip to the Channel Islands.

Pete's tablet had some trouble loading pictures in our last couple of posts. This was likely due to poor internet connections. So, here are the missing pictures of our exploits:

Pete enjoying a vineyard in Napa Valley

Historic ships at San Francisco's Aquatic Park

"The Mechanic's" statue on Market Street in San Francisco and some urban ambiance

Scene on Columbus Street in San Francisco after a wonderful pizza dinner in Little Italy

Herr Weinerschnitzel, our trusty sailing crew who keeps watch from an antenna at Cygnus' stern, and the historic ship Balclutha at Aquatic Park

Pete enjoying a stationary San Francisco street car since we are both too cheap to ride one

Sailing out of San Francisco

The tall ship Lady Washington at Half Moon Bay

Kayaking with the Cormorants at San Simeon Bay

An otter enjoys a meal of Dungeness crab while a seagull hopes for a scrap or two

Morro Bay

We have spent a few days here after leaving San Simeon Bay. Morro bay is a sleepy tourist and fishing port. A great place to anchor and wait for a weather window. Very friendly people here. We're hoping to get going again Wednesday, and get around Point Conception.
     We spent some time installing a manual bilge pump in the event we loose our 12 volt system.
    Sorry for the lack of photos. My tablet and the Blogger are having some issues. We hope to resolve them soon.

Half Moon Bay to San Simeon Bay

We motored from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay, arriving at about dinner time. Enjoyed a beautiful sunset while barbecuing, but the infernal flies and the cool weather drove us indoors to enjoy our meal.

Early the next morning we motored out on oily seas. We intended on going only as far as Santa Cruz, but decided to cruz past when a beautiful northwest wind came up. We took advantage of the opportunity and decided to sail overnight to wherever the wind would take us. Unfortunately it died about 1:00 am, and by 6:00 am we gave up and motored on to San Simeon on a gorgeously warm and sunny day. We even got some suntanning in. We arrived at San Simeon about 2:00 pm, set the hook and chilled out with a beer or two while looking at the 160 room Hearst Castle on the hill above us. Somehow, Cygnus holds more appeal to us that the static opulance of Hearst Castle.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, we will attempt to get to Morrow Bay. Although not our choice of anchorages, the weather may prevent us from moving farther any time soon.

Half Moon Bay

Pete and I flew back to the boat on the 24th of October. After 2 weeks in Quesnel, BC I was ready to get back to finish a few small projects (and one big one), and continue the voyage. Pete was amazed to find so much sunshine and warmth. It was sunny nearly every day, and usually up in the mid 70’s (almost 25 Celsius, eh). We put the roller furling on the boat (this was the big project), which went extremely well. Then we got a sail maker working on revamping our headsail to work on a furler. While this was being done we worked a wide variety of small projects. Eventually I had to ask Pete to stop finding new projects so we could finish and start sailing again.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Along the way we found plenty of time for fun. We spent 3 days exploring San Francisco. This included the art museum at the Legion of Honor, walking all the way across the Golden Gate Bridge (and back again), some great Italian food, chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, the Civic Center, Ghirardelli square (where we loaded up on chocolate), the crookedest street in the world, and more stuff I am forgetting right now. Pete snuck aboard a cable car that was not moving long enough for me to capture the crime photographically (I will not admit to having encouraged this miscreant behavior). We also spent a day in a rental car tasting wine in the Napa Valley. I managed to buy only one overpriced bottle during our wine tasting. On the way home we bought 4 more bottles for the same total price at Wal-Mart that are just as good.

After all this the sail maker had our sail ready. We installed it a few days ago and started test sailing on San Francisco Bay. After anchoring 1 night at Aquatic Park, with a view of Ghirardelli Square, we sailed on out the Golden Gate. We motored (no wind, not much choice) to Half Moon Bay where we found the tall ship Lady Washington on her way out of the harbor on to her next adventure.