Day 1, Wednesday July 30 - Sausalito
Day 2, Thursday July 31 - Eastern Pacific Ocean
Day 3, Friday August 1 - San Simeon
Day 4-6, Saturday August 2 - Monday August 4 - Morro Bay

Day 7, Tuesday August 5 - Around Pt. Conception and to Cojo Anchorage
Day 8, Wednesday August 6 - Cuyler Harbor, San Miguel Island
Day 9, Thursday August 7 - Becher's Bay, Santa Rosa Island
Day 10, Friday August 8 - Diablo Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island
Day 11, Saturday August 9 - Diablo Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island

Day 12, Sunday August 10 - Fry's Harbor, Santa Cruz Island
Day 13, Monday August 11 - Fry's Harbor, Santa Cruz Island
Day 14, Tuesday August 12 - Pelican Bay, Santa Cruz Island
Day 15 , Wednesday August 13 - Pelican Bay, Santa Cruz Island

Day 16 - 18, Thursday - Saturday August 14 -16 - Santa Barbara
Day 19, Sunday August 17 - Twin Harbors, Santa Cruz Island

Day 20, Monday August 18 - Prisoner's Harbor, Santa Cruz Island
Day 21, Tuesday August 19 - Prisoner's Harbor, Santa Cruz Island
Day 22, Wednesday August 20 - Little Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island
Day 23, Thursday August 21 - Little Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island

Day 24 Friday August 22 - Coches Prietos Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island
Day 25, Saturday August 23 - Coches Prietos Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island
Day 26, Sunday August 24 - Fry's Harbor, Santa Cruz Island
Day 27, Monday August 25 - Smuggler's Cove, Santa Cruz Island

Day 28 - 29, Tuesday - Wednesday August 26 - 27 - Anacapa Island and Channel Islands Harbor
Day 30 - 33, Thursday - Sunday August 28 to 31 - Santa Barbara
Day 34, September 1 - Cojo Anchorage and Eastern Pacific Ocean

Day 35 - 40, September 2 to 7 - Morro Bay
Day 41, September 8 - San Simeon Anchorage and Eastern Pacific Ocean
Day 42 - 46, September 9 to 13 - Monterey Bay
Day 47-48, September 14 and 15 - Capitola
Day 49, September 16 - Santa Cruz
Day 50, September 17 - Half Moon Bay
Day 51, September 18 - Approach to San Francisco and the Golden Gate

The Plan
This cruise has been in my mind ever since John Doggett sailed Bay Dream to Southern California two years ago. It sounded like such a great adventure, and was something that I wanted to do. Last year I tried to combine such a trip with my 400-mile offshore passage to Morro Bay (see racing pages) but a bit of bad weather and lack of time conspired to thwart my attempt. So this year I set out again, giving myself two months and a very simple plan.

My plan literally consisted of a general start date, a desire to go south as quickly as possible, time for about one month in the islands, and a desire to be back home by October first. In detail the plan included Morro Bay as my first stop, and a list of anchorages on Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands that I thought would be good stops. I purposely did not plan at a higher level of detail because I wanted plenty of room to adjust the plan as weather and tides might dictate.

This simple plan does not mean that I did not prepare thoroughly. I read and studied Brian Fagan's Cruising Guide to Central and Southern California until the pages fell out, bought the necessary charts, selected waypoints and entered coordinates into my two GPSs, researched the islands and obtained the required landing permits, reviewed the weather that I might encounter, scoured the sailing and cruising forums for information about sailing to the Channel Islands, etc, etc.

Day 1 - Richardson Bay, Sausalito - Wednesday July 30: Chart 18649 This was the easy day. Finish with last minute stowing of a few things, clean the boat, and sail over to Richardson Bay so that I could get a good start early on Thursday morning July 31.

As I headed out the estuary I was reminded that this is an active port, and commercial and recreational traffic share the waters.

I met two inbound ships, the first of which was headed for the turning basin before docking.

By the time I had passed the first ship, the second was holding position and appeared to be headed to the turning basin also.

The fact that two tugs can turn a ship around in little more than its own length, make allowances for wind and current, and still be considerate of recreational traffic says a lot to me. This ship waited until I was past before starting its turn and this was the view back as I met the second ship.

By 1940 on Wednesday evening I was at anchor in Richardson Bay and getting ready for an early start on Thursday.

Day 2 - Eastern Pacific Ocean - Thursday July 31: Chart 18680 Thursday morning broke with a low marine layer and lingering fog. Anchor was up and down by 0630 and I was under way shortly there after.

I motorsailed to the Golden Gate Bridge...

...just as the sun peaked through the marine layer above Sausalito.

I was under the Golden Gate Bridge by 0700 and by 0900 I had crossed the bar and turned Libations' head south. We reached south in W breezes of about 12 knots until about 1300 when the winds veered to the NW.

After 0900 Thursday when I turned south I sailed the entire way using the Monitor wind vane to steer. I started with full main and 95% jib in W breeze of 12 knots.

At 1300 and about 16 nm NW of Pigeon Point I put 2 reefs in the main and hoisted my 115% hank on....giving me twins and reefed main in a 12 knot NW wind. At 1700 I was about 6 nm west of Ano Nuevo, still in 12-13 knot NW winds. Within half an hour I took the twin down in 17 knots NW wind. At 1800 I was 8-10 nm due west of Santa Cruz and beginning my cffshore crossing of Monterey Bay...I furled the jib to its reef patches in 18-20 knots NW wind. I sailed most of the night in 18-20 knots out of the NW with partially furled jib and 2 reefs in the main....making 5-6 knots all the way.

Day 3 - San Simeon Anchorage - Friday August 1: Chart 18680 Chart 18700 Chart 18703 At 0400 on Friday I was about 5 nm due west of Point Sur and winds began to increase. I completely furled the jib at 0400 and took the pole down after I had some morning light. Winds were 25 to 30 with max recorded by my anemometer of 36 knots. Seas were getting pretty boisterous at about 10 feet (hard to tell). This turned out to be the only time during my 51-day cruise that I felt the approach of seasickness. It is interesting how the transition from just enough wind to almost too much wind is very subtle...sneaking up on one.

As an aside I'll addd some thoughts regarding sailing with twins: The real advantage of twins going downwind is that the majority of sail area is at the bow...so the boat is literally pulled through the water. This greatly reduces the likelyhood of an unruly broach and all of the angst that comes with it. This advantage is somewaht diminished by continuing to sail with a full or only moderately reefed main. In this particular instance I reefed the main to its second reef point when I hoisted the twins and all worked quite well...until the wind built to the point where I took the hank-on twin down. Even at this point Libations was well balanced and was quite mannerly. However, as the wind continued to build and I furled the jib I was left with the main set at its second reef point. At this point I was basically committed to sailing downwind with the main as it was...and with the wind at 25 to 30 knots it was not likely that I could further reef the main without some real difficulty.

While conditions during this leg never really deteriorated to the point that I felt unsafe, I'll admit to being concerned about my sail configuration in what was obviously deteriorating conditions. With the full advantage of hindsight, I realize that I should have further reefed the main before taking down the hank-on twin. This would have left me with a triple-reefed main and my jib. Even with the jib fully furled I believe I would have felt more comfortable (literally and mentally) with the main at its triple reef point.

Another comment about my twin configuration relates to using my spinnaker pole and main boom to stabilize the configuration of the twins. For the hank-on twin, I run the sheet through a snatch block attached to the aft end of the boom. This prevents the sheet from chafing on the boom and extends the block as far outboard as possible. This works fine and I will continue to rely on this sheeting method for the hank-on twin. I use a preventer on the boom for added security. The furling jib is sheeted to its normal jib car on the rail and I use the spinnaker pole to stabilize the jib. I use a foreguy to keep the pole off of the forward lower shrouds and rely on the jib sheet to serve as an afterguy. This sometimes requires me to move the jib car forward on the rail track (to provide the required downward force to the clew) but it avoids the need for a separate afterguy. This configuration of running rigging works pretty well with one minor qualification: when it comes time to furl the jib completely I am forced to leave a small, handkerchief sized area of jib flying. This results from the fact that if the jib is furled completely the sheet needs to be released and the pole is free to strike the headstay and furled jib. To prevent this situation the sheet must remain under tension and because the pole extends beyond the headstay a small area of the jib remains unfurled. I like this rig setup because both the jib and pole can be repositioned in a single move: ease the sheet and furl the jib.

While I was at Morro Bay over the weekend I visited the NOAA Buoy reports and captured the following screen images of conditions at Cape San Martin buoy, which is approximately 35 nm south of my 0400 position. The red arrows show recorded conditions at roughly 0200 and 0500 of Friday, August 1.

These data reports seem to generally confirm my observations of early Friday morning off of Point Sur.

I slept a bit during Thur/Fri night and spent most of my time sitting on the companionway steps with the lower washboard as a backrest. Friday morning a couple of waves jumped into the cockpit and made me feel pretty smart for sitting on my companionway perch. (These waves seemed to be smaller waves that were ranging across the larger ones at an angle rather than the huge following seas. They simply slapped up against the hull and dropped into the cockpit.)

View from the shelter of the companionway on Friday afternoon near Piedras Blancas. These seas were smaller and less steep than the ones I encountered earlier at Pt. Sur.

I was anchored at San Simeon on Friday afternoon by 1620 and motorsailed over to Morro Bay on Saturday morning.

Day 4-6 - Morro Bay - Saturday August 2 - Monday August 4, 2008: Chart 18700 Chart 18703 I stayed in Morro Bay waiting for a good weather window to round Point Conception. I visited Morro Bay last summer so I'll not add any detail here except to restate how hospitable the Morro Bay Yacht Club is to transient boaters. I met Scott and Linda on their Nauticat 38 Samantha headed south for the Ba-Ha-Ha, and Seattle-based Jim and Jan on board their DeFever 38 Mañana invited me over for evening cocktails and tales of their year in Mexico.

My nearly constant cruising companion, the Brown Pelican, was in good form as I waited in Morro Bay for the right weather to round Pt. Conception.

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