mini-Adventure...Point Reyes

This past weekend the Ardea crew took a test sail north to Drake's Bay in Point Reyes National Seashore. The morning started at 0430 so we could surf a 3 knot ebb out of the bay and into the ocean. As usual, we had a little hangup, this time at the pump out station. Our debacle is easily summed with a quote from Anna, "It really smells like shit down here."

Once the "situation" was resolved, we were on our way out the gate with the sun rising over an aft quarter!

hawt!

Besides proving to ourselves we could spend a whole weekend on a 31 ft. boat without ripping each others heads off, the main purpose of this trip was to learn how to use our new windvane steering system and, as it turns out, the vane steers a better course then we do. It is hard getting used to just sitting there while watching a big puff scream towards the boat, our instincts yell "hike harder, ease in 3, 2, 1" but in our new reality we should just turn the page in our book and let the vane do its thang.

After a few hours of sailing and naps by various crew members, we approached the bay under motor in calm conditions while dodging crab pots. We anchored in just over 15 feet of water...

Bluebird Day

Once in securely anchored we popped a fairly fine bottle of wine and pretended we were located in a South Pacific atoll, only the water temperature made us realize otherwise.

Red Spectra Line in Action

The sun dropped behind the cliffs of the bay and we all crashed around 2000 after a delicious batch of cookies.

0700 showed 8 knots from the north with fog however, the wind quickly died and the fog stuck around. Weather reports showed no more then 3 knots anywhere on the northern California coast, Plan A (sailing around the Farallon Islands) was thrown out the window as we devised Plan B.

The first order of business was to get some exercise by rowing our new dingy (in need of a good name) to shore for a quick hike. It is the beginning of mating season for Elephant Seals and since we are pretty sure one seal could take all three of us we did our best to find beach with no seals attached, this proved fruitless.

Gimme' your Salmon

Those guys are big. During the hike we decided the prudent choice was to start motoring back to San Francisco Bay and hope the wind would fill enough to carry us our to the Farallon Islands. The plan resulted in a 7 hour motor back to Berkeley Marina. The motor consisted of dodging crab pots, trying to figure out a distress call made over VHF, and another beautiful Pacific Ocean sunset.

California High Pressure System

While we didn't get all the sailing in we wanted this trip was a huge success and exactly how we wanted to start our lives as cruisers.

Cheers.