Asunto
Our life afloat on a boat
Sailing Trips
Sailing, sailing, sailing That’s why we live the life we do, so that we can untie the lines and explore the world in our own backyard. From Sept 2015-October 2016 we sailed with a 2 year old and a baby from Vancouver to Mexico, across to Hawaii, across to Alaska and then down, Read More
Six pm and we are off. The swell is gentle and the wind is quiet. We will be motoring tonight. As we head off into a glorious sunset of crimson red and orange a large pod of dolphins whizz past us. A few alter course to say hello and others leapt out of the water to show off their glistening bodies silhouetted against the setting sun. Does it get any more spectacular than this?
As the sun sinks into the ocean and darkness settles in we start to pick up some heavy rain ahead of us on the radar, followed by flashes of lightening. We have never been on the water with lightening like this, and it is certainly nerve racking. Most of the flashes are over the hill ahead of us, but we watch one fork that hits the water. Spooky. Putting Fynn to bed I had to control my fear as I watched the sky light up through the portlights. It was scarier inside as I couldn’t tell where the lightening was, making it seem directly above us and causing my imagination to run wild. I thought of how scary it would be to be hit and what I would do. In the end there isn’t much to be done, so I stuck the iPad in the oven and hoped for the best.
I had the 8-10pm shift and I watched us pass through the storm and finally disappear behind us. After that the night was quiet and uneventful. We arrived in San Simeon by at 6:45 am, just as the sun was rising.
San Simeon was gorgeous. The water was clear and emerald green, Heart Castle was lit up and glowing in the dawn light and the smell of eucalyptus was wafting down from shore. Sadly this was only to be a very short pit stop. As the sun came up it quickly became apparent that there was no way to land the dinghy in the swell. The waves were crashing onto the beach incessantly. So we took it all in one more time then hauled anchor and continued south to Saint Louis Obisco, or SLO for short.
Little Marine Biologist
Not so still. I guess it gets this name from the calm waters of the summer. We continued to have swell after swell. Fynn is now a pro at balancing with the rocking and timing her movements with the calm. Kyber is less than pleased. We tucked Asunto in behind Pescardo Rocks just as the sun was setting. The bay is getting choked with winter kelp already but we found a hole and stuck well. Lining the shore is a world class gold course and the Pebble Beach Yacht Club and Resort. The Yacht club has a dinghy dock and the moorings in the bay are privately owned. Unfortunately the dinghy dock is raised during the winter (after Labor Day) so it was another beach landing for us. Although scattered with marine debris, the sand was luxuriously soft between my toes. Kolby went off for a dive in the afternoon, which was momentarily suspended when his BCD and tank rig fell off the back transom and sunk to the bottom of the sea. Fortunately he found it in the murk and had a great dive, finding abalone, lingcod and other rockfish. Returning to the boat with his loot we proceeded to learn how to process an abalone (more complicated than you might think; thanks YouTube!) and feasted on abalone chowder and fresh baked bread. We had a flash thunderstorm and discussed boats being struck by lightening. Tonight will be our first overnight passage since arriving in San Francisco as we head some 80 nm to San Simeon Bay and the base of Hearst Castle.
There is no place to anchor in Monterey. Full stop. The protected bay behind the breakwater is so full of mooring balls it is hard to even navigate through the boats. The moorings have even begun to spill outside the breakwater. We considered anchoring out here, but it is directly open to the weather, so we decided to head to the public dock where we could finish a few more projects. We spent two nights at the Marina ($0.80/foot) and were surprised how much swell there still was. The lines creak and groaned as the boat pulled away then bounced back into the dock. Monterey is a pretty good place to hang out and get stuff done. There was everything we needed within walking distance – dog park, grocery store, marine store, dive store and an awesome playground. We had a pretty busy day of chores our first day. The new inverter was installed, the satellite phone antenna was removed from the mast (where is was getting too much interference from the rigging) and the wifi booster was installed on the spreader instead. The next day we visited the totally amazing Monterey Bay aquarium. At $40 a ticket admission isn’t cheap, but it is worth it. They have three amazing ‘big tanks’ that were unlike anything we have seen before. One tank had tuna that looked to weight several hundred pounds. They also have some really unique displays that merge art with science.
Great playground – she didn’t stop moving
Monterey Bay Aquarium
We took our leave of the Bay late in the afternoon and headed off for Stillwater Cove.
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