If you are going to San Fransisco.....

Leaving Fort Bragg

Some days it seemed that we would never get here…..and here we are.   Mid day on Sep 13^th  we passed under the Golden Gate bridge on Kialoa.  This is a huge milestone for us, one of those life moments that we will never forget.

 

We left Fort Bragg on the 12^th planning a stop in Bodega Bay but conditions were calm, the boat was moving well and Scott was feeling less seasick than usual so we continued on.  Marshall needed to get home and we wanted to be in San Fransisco. 

24 hours after leaving Fort Bragg a rather tired but not sea sick crew on
 the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge

This is what the underside of the Golden Gate Bridge looks like
I know that everyone has wondered about that!  

We had motored the whole way from Fort Bragg but the wind picked up just outside the Golden Gate and we were able to turn the engine off and live out our dream of sailing under the bridge.  And best of all, Scott was not feeling at all sea sick so he was able to fully enjoy the moment!  

We then proceeded to have a fantastic three hour sail all the way to the Marina where we are staying.  The bay was incredibly busy with sailboats and we think we saw more of them in those three hours than we saw on the rest of our trip.

San Fransisco Skyline

On Sunday we bid Marshall a fond farewell and see you soon, he will be crewing with 

Velvet Sky when they travel from San Diego to Cabo  San Lucas so we hope to see him then.  Thank you Marshall for all you did in helping us to bring Kialoa to San Fransisco, we are so grateful to have you as a friend.

Velvet Sky had elected to stop in Bodega Bay so they arrived at the Brisbane Marina shortly after Marshall left us.  We have now rented a car together and will be doing some exploring of this lovely city.

This leg of our trip took 23 days, we departed Seattle on Aug 21^st and arrived here on Sep 13^th.  We had a total of 192 travel hours and 144 of those were spent with the engine running,  not an enviable number…..however I guess too little wind is better than too much wind

Hootie and the blowfish enjoying the San Fransisco Bay

Our grateful thanks go out to all those who have been a part of supporting our dream, by words and by deeds, in large and small ways, you have all helped to get us here

Eureka! And further on  

Sep 9th

We left Crescent City early in the morning on Sep 7^th, in company with Velvet Sky and our new friends Scott, Cindy and their son Bucket who are travelling the same route as us.  We set up a radio check in with each other every two hours, and each time Velvet Sky was further ahead of us, however our lesser speed has one advantage, by the time we arrived at Eureka they had arranged for moorage and guided us into our slip in the Marina.  What a treat!

Eureka is about 5 miles up the river so it took a while to get there after an uneventful bar crossing (this is where we make the transition from sea to inland waters, the Columbia river bar being a notoriously bad one).  There is not much going on in Eureka, it appears to be a town in decline, but admittedly we did not spend much time there as we left the next afternoon to make a 100 mile (20 hour) trip to Fort Bragg.  We did not spend enough time thinking about the state of the tide at Eureka as we were busy timing our departure from Eureka so that we would arrive at the Noyo River bar (Fort Bragg) on the flood tide which is the best time to cross the bars.  Because the weather conditions were so calm and our entrance to Eureka had been so easy we were perhaps a little complacent, and left on the ebb tide.  It was sporty! Not dangerous, but definitely sporty!  A little more respect ensued.

Velvet Sky crossing the bar at Eureka, photo courtesy of Marshall, I was too
busy hanging on to take pictures!

The weather was calm and we settled in for a long motor, all was going well, we passed around the dreaded Cape Mendocino so quietly you couldn’t even tell we were there.   But after Cape Mendocino there is another point called Punta Gorda, this one made us feel like we travelling in a giant washing machine, not so much fun for me and Marshall and even less for Scott.  That kind of action is not good for someone prone to seasickness…

But that only lasted for about 40 minutes and then it was back to smoother waters and enough wind to sail for an hour or so under the full moon.  Magic!

Pelican at the riverfront

Looking up the river from the bridge

Velvet Sky arrived at Fort Bragg about 7 am, radioed us directions to our slip, then they went for a well deserved nap.  When we arrived at about 10 am we (easily) crossed the bar and then we were in the narrowest waterway we have been in yet.  The Noyo River is quaint and lovely and is lined with marine businesses and boats in various states of disrepair.  The Marina itself is fairly large and unlike most of the other Marinas we have been in has very few derelict boats hanging around.  (With the exception of Crescent City, which just had very few boats)  It’s nice to see boats being used and taken care of.

With our first sunshine in days we were delighted to strip off the layers and enjoy a quiet day hanging around the waterfront and catching up on missed sleep.

The Skunk Train

Scott and Bucket at a big Redwood

Today we took a ride on the Skunk Train, a four hour trip up the Noyo river through the Redwood forest, picked up some things we needed for the boat, went to the local farmers market,  got some delicious local tomatoes,  grapes and goat cheese and had happy hour with the good folk on Velvet Sky.  I can’t complain about my life.

Always good advice before crossing any lines!

Its the twilight zone....

Crescent City, California
It took fourteen hours of motoring in lumpy seas from Port Orford to get here.  When the wind finally calmed, it really calmed.......Not so good for Scott, he was feeding the fishes.....poor guy is losing weight.
The Crescent City Boat basin was wiped out in the Tsunami of 2011, not nearly as bad as what happened in Japan, but bad enough.  I found a video on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ltLkvZYnxQ.  Anyway they just finished the rebuild of the Marina this year and it looks very sturdy!  The pilings are huge! Built to withstand any future surges.
But the Marina is basically deserted, its very twilight zone.  Where are all the people......

Kialoa feeling a little lonely in this massive marina......

Port Orford, an unexpected haven

Port Orford, Sep 4^th

We have been anchored here since Tuesday…..

We left Newport Monday with high hopes of making our next stop Crescent City, but that was not to be.

Here we are at anchor, looking South, it looks beautiful and sunny
and it is beautiful and sunny but also very windy.

The winds built and by Tuesday morning we were making 6 knots under staysail alone, that’s our smallest foresail, and the forecast was calling for more wind to come and dangerous seas, we were not really sure what they meant by that but it sounded bad.  There is nothing in Port Orford in the way of Marinas but it is a bay that is protected from the north by a big headland and it was the closest place to pull over.  So here we are, getting blown about by gale force  winds, thankful for our excellent anchor as we have not moved an inch in three days.  No one has braved going to shore as that would mean taking the dinghy and it is really windy and it just seems like  too much work and possibly dangerous!  

This is where they keep the fishing boats in Port Orford, on the land! They hoist them in and out daily with the cranes in the background.  According to our Oregon guide book it is one of 6 places in the world that this is done.  Although none of them went out until the same morning we left.  And they say if the fishermen are not going out then it is best not to go either.  We were glad to see them heading out as we were pulling up anchor!  

Aside from the wind the weather is lovely and sunny and reasonably warm, and there has been a grey whale cruising around the bay, mostly along the shoreline.  And there are pelicans, much to my delight!

The whale taking a breath, thats all we ever saw of it.