Dateline: San Luis Obispo Bay, October 31, 2012
While Kalliope spends over a month in Monterey Harbor her owners visit Palo Alto, New York and San Diego to visit family and friends.Between travels ashore we enjoy Monterey where we find a small town with good public transportation, good health care and free wi-fi provided by the city.
There is also abundant wildlife in the harbor. Recently a large school of sardines entered the harbor and were unable to find their way out. The resident California Sea Lions patrol the harbor in packs of six to sixteen and aggressively hunt the remaining sardines.Following the sardines are cormorants, gulls, herons and pelicans. The pelicans circle overhead and, when they spot a careless fish, fold their wings and dive violently into the water. I found this quite unnerving when one hit the water close enough to splash me as I walked by on the float. The sea lions come to the surface, take a quick breath, roll on their side, lift one flipper in the air and dive for another tasty morsel. As I walk down the float toward shore a single fish, apparently pursued by the sea lions, jumps out of the water and lands on the walkway. It has time to flop only once before one of the waiting gulls grabs and swallows it a split second before other gulls converge to steal it from the lucky one. The fish was large relative to the size of the gull, so it seems quite remarkable that the bird was able to swallow it at all.
 |
Birds on float in Monterey wait for hapless sardine. The Gull catches one. The others try to steal it from him/her. |
The regal heron is above the fray . . .
but the sea lions are in the thick of it.
Awaking at anchor in the calm water of Morro Bay’s small boat harbor, we grab a quick bite, launch the tender and paddle a short way to a public float provided for folks like us. Then we walk the other half of town, the half we didn’t walk yesterday evening. The town is in the shadow of a“volcanic plug” which rises from the surf to a height of 580 feet with very steep sides and a roughly circular footprint. The surrounding sea, land and beach are relatively flat in contrast. Our morning walk takes us along a park-like footpath past commercial fishing boats, restaurants, a large electric power generation plant and a small Coast Guard station to an undeveloped area that includes a beach and this big rock known as Morro Rock. A busy parking lot serves the adjacent beach where lots of surfers suit up for the adventure. I comment that this may be the most surfers I’ve ever seen in one place. Though it is a relatively calm day, there is still a respectable swell breaking on the beach and we enjoy watching the athletes ride wave after wave.
Throughout our walk we occasionally ask each other if we want to take the short sail from here to San Luis Obispo or wait one more day. Mexico is calling Gregg and he finally decides he wants to get another 20 miles closer. We walk back to the tender, paddle to Kalliope, stow the gear, crank the engine, pull the anchor and move on out to sea. As the wind is calm, we motor to the south, eventually, in a show of optimism, unfurling the big jib sail. Our course leads close to shore and we enjoy the unfolding view of beach, dunes and eventually bluffs rising from the water. As is often the case, the wind picks up in the afternoon and the sail pulls well. We give the engine a rest.
October 30, 2012
Approaching San Simeon in the dark and fog, it occurs to me that a few months ago we would heave-to and wait for daylight to make this approach but increasing confidence allows us to anchor up in this secure shelter and get a good rest before pushing on. A wise old man once told me serious boating accidents happen mostly to people who get over-confident, so we are being very careful.
We are equipped with good charts and multiple GPS devices. By carefully monitoring both, we can know where we are and the direction to the desired anchorage. We even know when an unlighted black hulk looms out of the fog that it is the pier shown on the chart. We don’t know, except by direct observation that the one bright light visible is a commercial fishing boat at anchor and it is a good reference point for our anchorage. As we set the anchor, we hear the surf on the beach just to the north. The next morning the fog clears somewhat and we can see the beach and gentle surf.
Gregg thinkd this is a vulture circling
over the barrier island at Morro Bay.
We clear the buoy marking the shoals off Point Buchon and
see an apparition in the distance. There
are two huge domes, each somewhat like Morro Rock, (remember Morro Rock?) But, they are too regular to be anything but
man-made. They are marked on the chart
simply as “domes” but a security zone is also noted on the chart. By hauling out the pilot book, a NOAA
publication which provides some narrative on coastal features, I learned that
boats are not allowed within 2,000 yards of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power
Plant. My ignorance on this topic is now
slightly reduced. We probably would have
seen this huge installation from 20 miles away if we approached from the west. It looks very vulnerable from a 21st
century perspective.
The wind continues to increase and the sun comes out as we
turn to the east following the coast.
This gives us a more favorable angle to the wind improving our speed and
soon we are in San Luis Obispo Bay, protected from the NE wind and swell. What a great day!
West end of Anacapa Island near Santa Barbara. A funny thing happened here:
November 6, 2012
HONK! HONK! HONK! HONK! A loud horn wakes me from a deep sleep. With my eyes open, I can see we are being
swept with searchlights. The time is
4:30 a.m. I emerge from the hatch
showing only head and shoulders. “Come
on out.” commands an authoritative amplified voice. I emerge showing both hands and wearing
socks, jockey shorts and a smile. Have
you ever seen a skinny wrinkled sixty-five year old man in shorts and a
smile? The approaching craft is easily
recognized as a standard government issue U.S. Coast Guard motor lifeboat. I run down a mental checklist. We have proper documents, proper lights are showing,
life vests are within arm’s reach, I made no discharge of sewage or oil, the
National Park Service specifically permitted us to anchor here at Anacapa
Island; I have nothing to hide.
The voice asks “Is anyone else aboard?” I tell them my wife is also aboard and, when
asked, I deny having any weapons. At
this point they close to within two feet and two armed, uniformed men climb
aboard Kalliope. “I need to check the
engine room.” the no-longer amplified voice states, starting down the
companionway. After a cursory look
around the cabin, the man returns to the deck and the life boat moves farther
away. “We are sorry to bother you, but
we got a report of suspicious activity out here-we have to check it out. How long have you been here? Have you seen any activity?” I ramble on about the small boats that passed
in the last two days. There was also a
Navy helicopter supporting yesterday’s live fire exercise to the south. Of course he wants to see our identification
and vessel documentation so we head below while Deb chats up the handsome young
man on deck. I pull on jeans and a shirt
before pulling the requested documents and he copies down the data he requires. Returning to the deck, they apologize again
and return to their boat which steams off to the south.
I want to get an early start today in any event, so I enjoy
my coffee and cereal while admiring the calm waters of the cove. As planned, we are underway motoring east
along the coast of the island well before daylight. In the next cove, a catamaran is anchored
close in under the cliff with no lights.
It looks much more suspicious than we do and I’ll bet we are the only
boat the Coast Guard checked!
Middle of Anacapa Island
East end. Nice place - not crowded - USCG a bit
of a nuisance. Just doing their job I guess.
