Approaching Monterey Bay. Note the weather. Have not seen the sun yet.
After a cold, wet, dark, damp windless night the wind picked up to about 15 knots as I approached the entrance to Monterey. Of course while out in the sea I had no wind at all, just fog, but I get close to the entrance to the harbor and the wind picks up. Also, it was still raining, as the NOAA forecast of a “slight chance of showers” had turned into a full night of cold rain.
The approach to Monterey was done in very limited visibility and the money that we had spent for all the fancy new Furuno GPS and radar (which was now actually showing the local area and not Tokyo Bay) were incredibly valuable tools for entering an unfamiliar harbor in the rain and fog. Thank you Furuno! We made it into the harbor, dodged the tourist boats who were outbound to visit the sea lions and sea otters, found our assigned berth and made a perfect landing. Nobody was watching, hence the perfect landing. If other sailors or tourists are watching the chances of a perfect landing is slight. If nobody is watching the chances of success are much greater.
A long hike across the harbor to the harbor master office to check in, only to discover I had forgotten my wallet, and therefore back to the boat, back to the marina office, and back to the boat again. It was not about 10am and I had been up since 4:30am the morning before, or some 30 hours, most of this cold and wet. (This is what results when one gets underway on a Friday).
I kept thinking “Are we having fun yet?” Upon arriving back to the boat it all hit me at once and I was the most tired that I can ever remember being in my life. I was exhausted. My legs were so weak that I had to crawl up on the deck of the boat from the pier. Thank gawd Astraea has a low freeboard and is not like one of the newer boats like a Hunter with their high sides. After ignobly crawling aboard my faithful boat and peeling off my soaking wet foul weather gear I collapsed into my rack and slept the sleep of the near dead for about three hours. In the past 30 hours I had weighed anchor in Half Moon Bay, anchored in Half Moon Bay, climbed to the top of the 53 foot mast, climbed down the mast, inflated and launched the dinghy, mounted the heavy outboard onto the dinghy, gone ashore, returned to Astraea, removed the outboard, hoisted the dinghy aboard, deflated and stowed it, gotten underway, sailed 87 miles in the cold and the rain, entered a strange harbor in the fog and rain, and docked the boat. Take this with the fact that I have barely 3 months left before I turn 60, and one could say that it was a very full 30 hour day for an old guy. I need to start doing better planning.
However after a three hour nap I woke up ready to get back to work. The boat had mud all over her foredeck from the anchoring in Half Moon Bay and was dirty from bow to stern. As I stood on the dock looking at the anchor, which was encased in about 20 pounds of sticky gooey mud, an old salt from the Marina walked by and said, “Looks like ya done been ta Half Moon Bay. We call that place the mud hole”.
It took about two hours to get the boat washed down and looking good again. On my work list of the day was also to rearrange a lot of the tools and spare parts on board, and most of the afternoon was done inventorying items, rearranging them, and making a detailed list of everything aboard and where it was stowed. Not a lot of fun, but it needed to be done. By early evening the “to do” list for the day was completed and it was time to fix some dinner. By 8:30pm, I was dead asleep. It had been quite a day.
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