Out of the Bay Area and into Monterey

This one is for Libby - this is your weather buoy just outside Monterey

Our first flying fish on deck - Charlotte 'sampled' it later

Well, we did it - we managed to leave the Bay Area!  We left Sausalito at 1:00 am on the new moon so the stars were incredible.  We passed under the Golden Gate bridge at 1:30 am and watched the lights of the city melt away.  A beautiful sight. Unfortunately, all beautiful thoughts left both our heads as we were soon into huge, steep, and very uncomfortable seas. Needless to say, it was a long night.  We arrived in Monterey 16 hours later, then spent 45 minutes trying to maneuver our 14 foot beam boat into a 15 foot wide slip in 10 knots of breeze and a hell-of-a surge current.  Needless to say we've had better moments, but we got her parked at last and were all happy to be on solid land!   Charlotte survived her first overnight passage without incident - she is a real trooper.  

We moved the boat over to the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club and enjoyed their hospitality for 2 nights.  Unfortunately we had to move back to the main marina for our last night, but the Harbourmaster kindly gave us a wider slip so all was well.

Sea Rover at the Monterey Peninsula YC dock

Overall our stay in Monterey was great.  We met up with friends Dean and Lynn (and Lulu the dachshund) on Solastra, walked on the beach, shopped at Trader Joe's (again), and visited the local Farmer's Market in search of pluots (which we found and stocked up on).  Monterey is a great place to walk (they have a great boardwalk and huge beach) and so walk we did.  Poor Charlotte was exhausted every single day.

Enjoying the Farmer's market

Pluots!!!   And 8 kinds of apples - gotta love California produce

The only downside to our stay was trying to sleep through the sea lions which haul out on the marina docks and spend all night barking at each other.  Who knew 10 animals could be so loud???  

The sea lions recovering after 'barking' all night