October 15, 2013  Cojo Harbour, California

Back in March 2013 I attended a ladies sailing seminar in Victoria and one of the speakers talked of Morro Bay and how much she loved it.  A large feature dividing the coastline and Morro Bay’s bar entrance was massive Morro Rock, visible for miles as it was about ¼ mile wide and about 1500 feet high.

Morro Rock at the entrance to Morro Bay

The sea otters are very used to people.  These two had wrapped themselves in kelp.

 I was curious about the town and really wanted to visit.  After our night passage we arrived at the Morro Bay Bar at slack tide mid-morning.  We crossed the bar easily then headed down the narrow channel dividing Morro Bay from the sand dune spit.  Within minutes we spotted fellow cruisers Alison and Randall from Tregoning.  We waved and chatted across our boats for a while before tying to a large mooring buoy owned by the Morro Bay Yacht Club. We had to pay $25 to use it for a night but that gave us use of their club showers and an invitation to their Friday night happy hour.  Jim and I explored the waterfront and discovered that it was mostly made up to small hotels, candy stores, small cafes and tee shirt shops.  Though nice there was nothing particularly special about it.  We wandered up into town proper, which was very 60’s and ordinary.  We did enjoy the club happy hour, though, which gave us a chance to catch up with Alison and Randall and Randall’s sister, Martha, along with another couple of cruisers heading south.   The club members made us feel very welcome and insisted that we help ourselves to their pulled pork potluck, fruit and snacks.  Eventually it was time to head back to Falcon and catch up on sleep before grocery shopping in the morning.

Using our amazing Ipad we located the large Anderson’s grocery store a mile away and walked there with the intention of taking a taxi back after provisioning.   What we didn’t realize was that Morro Bay is too small to have its own taxi company!  The clerk at the service counter just looked at us blankly when we asked her to call us a cab to get back to the harbour.  A woman making a photocopy beside us quickly rattled off the phone number of a county cab company but then offered us a ride herself instead.  We followed her to her large SUV, chatting away as we walked.   Our kind driver, Sue, worked in the emergency ward at local hospital a few miles away, having moved from Texas a number of years before. She was delighted to help us out and most curious about our seagoing lifestyle.  We thanked her a bunch of times as we hauled our groceries to the curb near the 3 hour dock where Falcon awaited us.  Once the groceries were stored we pushed off, waving good byes to yacht club members on their dock as well as Alison and Randall.  We motored across the bar and turned south for San Luis Obispo Bay, a short 23 miles away.

We sailed most of the way to San Luis Obispo Bay with building seas and I was glad when we finally arrived and tucked in around the point in a bit of shelter.

San Luis Obispo Bay - looking north with Falcon second boat from the right

The pier

Avila - the pier runs above the beach

San Luis Obispo Bay featured the quintessential California quarter mile long pier, white sandy beaches with lifeguards and brightly coloured buildings visible from the anchorage.  On Sunday, which was also my birthday, we decided to take a day ‘off’ and celebrate by hanging out in the resort town of Avila at the base of the long pier.  Originally we were going to take the dinghy to the pier where we would have to tie it to a mooring buoy then climb up a ladder to the top of the pier but then we found out they had a free water taxi service for cruisers.  Phil arrived in the large inflatable ‘taxi’ at 11:00 to fetch us and take us to the pier – to the underside of the pier.  We arrived at a small platform down at ocean level where we had to reach over and climb up a ladder then up a few flights of metal mesh stairs to the top of the pier.  As we walked towards ‘town’ we were passed by a group of well-toned young women power walking and chatting, grandparents with their little blond haired grandson, a Mexican family that spoke no English and a young fit couple in their speedo bathing suits running along the pier in bare feet!  It seemed everyone liked the pier. 

When we got to the town we discovered that Avila was a planned resort area just over 20 years old.  The previous incarnation of Avila was demolished so that they could remediate the polluted soil that the buildings were built on.  The newer version featured colourful heritage style boutique stores, beachside bars with live entertainment day and evening and casual sidewalk restaurants.   A block away a small stream meandered towards a golf course and well used playground with lots of young families making use of the picnic tables, swings and slides.  Up a hill ½ a mile away was a sprawling pink stucco resort that we had noticed from anchor lit up grandly the night before.   We enjoyed a walk along the sandy beach, taking off our sandals and feeling the fine warm sand between our toes.  I rolled up my jeans to my knees and paddled my feet. 

California lifeguard in October

Paddling my feet on my birthday - Falcon at anchor to the left

Never before have I done that on my birthday!  Here it was mid October and there were two lifeguards on the beach, just like the old Baywatch tv series, but not much activity for them to worry about.  We enjoyed our sandy stroll from end to end and all the people we saw. A fellow about our age was making a huge sand sculpture of a three dimensional owl; another was sun tanning and reading his newspaper. We spotted a young family where both parents were talking on their ‘devices’ while the kids made sand castles then passed another couple walking barefoot carrying their authentic looking cowboy boots.  They all paled in comparison to the young athletic tanned 20’s something man doing pushups on the beach in his rather tiger stripped speedo!  A very eclectic mix for sure!

Avila Beach was just what we needed – an enjoyable day of soaking up the sun, feasting on a birthday brownie and leisurely reading the local newspaper at an outdoor cafe table.   Our buddy, Phil, picked us up mid afternoon and returned us to Falcon just before our young friend, Francis, rowed over to say hi.  I did a few chores and worked on re-arranging stored food during the afternoon while Jim entertained Francis. 

Francis in his sailing dinghy.  This was taken when we saw him in Monterey.

We made sure to invite him to join us for supper, knowing his limited finances.  Francis is a very interesting 23 year old and we admire him for taking his 34’ sailboat to Mexico without an engine, radio or radar.  He does have charts and a GPS and feels that’s all he needs.  He is very intelligent, has quite a bit of worldly experience behind him and is an adventurer at heart, as we are.   The stars shone brightly as he rowed back to his floating home, Loon.

On Monday, Thanksgiving Day, we left San Luis Obispo mid morning and motored for part of the day until a gentle wind from behind allowed us to sail to Cojo Anchorage 56 miles away.  Before  Cojo Anchorage we had to get around Point Conception.  We had heard from other cruisers about Point Conception and the high possibility of encountering bigger winds and waves off of it.  I was anxious as we made out its shape in the distant haze but the winds were very manageable as we approached it.  En route we passed by a  1960’s military missile site and the first of many offshore oil rigs.  With a gentle wind from the west we could actually smell oil in the air! 

Our first oil rig

We chatted on the radio with another cruiser from Pelagia and he told us that this area of the coast is known for oily bubbles naturally popping on the surface giving off the gaseous odor.  Even the beaches get a naturally oily film from time to time.  Point Conception was kind to us and we had a leisurely sail around it and into the anchorage, which was extremely open and exposed.  The wind picked up considerably around the point with us anchoring in 25 knots of wind.  Most unusual for us!  Fortunately it dropped just before dusk when we had a spectacular clear pink sunset just as a squadron of pelicans flew over the point and landed in the water near us. 

Pt. Cojo - taken once we were around it

In the distance we could hear, then see, a passenger train chugging down the coast.  Wisps of spray from surf charged along the beach as waves rolled in and the remote rugged shoreline revealed just how exposed the area could be with two sailboat hulls piled up against the cliff near the shoreline.  We knew we hooked the anchor well and felt relatively comfortable in the slight roll during the evening.  We looked forward to the following day when we would leave the coastline and head west for the Channel Islands 25 miles away.

Sunset once the wind had dropped at Cojo Anchorage