WHAT DAY IS THIS? WHERE AM I?

Monday, July 4th  US Independence Day

We awoke early to gray skies, fog and cooler temperatures in San Fransisco Bay.  And... it was relatively calm as we finally motored away from the Golden Gate Bridge and set our course for Bodega Bay, 57 miles up the coast.

We had been 'captured' by San Fransisco Bay and the River Delta for five weeks, which we really enjoyed tremendously.  But it was time to move north towards home.

We had a pleasant day enjoying the improving conditions and views of rolling hills above sand dunes, rocky shorelines and sandy beaches.

These are pretty good conditions!

By mid afternoon we approached the channel, which was lined with RV’s, campers, and lots of families fishing from the rocks and fishing piers.  Bodega Bay is a big, shallow bay with a dredged channel and marina area.  At low tide it looks like Long Beach with miles of sand to explore.

We sat on a bench on this sandy hill overlooking Bodega Bay.
We're starting to see more northern trees now.

Dozens of commercial fish boats and a smattering of sailboats were moored at the Spud Point Marina.  Since this is crab country, there were two seafood takeout restaurants across the street specializing in cooked crab to crack and battered fish and chips. Judging by the line ups, both were doing a great business.  The road runs by the marina that links the rest of Bodega Bay to the more exposed coastal park trail, which gave these two restaurants endless new customers.  While staying for four days we got a couple of chores completed, hiked to ‘town’ three times and celebrated Jim’s 60th birthday on July 7th.

Jim celebrates his 60th.

It was a quiet celebration, one spent hiking around the horse farms and regional park before having Mexican food for lunch.  We both enjoyed his day very much.

Just after breakfast on Friday, July 8 we realized that we had another weather window, our chance to keep moving, so we left Bodega Bay a half hour later and motored towards Pt. Arena, Cape Mendocino and on to the City of Eureka, 188 miles to the north.

The first 8 hours were very unpleasant with big waves breaking over the bow, with wind gusts of 25 – 28 knots.  We thought about turning back or changing course to reach a ‘close by’ anchorage but it was still four hours away so we decided to pushed on instead.  We knew that conditions were going to improve overnight and they did!  By dusk the seas were settling down and by dawn we were motoring in flat oily waters.

We approached the channel leading to Eureka under excellent conditions.  We entered Humboldt Bay and motored along the waterfront businesses and marinas, happy to have a few more miles behind us.  After fueling up we anchored in the channel for a quiet, peaceful evening watching another stunning sunset as it peaked through the tree branches west of us.

Approaching the Humbolt Bar near Eureka - perfect conditions.

More northern trees - no more Mexican cacti.

The gathering place for pelicans, on the other side of the channel from us.

That's a motorized parasailer above the trees.
There was a landing strip on the other side of the trees.
We heard them taking off and landing all afternoon evening.

Nice of the pelicans to fly by at sunset!

All too early we were up and ready to go again, exiting the channel near 6:00 a.m.

Typical blue sky day - fog lurks just around the corner so often.

After a quiet passage, by mid afternoon we were tying up at the Crescent City Marina, which was almost empty.

Crescent City transient docks were a bit on the quiet side.

Slightly overbuilt, but necessary since Crescent City is susceptible to tsunamis.

It was mostly designed for sports fishermen but we saw a few commercial crab boats around too. The whole marina had been rebuilt after it was destroyed by the Japanese Tsunami a few years ago.  The new marina seems very solid, engineered to withstand another tsunami, should one hit.

The Crescent City marina district smelled of rotting seafood left in commercial crab traps piled up in the boatyards.  Within a half mile of the docks we spotted four seafood restaurants and a half dozen motels lining Highway 101. They looked just like the ones we stayed in along the Oregon Coast when I was a kid in the mid 60’s.  One or maybe two story.  A little window facing the parking lot and usually a small swimming pool.  My sister and I spent hours in those pools!  Hummm…yes I liked water even back then!

We took a walk along Highway 101, grabbed a snack at a local diner and headed back to Falcon for an early night again.

What day is this?  What town are we in?  Where are we going to today?

By dawn we were well on our way again, heading for Brookings, arriving a mere four hours later. We really enjoyed our time there, which included the 24th annual South Oregon Kite Festival July 16 and 17.  More about Brookings in the next blog. Until then…

Jim and Tricia Bowen
S/V Falcon VII
email: tandjbowen13@gmail.com