Wed, Sept 19, 2013

We’re so close to San Francisco that we can almost hear the cable cars!  Just kidding…we’re still about 6 hours away but getting there.  We pulled into Bodega Bay mid-morning  after a rather boisterous 27 hour ride from Eureka.

We had a great time hanging out in Eureka for five days.  Part of that time was doing boat projects but part of it was also just enjoying ourselves and our fellow cruisers.  We were at the ‘overflow’ dock about a mile further inside the channel from the regular marina. There were no washrooms, laundry, shower facilities but we could use the showers in the rec centre next door so it wasn’t bad at all and closer to the centre of town than the marina.  Not only was Falcon VII tied there but four other cruising buds heading south were on the same dock!  Our little fleet became quite the tourist attraction since there are usually no boats tied there at all, mostly just locals fishing from the docks!  Even the little harbour tour boat pointed out the ‘world travellers’ as it motored by and we would all wave at the people and they’d wave back.  We’re such celebrities!

Harbour cruise of Eureka with tourists checking out our boats

  Lots of Eurekans came by, drawn by all the masts, to see our boats, ask questions about cruising and generally chat.  However, the few locals who usually fished for sharks with weighted nets were not happy with our invasion.  We lucked out in being at the party end of the annual Eureka Gay Pride Parade where a stage was set up with many musical acts performing throughout the cloudy afternoon but the weather didn’t dampen the spirit of the event or the colourful dress of the participants.  This party atmosphere brought even more locals down to check us out.  I invited a dad and four kids into our cockpit so they could see what our sailboat looked like below.  One of the kids said “Dad, it’s bigger than our house!”  The kids were all very polite and festooned in necklaces, face paint and feathers from the gay pride gathering.  In addition, the annual paddle festival was happening on the other side of the rec centre.  Dozens of kayaks, paddle boards, canoes and some cardboard wanna-be boats cruised up and down the channel all day.  They also had a small stage and live music so we were surrounded.  That evening a bunch of us had an excellent dinner out in an upscale looking Japanese / Italian restaurant, followed by creamy gelato and flavourful ice cream cones before our stroll back to the docks.  We got to know our way around Eureka by foot, that’s for sure!  The town was full of murals and heritage buildings but there was also the sad decay of bygone days with the rusty locomotives, empty storefronts and a homeless shelter for those less fortunate individuals.

Old town Eureka

Days gone by

Watch out for the flying bears!

We were going to leave Eureka on Monday at dawn along with Martha and Doug from Thea and Rob and Debra from Avant.  We had all discussed the trip the night before and agreed to get up at 5:30 a.m. and leave the docks by 6:15 a.m.  Around 5:45 a.m. there was knock on our hull and it was Doug with his updated ipad weather report.  After a few minutes of discussion and more internet research on Rob’s iphone, we all decided that the forecast was calling for quite high winds and it wasn’t prudent to leave, knowing it would be between 30 and 35 hours until we made it to Bodega Bay or even more hours to San Francisco.  So we all retreated to Thea for morning coffee and muffins and decided that a road trip was in order instead – to see the mighty redwoods in the Redwood National Forests 25 miles to the north and 40 miles to the south of Eureka. We rented a 7 passenger van to hold the six of us and Cameron, a young single handed sailor taking his boat, Roughneck, south by himself.  He had arrived at the docks around 9:00 a.m. after helming all night from Crescent City and, though tired, was game to join us ‘oldies’ for a land adventure.  After meandering through town to the car rental location we drove north, looking at the rugged coastline from a different perspective.  We stopped at the National Redwood Park Information Office just off highway 101 where most of our group checked out the internal displays and information kiosk while Jim and I headed down the sandy, brush lined path that led to a long, sweeping beach with cresting waves and miles of soft sand.  That was Jim’s first time on a California beach and 40 years since I was last leaving sandy footprints in California myself.   The road trip was full of lively conversation and laughter! We had a great time together and saw some pretty enormous trees. 

Jim, Doug and Cameron at the "Big Tree"

Guess who!

One of the two famous drive through trees - Rob behind the wheel.

The slightly less famous 'lean on' tree.

We ate lunch at a very typical 60’s greasy spoon restaurant next to the highway with the best selection of homemade pies you have ever seen and then ended the day with a big grocery shop – having a vehicle was priceless for that.  The clouds and fog had vanished for the day and, though not terribly warm, we sure appreciated the sunshine.  The van rental, gas and paying to ‘drive through a redwood tree’ worked out to $21 per person for the day.  Well worth it for sure…..So we finally left Eureka yesterday morning with Thea right behind us.  Rob and Debra on Avant decided to wait another day, so we’ll meet up with them in San Francisco.

We left the docks at sunrise heading for the Humbolt Bay bar 45 minutes away.  Within 5 minutes we heard the Humbolt Bay Coast Guard asking for assistance for a sailboat that had run out of fuel just inside the Humbolt Bay bar.  Jim looked at me and I looked at him, knowing we were the only boat around and that we had to help if we could, even if it meant we missed our opportunity to cross the bar, forcing us to wait another day.  We immediately radioed the Coast Guard that we were on our way and would arrive in a few minutes to assist with giving gas to the sailboat, which had dropped its anchor in 24 feet of water.  As we motored towards it we realized it was a single hander we had met in Neah Bay, one who was not well prepared to go down the coast and had already caused problems for other cruisers in Neah Bay when his anchor dragged down on theirs.  I grabbed our full dinghy gas can and carefully passed it over to him while Jim backed us off.  He said he would return the gas can in San Francisco but we told him to empty it right then and give it back. (We didn’t want to see him in San Francisco!)  With a quick thanks (and no offer to pay us) he passed the gas can back and we motored quickly towards the Humbolt Bay Bar.  Though not as big as the Columbia Bar, it was nasty none-the-less.  The first four hours of the trip were not very pleasant as we motored into steep seas and building winds but once we turned south the wind was coming more on our stern quarter, making sailing conditions better.  The winds built all day and evening to about 30 knots but when you’re on a passage you have to keep going, even if conditions do deteriorate.   And now I must say a BIG THANKS to Doug and Martha from Thea!  Our trip was all the more pleasant as Doug and Martha just happened to have a spare actuator

The two actuators from our two boats

identical to our broken one and they lent it to us til San Francisco so we now have a working autopilot again!  What a difference that made because, though we were each still on watch for a few hours at a time, it was easier on our bodies when we were not helming all the time.

We were blessed with a full moon shining brightly all night and sky full of stars and even spotted a couple of whales in the distance haze of sunrise. 

Sunset between Eureka and Bodega Bay

Though I still find night passages a bit challenging it was certainly manageable, especially with a great skipper like Jim letting me take an extra half hour here and there to rest.  In dawn’s early light we could see the rugged northern coastline of California with its rolling hills and treeless terrain.

Bodega Bay is an extremely protected area and we spotted the first glimpses of arid hillsides like we drove through on Monday.  Doug and Martha arrived an hour after us.  They had some rudder difficulties on the way here so we’ll see if we can help them figure it out tomorrow.

Entrance to Bodega Bay

The next day Jim and I took out another port light, scraped off all the old goop and rebidded it, with the hopes that we had finally found the confounded leak.  We took time off in the middle of the day for an afternoon walk around the bay to ‘town’.  Calling it a town is a bit of stretch as there was only a small Remax real estate office, a surf shop, a deli/grocery and a candy/kite store, all located up a hill on a bluff overlooking the bay.  The prices were pretty high so we limited our shopping to an expensive loaf of bread and wandered back down the hill and around the bay again, enjoying the afternoon sun.  We finished re-bedding the port light at dusk and put all the tools away so we could leave for Drakes Bay in the morning.  We realized that San Fransisco was more like 11 hours away so we decided to overnight at  Drakes Bay en route, half way between Bodega Bay and San Fransisco.  The wind was calm and the fog was extremely thick as we waved goodbye to Thea with a promise to connect in San Fransisco.  The channel was very narrow and the fog created ghostly images around us, including a white truck driving beside us that scared Jim because we could barely make out the shape of the land or the road close by.  Jim gave me day ‘off’ from helming and steered all the way to Drakes Bay, entering the wide open south facing bay mid- afternoon.  We tucked into the southwest corner and dropped the anchor as the sun made a very brief appearance.  We were joined in the anchorage by another sailboat called Mystic Island but other than that the place was desolate and deserted.  Carved cliffs and rolling hills with a smattering of buildings edged the sandy embankments around the bay. The only sound through the fog was the grunting and barking of sea lions on the rocky ledge at shore.  We enjoyed a quiet evening, anxious to make our way to San Fransisco in the morning.