A DAY IN SANTA CRUZ

 
We had breakfast at a seaside cafe, and took a walk....


SANTA CRUZ WATER FRONT




THE BOARD WALK WAS NOT REAL BUSY

 

BUT THE BEACH WAS GREAT

It got to be about noon, so we started to think about having a beer.  Spotted a brew pub and went on in.  Fantastic choice.  They had a real good Belgian style ale and an outstanding Oatmeal Stout.  Perhaps the best beer we've had on the whole darn trip.  And it was served by a gal with the most beautiful tats.  That's T-A-T-S!  She had Billy Holiday on her shoulder and Patsy Cline just below it on her forearm.  Very nicely done, and she agreed with me that Patsy Cline might be the best singer ever born on this planet.

RACHELLE AT THE SEABRIGHT PUB
(WISH I GOT HER TATS IN THE PICTURE)

She is currently appearing on stage here in town in a very well recieved play that features several songs she wrote.  Would love to see it, but the next performance will be this coming Saturday.  We will be in Monterey.

Got back in time to work on some boat projects....

HAVING FUN IN HALF MOON

Looming over Half Moon is the above installation.  Who runs it I don't know.  I did an Internet search, and asked several locals. The Internet search yielded nothing at all, and the locals have said:  1. "I don't know." 2. "It's part of the DEW line." 3. "It's an FAA radar." 4. "What installation?  And by the way who are you?"

Okay, I made #4 up, but DEW line?  For what, to let us know that Hawaii has sprung a sneak attack on us?  I know the King of Hawaii is pissed about all us Gringos coming over to visit and never going home, but I don't think he's ready to go ballistic...yet.

There was a #5 answer: "It's the Martian Base."  That obviously can't be true.  The Martians are not rich enough to afford that piece of land.


Probable location of Martian Base


I will continue my research today after I finish boat projects.

Speaking of boat projects, most people think that cruising about in a sailboat is like being on some kind of vacation.  Were this only true!  What it's really all about is cruising in a sailboat for a while, and then fixing what you broke. 

Usually these repairs start out being a 10 minute job and morph into a 10 hour job and then a 10 day job.  A case in point:  Yesterday I started a little 10 minute sanding project on our companionway cover in preparation for 10 minutes of varnishing.  In my zeal I removed the cover to better access all the areas that needed sanding, adding one hour.  Sanded about two more hours, then I turned the thing over to do a little sanding on the inside.  Horrors, I found a vast area of dry rot. Dry rot is like wood leprosy.  If the wood gets wet for a period of time microbes eat out all the nice fleshy parts leaving only bony, crumbling, weak cellulose. 

I removed all the really bad crumbly stuff and soaked what was left with penetrating epoxy.  The idea being that the epoxy will bond around what is left and restore most of the original wood's strength.  Two more hours finding the stuff, then mixing and applying.  Good enough for today, will let it dry for a day or so and then continue on with my varnishing.



Mixing the epoxy

  

Applying epoxy
Notice the emergency cooler close at hand.



Except at about 3:30 this morning my sub-conscious woke me up to tell me that all that wood I scraped away was supporting the teak decking on top of the cover.  The teak now has no support, and when I or, even worse, Judy step there we will go right through.  Crap, now I'm looking at a 10 hour repair.  If I can figure out how to do it. 

I don't want to think about it, so I'm writing about it instead.  At 6am in the morning.  If that makes any sense.

HELLO FROM HALF MOON BAY

We finally broke the bonds of attraction that had tied us to the Bay area, and sailed westward under the Golden Gate Bridge.  I have sailed into the Bay three times now, having crewed for others on their trips from Seattle, but this was the first time headed out.

Rick came down the day before we left, and took us on a hike up Mount Tamalpais.  It was a bit arduous for a couple out of shape old farts, but the effort was worth it.

The views were spectacular.  We could see San Francisco and the Bay to the southeast and the Pacific looking southwest to Points San Pedro and Montara (which we passed on our way here). 

After the hike we went out to Stinson Beach looking for beer and sustenance, finding both in a funky beach bistro.  One of the very nice things about being close to SF is that one can find Anchor Steam beer on tap.

It was crazy busy.  Everybody in SF was there enjoying the warm weather on the beach.  One fellow was enjoying the beach in his own unique (crazy?) way.

Check out the guy climbing the rock

On our drive back from the beach we were passed by a swarm of emergency vehicles.  I hope they weren't going to help this fellow, nothing below him but rocks and water. 

We'll be here until tomorrow and head out to Santa Cruz or Monterey.  I have heard these names; Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Monterey all my life, and now I get to go see them.  Yahoo!!

NEW CREW MEMBER

Couldn't help myself, I love this guy so I bought him.  Hope to be more like him if I ever grow up.

Oh, that reminds me, I finished my memoir.  This is only a rough draft, subject to change.  "I'm too old to grow up."   Six words.  Guess I'm going to have to wait a while before I can pass as Santa.  Got the beard and tummy going, just not that good with kids. 

I have one other fellow aboard that I love.  Kind of reminds me of our son Kevin.

Judy was gonna buy Santa for me as a Christmas gift, but wasn't going to let me have him out all the time, so I bought him myself, and he's up there velcroed to the shelf for good.

BACK TO SAUSALITO

Today we leave the warmth of late summer on the delta for the coolness of early fall in San Francisco Bay.  We have had a fantastic time here, but we need to get ourselves on down the California coast to LA and beyond.

We have been thinking about our itinerary.  We know we will be stopping in Half Moon Bay, Monterey, San Simeon.  It gets a bit sketchy after that.  I wouldn't mind stopping in Morro Bay, but  Port San Luis makes more sense as it is twenty miles closer to Point Conception and Morro Bay can be a tricky entrance in north or west swell.

After San Luis it's gonna be into Ventura for long delayed boat projects.  Water maker installation, rebuilding and re-plumbing the head being the two most onerous on the list.  Might even add two more solar panels, as I hate running my generator.  Just don't want to have to rely on it so much.

Life up here in the Delta is good, it's a water world where the people are as warm as the climate.  We are going to miss it.

  

Like everywhere all is not good;  prices are high, the ecology is endangered as stream flows change because ever more water is diverted south, and the state government is 80 or so days overdue on its budget, threatening services needed to keep the dikes repaired and bridges operating.

STRANGE SOUNDS AT NIGHT

BOO RADLEY'S HOUSE?

Anchoring in Potato Slough was a nice change of pace.  It was relatively quiet and isolated.  No traffic noise all night and no deli right across the street. 

But it did have strange large animal noises at night.  There were a couple times Judy and I just stared at each other, wondering what the heck was that.  It didn't really bother us to much, but we were wondering if we should lock the companionway door.  We didn't. 

But I did start having flights of fancy about the semi spooky house hidden in trees on the small island near us. 

EVER WANT TO TIE UP TRAFFIC?



All you have to do is take your sailboat through the delta sloughs.   These are the bridges we passed under,  around or through in our trip from Walnut Grove to our anchorage at Potato Slough.

Without fail, as we passed by the bridgetenders would come out and give us a wave.  Probably see us as job security.



GRACE APPROACHING
WALNUT GROVE BASCULE BRIDGE
(THANKS BRAD!)

GEORGIANA SLOUGH
SWING BRIDGE

TAYLOR ISLAND SWING BRIDGE

TAYLOR ISLAND SWING BRIDGE

TAYLOR ISLAND SWING BRIDGE

MOKELUMNE RIVER SWING BRIDGE

ONE OF OUR BRIDGE TENDER TRAFFIC OBSTRUCTION
CO-CONSPIRATORS

MOVING DAY

WALNUT GROVE LIBRARY
BULLETIN BOARD

Leaving Walnut Grove and the Sacramento River for the San Joaquin River via the Georgiana Slough and the Mokelumne River.  People sometimes ask if we are doing any sailing up here in the delta, and I have to admit we are to busy trying to figure out where we are and where we are going to sail in these confined spaces.  The Georgiana is very narrow but deep and as long as we stay center channel we should have plenty of depth.

We are planning on being at anchor for the next several days.  I doubt we will have internet.  I will be working on my memoir in my spare time. 

DAY THREE AT WALNUT GROVE

 We were all set to leave this morning until we talked with Dan and Chris, our neighbors on the dock, who have been coming to the delta for years.  They recommended a dingy ride back into the maze of sloughs just east of town.  It was one of their favorite places in the delta.  Sounded like fun to us so, as Larry Nelson says, "Why leave fun to find fun?" 

Turned out to be one of our favorite places too. 

One of the most popular types of boat here is the house boat.  People drive them back into the sloughs and set up house for weeks or months.  They rent spots along the banks from the land owners, who often build walkways to shore along with picnic areas complete with tables, barbies and in one we saw, swings.  There are also paths leading from the sloughs to nearby bars and restaurants.  Some of the longer paths have benches along the way, provided by farmers, with the polite request that the walkers refrain from picking their crops. 

Quite a neat way to spend a summer.








BACK COUNTRY SLOUGH

DELTA YACHTS

DELTA MEGA
YACHT

WALNUT GROVE: NICE TOWN WONDERFUL PEOPLE



SACRAMENTO RIVER AT WALUT GROVE
WITH GRACE ON THE TOWN DOCK



BRIAN'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS
HARTLEY AND MAXINE







We're still here.  And we're gonna stay another day.

Walnut Grove is our favorite stop of the whole trip.  The town is charming.  It is holding on to it's Chinese heritage, has interesting shops and a great ice cream parlor, but what it has in spades is its people. 

We have met the nicest folks here: Brad and Stacey who took us to Guisti's, Mark from Guisti's who brought us home, Brian and his daughters who filled our boat with their joy, Rick and Brenda at "Al the Wop's" who want to get together with us in Loreto, Don Gomez who invited us to his place in Nicaragua, and many boaters who have been sharing their local knowledge with us, including the couple, Dan and Chris, who saw us in Port Angeles and Neah Bay as they brought their boat down from a summer in Canada.  Somehow they ended up here in Walnut Grove at the same time as Judy and me.

If that's not enough, our favorite town has our favorite restaurant, Guisti's.  This multi-generational place located atop one of the delta's dikes has been serving food to Walnut Grove for a hundred years or so.  It's one of those rare places that serves both quantity and quality.  Their lasagna is the first I've had that matches my sister Mary Ellen's, and the homemade minestrone soup is superb. 

I could not clean my plate.  This never ever happens.  Google them.

 



ON TO WALNUT GROVE

ALONG THE SACRAMENTO

ALONG THE SACRAMENTO



 

ALONG THE SACRAMENTO



WALNUT GROVE CHINATOWN

WALNUT GROVE COTTAGE