This is a beautiful harbor. It too, is fenced with locked gates. A safe harbor. I love walking from dock to dock, looking at all the boats. There's a nice little sandy beach for R.J. to run around on. She doesn't seem to notice the waves crashing down. She's an "ole seadog'' already!
There's a very long fishing dock over by the beach. A person can actually go fishing over there with out a license. Matter-of-fact...people can fish without a fishing license on lots of docks in California.. I bought an out of state license as soon as we got to California. That cost me over $100.00! That was stupid. Didn't do the research.
Lots of folks out on that dock. Bar-b-q's, ice chests, lines going every directions, kids screaming and running up and down the dock. Maybe fishing off the boat is a better idea.
Back at the boat. Captain and Bob have made plans for us to travel together down to Santa Cruz. They call that "Buddy Boating". That's interesting. Captain is worried about crossing the shipping lanes. It's like a freeway for ships and all travelers of the deep. There will be alot of fog and we don't have radar. Bob has radar so we will follow him. Captain is especially worried about the San Francisco area.
I love San Francisco. I would like to stop and visit. Bob would like to stop and visit. After alot of discussion....we're not stopping. Oh well....maybe another time. The plan is to leave on Thursday.
While sitting at the laundry mat, I spy a wonderful looking boat coming in to harbor. Every time a new boat sails in, everyone stares at it and wants to go see who has arrived and hear some new stories. It's like "Little house on the prairie" episodes. As the boat reaches the fueling station I see Captain and Bob heading over there. I assume I'd better get over there too. Don't want to miss anything. The boat's name is "Mischief". Bob and Sharon are on board. They are on their way to the Ba ha ha ha. That's a funny name! It's what my Grandma would call "a gathering". Grandma was a Chickasaw citizen. I spent many summers with her in Oklahoma. She sure could throw a knife. Anyway...back to my story....we all introduced ourselves. Then we all went back to what we were doing.
I'd never heard of the Ba ha ha ha until these days I've been sailing. Just to explain a little about it, it seems to be a gathering of boats, no smaller boat than a 27 footer. Owners pay a set amount fee to travel together to certain destinations. They moore their boats and go to shore for food and intertainment along the way. Their final destination is down at Baja, Mexico. Sounds like alot of fun. I think they begin in San Deigo, California. I could be wrong about that.
THURSDAY MORNING 06:00
We are motoring out of the harbor this morning. Bob, on the Molly O, is leading the way. It's a little foggy. I wish I would have taken more pictures. Bob asked me to take some of his boat as he doesn't have any while it's sailing. So, here are a couple so you can see what a nice boat the Molly O is.
I must practice on getting the whole boat in the picture. It's actually not an easy job to take pictures on a 26 foot, moving boat. I'm learning so much! I watch Bob cleaning kelp off of his rudder with a pole. I should have gotten a picture of that.
This water is rocking my eyelids closed. It's peaceful. The fog gets thick in spots and Captain keeps telling me to watch for boats! Finally I must have given up the ghost cause I get awakened by the Captain and he is fit to be tied! Turns out it's been several hours and Bob has tacked up and left us out of sight. No call on the radio..not even a good bye wave. Just gone. Wonder what's up with that?
We are probably 50 miles out. Captain motors at full speed ahead. Sometimes that can be traveling about 7-8 knots. Trying to catch up with Bob or find some sighting of him. Finally...we realize we've been abandoned. Captain gets out his chart and computer. We have a chart plotter in the computer. It's nothing fancy but it works to save our butts. "Whatever happened to Bob?"
So now my job is to watch for boats. No sleeping. We are closer to shore and I actually see a tug boat pulling a ship! How awesome. I see another ship of some sort. I've been lisening to the radio too but nobody speaks English. Finally, we are past the shipping lanes and Captain calms down some.
Glad that's over with. Seems like he always has good excuses for being anal.
We are past San Francisco and we are both so tired. Captain says we will stop at Half Moon Bay.
This stop hasn't been planned so I get out one of our trusty books to find the harbor entrance. Good luck with that by flashlight. It's after dark now. We get past the jettys and turn into what looks like the entrance. It turns out to be the mooring balls with alot of boats with sleeping passengers on board.
We try to go through quietly. I finally get harbor patrol on the radio and he tells us what dock to go to.
We have to do that by flashlight too. My advise is....get to where ever you're going..before dark!
Shortly before turning the radio off, we hear a voice come on saying, "Santa Cruz harbor master, harbor master...this is the Molly O.
We got ourselves settled and went to sleep. Good night.
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