Where are we now.... It is September 11 and we are in the beautiful Bay of Monterey...

We spent yesterday provisioning the boat, walked to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, participated in happy hour on the boardwalk and just generally relaxed. 

We had spend about 10 days in San Francisco, actually Sausalito at anchor until the winds turned nasty and SW at a steady 30 knots with gust of 40-45... and yes this happened at midnight and blew to about 3 in the morning.  We saw a small unattended sailboat drift into another occupied by a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids). The coast guard was called into rescue because the unattended sailboats anchor rode got wrapped in the prop of the other boat as they tried to get away from the drifting boat.  Once the family was rescued we watched as that unattended boat drifted passed us and onto other boats anchored in the bay.  After 3 hours of this activity the winds finally eased to 20 knots and we all got some rest.   At 10 am the following day the winds again built to over 30 knots and I desperately called every marina in San Francisco, Richmond, Alameda and other areas in the bay to see if we could get a spot to wait out the system.. 


 
 
 
 
 
 
This was remnants of the hurricane that hit the Baja just a few days ago and was accelerating over the hill in Sausalito bay so I just wanted a quite place for a few nights.   Lucky for me Richmond Yacht club answered my call (after many hours of getting voice mail ... it was Labor Day Monday and most marinas, yacht clubs were not answering).  We spent 4 wonderfully peaceful nights on reciprocal at the Yacht club, the members were very friendly and made some new friends. 

When we arrived in Monterey there was an Italian Festival that ran all weekend so we enjoyed some good homemade Italian food, Wine and great music, did some site seeing at the Aquarium and went shopping for my birthday presents.... After all I was told by a reliable source that you don't just celebrate the day you are born but for the whole month! 

We certainly did that in Monterey, leaving the day after my birthday for Santa Barbara and rounded my nemesis Point Conception.

We are off! Off the dock and heading south. I said we would head south until the butter melts. This summer in BC the butter was melting so I understand everyone's confusion. But in the middle of August the smoke from the wildfires cleared and the temperatures dropped. The butter is no longer melting.

Time to head south!

It's August 16 and we are in Sydney BC. The sky is a brilliant blue that is common in BC.

All the more brilliant
when set against the evergreen forest and the emerald green sea. Sailed with porpoises and killer whales to get here. Not sure if I really want to leave. This is such a beautiful province.
Beautiful BC! No shit!

But the butter is hard and a weather window is opening. Time to head south. We should clear customs in Friday Harbour tomorrow and then head out Juan de Fuca on the weekend. Excited and scared, as I always am at the start of a new adventure.

We hope to be in San Fransisco by the end of August. We are chasing our friends on Double Deuce. Chase is the appropriate word, since they are 15' longer. We will not see much of them until San Francisco

Jacquie and I will be celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary on August 28th. Hope to be in San Francisco  for this, but we may still be at sea, depending on the weather.
Wish us luck. More posts when we reach San Francisco

Where are we now

To find out where we are currently cruising go to Currently Cruising and enter either VE7MWC or VE7JCH in the find at the top of the map ....hit enter and our positions will populate the map .... these positions are reported via our ham radio every time we check for a weather report, talk to other boats, or send an email Blast to friends and family