When the Stars Align

When the stars align
We were anchored out in Morro Bay, waiting for our next weather window. I had a lot of anxiety regarding our next passage. We had Point Conception to round and there was a huge low sitting out in the Pacific pushing ever closer. The low had winds exceeding 50 knots and Point Conception holds the nickname of the Cape Horn of the Pacific. It is regarded by some as one of the three most dangerous waters to sail in the world. I felt like we were between the proverbial rock and hard place. Point Conception is where the cooler waters of the North mix with the warmer waters of the South. You have the Northern Pacific currents pushing South and there is a current that circles and builds in the San Diego Bay and pushes North. It can be a very dangerous passage and boaters have been known to sit for weeks waiting for a safe window. I had read all I could find on the subject. Some people recommend hitting the point in the morning for the least amount of turbulence but it is almost always foggy in the morning and there are oil platforms, shipping channels and fishing vessels that make navigating the point in low visibility challenging. Some said to try to hit the point in the middle of the night for the calmest waters and before the fog becomes an issue. Still others said to attempt the passage only during daylight hours and only with buddy boats. For every suggestion I read, there were 5 that contradicted it. I was so confused. We were the only transient boat in Morro Bay so there was no one to commiserate with. The Morro Bay Harbor Patrol reminded us that we could only stay a few more days or else we would have to start paying to anchor out. The front continued to expand and seemed to be pushing south. If we didn’t leave soon, we would be stuck there for potentially weeks. We had to make a decision soon. We had not done well choosing our weather windows in our previous passages. As a matter of fact, we were 0 for 4. It seemed like we were always off 8-12 hours. We couldn’t be off on this crossing. I put off the decision for 4 days. We had no choice, we had to leave the next day or risk being stranded in a relatively exposed anchorage with a big blow coming.
We planned to leave Morro Bay in the afternoon. Based on our observations there seemed to be good afternoon and evening winds and then calming around 0200 and the fog didn’t seem to be an issue until closer to dawn. We would do a night passage round Point Conception in the wee hours before dawn. We left Morro Bay in the early afternoon, caught some light wind and we were able to put the sails up almost immediately. Dave was at the helm and we were making 4-5 knots but that would change as we Point Buchon as we would have to alter our course or go further out to sea. As we approached Point Buchon, we noticed a lot of whale activity. There were whales blowing, whales breaching, and whales fin slapping. There were 3 different groups that were putting on a show for us. They weren’t terribly close but it was still an impressive spectacle to watch. Dave took us to Point Buchon and then it was my turn at the helm. We do 4-hour shifts at the wheel. He helped me adjust our course, it was a less optimal angle on the wind so we lost some speed but still had wind in the sails. The other thing that we noticed on our new course was off on the starboard side, there appeared to be some weather brewing. Just GREAT! We watched it for an hour or so, it didn’t seem to be moving fast but then neither were we. On our new course, I was only making 3-4 knots. At this rate, we wouldn’t make it to Point Conception until morning. We decided to motor sail. I fired up the engine and was able to get back up to 5-6 knots. Dave went below to rest. I had one eye on the weather and the other on the chart plotter. I was doing calculations and with the current heading and speed, we would hit Point Conception on my next shift…..crap! Meanwhile off on the starboard side, the ocean in the distance was starting to take on a more menacing look. The water looked confused and I could see waves breaking. The weather must be moving faster than I was even though the clouds still looked to be distant. Looking at my instruments, the winds had remained steady at 8-10 knots. I continued to motor sail with the Perkins rumbling along. Soon I began to hear waves breaking and crashing over the rumble of the engine. It was going to be a long shift. I turned my attention starboard again as if maybe I could ward off the approaching mess with the famed “look”, (it works well with unruly kids). As I turned to stare down the approaching seas, I was completely unprepared for the scene unfolding in front of me. The water was unlike anything I had ever seen and the sound of the roiling waters down out the sound of the engine. I could not believe what I was seeing. These were not wind driven waves coming at me. It was masses of swimming, leaping, diving dolphins coming at me. The sounds that I heard were not crashing waves, it was splashing bodies as they soared out of the water and then splashed back down. It was mesmerizing. There must’ve been thousands of dolphins swimming directly across my path. They shot in front of the boat, behind it and under it. Soon for as far as I could see in any direction there was nothing but dolphins leaping and diving and turning the sea into a turbulent mess. It lasted several minutes before the last of the stragglers shot past the boat and just like that they were gone. I had called Dave up and he tried to get some video footage but the enormity of the event just couldn’t be captured. After we digested what we had just seen he left me with a parting shot as he went back down below to sleep; “You know what this means” he said. I groaned. So far in our travels, whenever a pod of dolphins had surrounded the boat and played in our wake a short time later we would encounter big winds and even bigger waves. To date we were four for four and previous pods had only been about 20-40 individuals in size. What could a sighting of this size portend? I was anxious enough before we left Morro Bay, now I just wanted to curl up and cry. By this time though we were committed, we couldn’t go back and had no harbors to duck into. About an hour and a half later the dolphins returned coming back from port side and heading out to sea. I could see and hear them coming long before they arrived and the second time was just as amazing and surreal as the first. Absolutely mind blowing! By the end of my shift the wind had built slightly, the front stayed put and we were able to turn off the engine and just sail. The sea state was getting a little lumpier but we had good winds and were making good progress. We were checking off the landmarks as we passed them, Point Sal, Purisima Point, and finally Point Arguello. The winds remained light to moderate. We were starting to get waves from every direction but at least we weren’t looking up at them. It is so intimidating to be sitting in a trough and looking up at walls of water towering above you. Everything so far was manageable. There was no fog. We could see the oil platforms, the fishing boats and container ships in the shipping lanes, the traffic seemed light and Point Conception loomed up on our port side. What would she have in store for us? Apparently, nothing. Our trip around Point Conception was uneventful and our best passage, most comfortable passage of the trip so far. All the wasted worry. The day dawned with the Channel Islands just a short distance away. We thought we would check out some of their anchorages and maybe spend a day or two exploring them but we found them to be very unprotected from wind and ocean swell and we didn’t feel like joining the masses in the mooring fields. Change of plans. We altered our course and headed across the channel to Santa Barbara. We poked around their anchorage area scoping out a spot. We disturbed a fellow on laundry day with ALL his clothing hanging out to dry and him lounging in the nude. He took one look at Dave standing on the bow of the boat and snatched a pair of shorts off the line to pull on. The anchor skipped there and in two other places. It took four attempts before we finally got purchase with enough scope to swing. The anchorage field in Santa Barbara is definitely not a great anchorage. It is protected from north winds only and not from ocean swell so it is a very rolly anchorage. It is at its worst from about 8 at night until about 2 in the morning and it is so rolly that I had to use my lee cloth to tie myself into the berth so I wouldn’t get tossed out of bed. The next day we were scanning the shore for the dinghy dock but couldn’t find it. I called Harbor Patrol who informed us that there is no dinghy dock for transients but we could tie off to the wharf near a ladder and climb the ladder to get up on the docks….um really? Yes ma’am. In the end, Santa Barbara treated us to beautiful beaches, stunning Spanish architecture and wonderful fishermen who taught us how to fish for mackerel. Another great experience in this ever-unfolding journey.