Santa Cruz Weekend Photos + LongPac Qualifying Sail

A blonde moment obviously...

Back to Santa Cruz harbor late evening

Elise on a loose beat in heavy-ish swell off Santa Cruz after we took the #1 down

Already pretty wet :-)

Heather taking the #1 down and getting ready to put the #3 up. On the Bay, this is usually very quick and easy. In heavy swell, it's a super wet and long and sometimes tidious job! It takes much much longer with the boat moving all over the place!

We saw dolphins on that day! Here's one jumping right by the boat! Several of them did that, they were crossing right in front of the bow, going under the boat, playing around us for a long time! A second group (or the same one?) came later in the afternoon, so we had two dolphin visits!

We also saw a passing whale in the distance, or rather the characteristic geyser-like spout and thousands (I am not kidding) of jellyfish as we entered back Monterey Bay

and on our way out, we spotted this awfully cute sea otter, eating away its meal on its belly.

And then there was this flock of seals, surrounded by jumping dolphins (the third dolphin visit!). I tried several shots but could never get all of them. It was virtually hundreds of seals jumping and traveling fast all in the same direction. Heather also saw an otter hanging out by the boat on Monterey Bay in the morning, as we were heading out.

Wondering if the dolphins weren't protecting the seals

We were not going in the same direction so we ended up parting ways but it was a truly magical moment.

Finally, we heard several times the barking of a few lone sea lions to complete the wild life picture.

The new arrangement: we tried to bring up the padeye to see if the angle to the winch could get better and limit the tendency for the jib sheet to override but I am not sure that we have achieved much. We seemed to have only moved the problem from the #3 to the #1...ahem...And the little turning block for the adjustable car system.

Heather driving in the morning in very light air.

On Saturday, we were busy reconnecting wires and tuning up the boat and doing various other miscellaneous tasks around the boat. Most of the time was taken with these two big tasks though. notice the hammock that we use to store our foul weather gear when going offshore sailing

Heather's blonde moment.

Yellow Belly with a green hull and a yellow belly.

Heather's jeep waiting patiently for our return.

Nat calling the dolphins ahead of time to let them know of our ETA in their neighborhood.

We ended up doing 48 miles (went 24 miles out) - started in 5 knots of wind, then 5-10, then 10-15, then 15-20 (we took down the #1 then), then 20-25 with gusts between 25 to 30. Then back to nothing, then back to maybe 5-10, really nice to get back to the harbor.

Entering the harbor again...in the late evening. Elise, as usual, did a great job.