I forgot to post this last update but here is a photo of Sooner in the sunset I mentioned in the last post, taken by MQP. Look at them red over greens
Santa Rosa was a cool place – I went on a hike with Phil and Alley and we got to see the 2nd rarest pine tree in the world, the Torrey Pine which only grows in two locations, Santa Rosa and a grove on the mainland. We also collected some nuts off the ground as apparently they are edible.
That night I saw some squid around the boat and did some jigging, ending up with one lil’ market squid
Which I put back as I felt bad
The next day I left in the morning and had a great downwind sail in 25 knots, which was enough wind that I could just put out the genny and not really worry about putting the main up.
I arrived at Santa Cruz mid morning, and caught up with Cass and Holley who had left the day before and were tucked in a very pretty, but very sketch looking anchorage. Cass took this photo of me Holley and I chatting about what to do next
After further discussion we left and headed off to Smuggler’s Cove, which was actually where I’d been several years before
I ended up reanchoring a total of three times there, which combined with me pulling up the anchor in the morning and then once at the sketch anchorage meant I’d pulled it up a total of FIVE times with my manual windlass that day. Phew!
The next couple of days were pretty relaxing, lots of swimming and just general mucking about. Phil caught a couple lobsters, including the largest one I’ve ever seen
Later that day it was Canadian Thanksgiving so we all had dinner, which included Halibut fish stew, lobster, and some very rare pine nuts. Incredibly bougie and incredibly tasty! (the name tags were part of a drinking game). You can tell it’s fancy as Phil and I are wearing collared shirts.
After that, MQP left to go to Ensenada as Holley had to go back to Canada to work for a month and got trapped in a live fire zone and had to be escorted out by a US Navy helicopter before they got missiled, which was pretty funny to listen to on the radio. Turns out the US Navy can basically condon off large areas of the channel islands with basically no notice.
Phil, Alley and I went on another nice hike, although this one was near a kayaker rental spot. It was weird seeing other people after a week or two of just seeing the same four.
I left the next day, and heading to San Diego, a trip so uneventful I don’t remember anything about it aside for some great dolphins
