Today we left Pillar Point / Half Moon Bay. We had a good time here. the anchorage is very calm except for the occasional power boat that doesn’t know what NO WAKE means.
We found out that if we registered with the harbor master they would give us a key card for the A/B/C dock restrooms. Located in both the men’s and woman’s restrooms are 2 washers and 2 driers. A wash costs $1.75 and the drier is $1.50. The restrooms were clean. The key card also opened the shower rooms which have a sink and 2 shower stalls for both men and women. We needed change for the washers and driers and the harbor master exchanged $7.00 for quarters.
We found the staff at Half Moon Bay very friendly and helpful. There is fuel on the dock and the little bait and tackle store has ice. Also about a ½ mile away there is a little quick market with some staples like milk, OJ, beer, wine and hard liquor.
The holding was very good and when it came time to pull anchor it was easy to pull up, although it was very muddy.
But all good things come to an end and it is time to venture further down the coast to Santa Cruz.
Weather is being reported as NW winds 5 to 15 kt. NW swells 1 to 3 ft. at 8 seconds. Well the wind and swell direction was correct but the swells ended up being about 8 to 10 ft. for the last 4 hours of the trip. With the following seas you must be steering down the waves all the time which is tiring.
On the other hand we had a whale surface about 100 feet in front of us. We also saw a couple of sharks feeding on the surface. Watched seals swimming porpoise style and one specular whale breach about 100 yards in front of us.
Finally we arrived at Capatiola and picked up a mooring ball. With the rough seas we were just ready to relax for a day.
Unfortunately about 2 hours after this picture was taken the winds changed from NW which this mooring is protected from to a SW wind which this area is completely exposed to. It was a very rough night bouncing around.