Moored in Sausalito - San Francisco Bay

Eureka is a very nice town/city. It has an old town section which is very picturesque, mostly 'Victorian', 'Edwardian' hotels, business buildings, houses dating back to the late 1800's. Its amazing to walk around the town and think that in its heyday men were still riding the ranges shooting each other - and now it all looks so sedate and very beautiful. There is already the feel of California in the type of shops and the way the young people look. Its hard to describe that look - kinda rasta/hippy/yuppy, dunno - it's alot like San Francisco.

We were told that we must see a particular Victorian house - "the most photographed Victorian in the world" - quite the statement, which of course we were cynical about. Because we forgot our map, we were instantly lost but were helped by a friendly barber who knew exactly which building we meant by the description "the most........". He gave us directions and we took off - just a few blocks away - and when we turned the corner there it was at the end of the road - incredible - almost worth dropping into Eureka, driving over a crashing bar in the dark - in fog about 4 boatlengths visibility, navigating up a couple of miles of channel drenched in more thick fog - just to see it - there it is - it was a private house originally, but is now a private mens' club.

We met a few cruisers in Eureka, including BJ and Jim from Watea - Blue Water people we met at the August rendezvous. The local liveaboard people told us that they had never seen so many cruisers who were passing through as this year - because many of us were coming in for shelter as opposed to keeping on going.

We were docked on the last dock at the end of the marina and had a lovely view of the delta in the morning when we woke up. So many water birds. We love pelicans - of course every time we see pelicans Tony says 'bluddy pelicans' with an Australian accent. Finding Nemo.

We spent 2 nights in Eureka, recouped our strength, did laundry, drank beer in a local Irish Pub, met a couple called Dave and Debbie from Wavesweeper - an American couple on their way to wherever. Dave is an ex NOAA employee and he offered lots of good information about sailing down the coast - having done that most of his working career.

We left Eureka with high hopes that this leg would be the best yet - NOT - straight out into 4 - 6' swells with wind waves a couple of feet more - and yes - you guessed it - on the nose. We suffered this for an hour or so heading west - couldn't turn south too soon or we would run into land - didn't want to turn north as it seemed pointless being out there. I suggested we go back in and try again tomorrow, but was made to see the sense of going a bit further.

We left at 0900 hrs, expecting at approx 5 knots to reach Cape Mendocina in about 5 hours.

We rounded Cape Mendocino at about 0100 hrs the next morning. It was not a rough rounding - but the swells were inhibiting our progress all the way from Eureka . We motor sailed our way along, doing short tacks, using the main to steady us and thus ensuring some forward movement.

The rest of our trip we motored - not enough wind to sail. Each morning we were visited by little birds - yellow finches - sparrows - a chubby little brown bird a bit smaller than a Thrush.

Our best bird encounter was a humming bird which came into the cockpit at about 1900 hrs Monday evening. It was so sweet - it thought that our fire extinguisher was a feeder and tried very hard to extract pollen from it - we even taped a little container of sugar water to it, but it didn't understand. We rushed for cameras and just as I was about to get a shot it landed on my camera and stared into my face - then it landed on my head before flying away.

We dropped anchor in Drakes Bay - about 4 - 5 hours before San Francisco. At our current rate of progress we not have reached the Golden Gate Bridge at a good time - ie. slack flood.

Drakes Bay in a huge bay capable of taking 1000 boats in a sheltered anchorage. It reeked of dairy farm - which took some getting used to - but it was beautiful and absolutely packed with wildlife. All the entertainment we needed - we watched pelicans and se lions competing for the same fish - so dramatic. Very small porpoised were swimming around us for an hour or so, and a small shark like fish - dog-fish perhaps leapt from the water about 4 feet. So many different sea birds - and all to ourselves - not another soul in the whole bay.

We left at 0700 hrs and motored to San Francisco. Thank God - no fog - no sun either but it has just come out. We tied up to Sausalito Yacht Club's private dock - filled up with water - had showers, met a Dutch couple who have just arrived also - having sailed down ahead of us from Victoria in 5 days - but then they've sailed about 50,000 miles in the last 3 years and were not daunted by the 45 knot winds which had us scurrying for cover.

See pictures on webshots - lots of em.