Where have we been????

As an overview of of our travels here's a few schematics with as many locations or noon positions as Google Earth could fit in. I think most are there in the larger scale pics.

Channel Islands

Yesterday we checked our email for the first time in awhile (scamming free wireless signals is our usual routine when ashore). It’s nice to get in touch every now and then, but we have to admit that we love being disconnected from the mod-cons of civilization for periods of time. We’ve spent the last ten days of ‘disconnect’ sailing through the Channel Islands. Getting there was delightful – our best day and night of easy sailing, without even starting the engine to pick up or drop the anchor. This was when we rounded Point Conception – the big elbow of the California coast, where the Channel Islands sit just south in an eddy of warmer current. We’ve had it all for weather; sitting out a gale, gorgeous hot and dry days of hiking and even a couple days of mist and rain, a relative rarity in this semi-desert climate. While we seem to have left the forests well behind us, the wildlife is still prolific and interesting: curious and endemic island foxes, loads of common and bottlenose dolphins, elephant seals snorting through the night at our anchorage, weird and wonderful Risso’s dolphins and bright orange Garibaldi’s (damselfish) are now swimming through the kelp, a sign of even more colourful fish to come as we head toward more tropical communities.

We are now anchored at Santa Catalina Island, still considered part of the Channel Islands, but not part of the National Park, a gradual re-intro to the civilized world. There’s a pub and a general store (we ate the last half onion last night, so fresh food is welcome) and lots of big shiny yachts and powerboats. We are definitely well below the average size of cruising boat down here.

California Species List

(in order of appearance)

Western Gull
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Common Murre
Common Loon
Turkey Vulture
White Pelican
California Sea lion
Harbour Porpoise
Brandt Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
White-crowned Sparrow
Snowy Egret
Brewer’s Blackbird
Elegant Tern
Western Grebe
House Finch
Yellow Warbler
Pygmy Nuthatch
American Coot
Western Scrub-Jay
Belted Kingfisher
American Crow
Common Raven
California Towhee
Western Tanager
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Heerman’s Gull
Kildeer
Mallard
Willet
Red-winged Blackbird
Red-tailed Hawk
Fox Sparrow
California Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Sanderling
Dark-eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
American Goldfinch
Bushtit
Northern Harrier
Say’s Phoebe
American Kestrel
Black Phoebe
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
White-tailed Kite
Orange-crowned Warbler
Pied-billed Grebe
Western Sandpiper
Greater Scaup
Semipalmated Plover
Pelagic Cormorant
Marbled Godwit
Long-billed Curlew
Canada Goose
Least Sandpiper
Pied-billed Grebe
Black-bellied Plover
Townsend’s Warbler
Cassin’s Auklet
Buller’s Shearwater
Short-beaked Common Dolphin
Common Bottlenose Dolphin
Pink-footed Shearwater
Anna’s Hummingbird
Mourning Dove
Wrentit
Bushtit
Bewick’s Wren
Western Sandpiper
Dunlin
Forster’s Tern
Red-necked Phalarope
Belted Kingfisher
Savannah Sparrow
House Wren
Orange-crowned Warbler
Marsh Wren
Kildeer
Spotted Sandpiper
American Avocet
Northern Flicker
Eared Grebe
Pintail
Amercian Coot
Brown Creeper
Humpback Whale
Pigeon Gullimot
Northern Elephant Seal
Vesper Sparrow
Allen’s Hummingbird
Black Turnstone
Black Oystercatcher
Island Scrub-Jay
Island Fox

Blue Whale
Long-beaked Common Dolphin
Risso’s Dolphin
Osprey

Western Meadowlark

Mockingbird

Photos: Island Fox, Heerman's Gulls, Immature Elephant Seal, Long-beaked Common Dolphin, Risso's Dolphin

San Fransisco

Approaching the Golden Gate (honest)

The Bridge Appears

We crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca sailing most of the way, to officially check in to the US at Port Angeles. When the wind died we called ahead to US Customs to tell them of our arrival. Not ten minutes later as we were still stowing our mainsail we were visited by a border patrol vessel and two armed officers boarded us to have a look around Narama. They were very polite and to the point, but it was a new and intimidating experience for us! We hit the weekly farmers market and stocked up for the voyage south. Following day we motored and sailed to Neah Bay, the last protected anchorage before the big jump down the coast. There we sat for a few days waiting for the summer north-westerly’s to return so we could set sail for California. I think that we were a week too late! Eventually there was a break in the SE in between low pressure systems and we took the chance and headed out. That first day was spent motoring south and west to get far enough away that we wouldn’t be in the strongest wind when the next system blew through.

It was a week at sea. Two fronts come through with 20+ knots of southerly wind, we had a few days of lovely NW breeze that filled our blooper (asymmetrical spinnaker) and ghosted us along at 3 knots very comfortably and we were also becalmed a couple days. Our daily 24-hour runs (in nautical miles): 127 (under power), 85 (pounding into headwinds), 77 (very light following wind), 133 (very strong following wind), 99.5 (a bit of everything), 95 (hardly anything). On the morning of our seventh day we anchored in Drakes Bay (visited by Sir Francis Drake himself in 1579) spent a luxurious day eliminating the squalor in the boat, having a swim and shower and SLEEPING!

Narama is anchored in the lower right framed by two trees

It was an early rise to catch the flood tide under the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. We had imagined this would be a highlight and the excitement was only heightened by the fact that it was pea soup fog. We had to feel our way in with radar (which shows as a solid line for the bridge- so where is the gap?) and only glimpsed the span as we passed beneath. We are now in a great anchorage in the Aquatic Park for a few day stay in San Francisco.

From the log: 12 September, 2009 0200
“The most beautiful display of bioluminescence: 6 Dall’s Porpoises playing under our bow. Their bodies glow like green magic with their trailing wakes still sparkling behind them.”

California SeaLions take over the pier!

Victoria to San Fransisco Species List
(in order of appearance)

Rhinoceros Auklet
Red-necked Phalarope
Glaucous-winged Gull
Mew Gull
Harbour Seal
Harbour Porpoise
Common Murre
Sooty Shearwater
Northern Fulmar
Red-necked Grebe
Mallard
Common Loon
California Sea lion
Great Blue Heron
California Gull
Heerman’s Gull
Belted Kingfisher
Black Turnstone
Northern Pintail
Pelagic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
White-winged Scoter
Starling
Downy Woodpecker
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Winter Wren
Northwestern Crow
Black-footed Albatross
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
Dall’s Porpoise
Cassin’s Auklet
Pink-footed Shearwater
Sabine’s Gull
Parasitic Jaeger
Caspian Tern
Common Tern
Leach’s Storm-Petrel
South Polar Skua
Pomarine Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaeger
Pacific White-sided Dolphin
Buller’s Shearwater
Turkey Vulture
White Pelican
Western Gull
Brandt Cormorant