Victoria, BC to the Sea of Cortez

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Is Santa Cruz a place where you cannot get a transient slip?
 
ksanders said:
Is Santa Cruz a place where you cannot get a transient slip?
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There usually are a few at the harbor, Santa Cruz Harbor :: Visitor Berthing Information

Another issue with anchoring out is dinghy landing is pretty sketchy at the wharf, or you have to go around into the harbor anyway. You don't see many boats anchored for a reason. Plus it's such a nice town, why not visit the easy way?
 
Kay and I were watching as you pass under the "Bridge!" How exciting. Good to hear about your oil situation which seems to be a "non-issues" now. Have fun, please post lots of pics on your FB page!
 
ksanders said:
First off, you do not have a schedule, that is good. You can happily sit in port and wait for nice weather days.

If you do this right, and are patient, you will never see rough weather. Just hop from port to port. You do not need to do any long overnight offshore passages.

If you look closely at the trips noted in this thread they were all delivery trips, made by people on a schedule. When you have a schedule to meet you will get yourself into rougher weather than necessary.
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Kevin;
Really cool that you played Obi-wan to the young Luke Seawalker here.
 
Now anchored in Santa Cruz with S/V Tenacity rafted up to us. NOAA issued a Small Craft Advisory for 15-25kt winds and 3-5ft seas starting at 1400 but we just managed to sneak into Santa Cruz before it got too gnarly (we got in at 1415). Tenacity got in three hours later and experienced the full brunt of it but managed just fine, achieving hull speed for a good chunk of the sail.

The anchorage is a bit rolly but definitely not as bad as Shelter Cove. Dinghying ashore is sketchy, as we were warned, due to the seals on the docks, but we found an unoccupied ladder at the pier and used it instead. Problem is the ladder is not normally available as it's directly underneathe a crane for launching boats. They just happened to be wrapped up for the day so the staff let us use it... tomorrow it will have to be a beach landing (dicey)... UNLESS... we head to the marina, which we probably will, as I have to equalize my batteries (details are in a post I just made on the Facebook page).

Absolutely beautiful here. Looking forward to being a kid again and trying the rides on the weekend!
 
Glad to hear it! Welcome to my old home town. I was looking at the web cams yesterday and it looked as good as it can get there for anchoring. If you need some restaurant or shopping recs let me know, or if in other need, I still have a lot of friends there. There is an Enterprise rental car place on Ocean that is usually pretty reliable and cheap. On that harbor side of town, Shoppers Corner is a great grocery market. Whatever you want in the way of eats is available and in quality, restaurant and grocery. Santa Cruz has become a suburb of Silicon Valley so is foodie heaven. By the way, the Mexican place on the beach next to the harbor is pretty good, I ate there this spring.
 
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caltexflanc said:
Glad to hear it! Welcome to my old home town. I was looking at the web cams yesterday and it looked as good as it can get there for anchoring. If you need some restaurant or shopping recs let me know, or if in other need, I still have a lot of friends there. There is an Enterprise rental car place on Ocean that is usually pretty reliable and cheap. On that harbor side of town, Shoppers Corner is a great grocery market. Whatever you want in the way of eats is available and in quality, restaurant and grocery. Santa Cruz has become a suburb of Silicon Valley so is foodie heaven. By the way, the Mexican place on the beach next to the harbor is pretty good, I ate there this spring.
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Thanks for the tips! We went out for some happy hour beers and appies on the pier yesterday, which were great.

Does it normally get busy here on Columbus Day weekend?
 
Britannia said:
We don't observe Columbus Day here so it's not a special weekend.

Richard
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True, but if the weather is good, in town any weekend will be busy given proximity to San Jose and the Bay Area. And the forecast looks fantastic with highs in the 80's and light winds from the north.
 
Santa Cruz is a zoo. On most weekends the vehicle traffic is backed up for miles between Santa Cruz and San Jose, in stop-creep-stop mode. Weekday commutes are about as bad. City streets are very busy too.

Watch for the cement-outbound, coal-inbound train to/from the Davenport railroad branchline where it runs down the middle of the city street.
 
VicTrawler said:
Now anchored in Santa Cruz with S/V Tenacity rafted up to us. NOAA issued a Small Craft Advisory for 15-25kt winds and 3-5ft seas starting at 1400 but we just managed to sneak into Santa Cruz before it got too gnarly (we got in at 1415). Tenacity got in three hours later and experienced the full brunt of it but managed just fine, achieving hull speed for a good chunk of the sail.

The anchorage is a bit rolly but definitely not as bad as Shelter Cove. Dinghying ashore is sketchy, as we were warned, due to the seals on the docks, but we found an unoccupied ladder at the pier and used it instead. Problem is the ladder is not normally available as it's directly underneathe a crane for launching boats. They just happened to be wrapped up for the day so the staff let us use it... tomorrow it will have to be a beach landing (dicey)... UNLESS... we head to the marina, which we probably will, as I have to equalize my batteries (details are in a post I just made on the Facebook page).

Absolutely beautiful here. Looking forward to being a kid again and trying the rides on the weekend!
Click to expand...

Are you anchor'd out by choice????
 
ksanders said:
Are you anchor'd out by choice????
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We were. After one night, though, we'd had enough and pulled into the marina this morning.

Speaking of which, the entrance to the marina in Santa Cruz was far more precarious than any bar crossing we've had to make. We basically rode in on the back of a wave. The entrance to the marina is actually a world-class surfing spot, though it's illegal to surf there.

Good news: diesel is reasonably priced here, so we filled the remainder of the tanks at $2.85/gallon.
 
VicTrawler said:
We were. After one night, though, we'd had enough and pulled into the marina this morning.

Speaking of which, the entrance to the marina in Santa Cruz was far more precarious than any bar crossing we've had to make. We basically rode in on the back of a wave. The entrance to the marina is actually a world-class surfing spot, though it's illegal to surf there.

Good news: diesel is reasonably priced here, so we filled the remainder of the tanks at $2.85/gallon.
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You will like prices better further south.. it is under $2.50 in newport beach.
Hollywood
 
hollywood8118 said:
You will like prices better further south.. it is under $2.50 in newport beach.
Hollywood
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Much of the east coast is $2.10 to $2.25 right now with some under $2. Obviously doesn't help Victrawler.

For those you mention with lower prices in California, you might suggest to them they report to Active Captain and get listed. Right now the lowest in California shown on AC is Santa Cruz at $2.85. Highest is Avalon Harbor at $6.15.
 
VicTrawler said:
We are now in Alameda, CA! I want to thank CeeBee for hooking us up with some excellent moorage for an amazing price. It's a very comfortable marina and only a 10 minute walk to the largest Target I've ever seen!!
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Ahoy Mark and Eden, We were happy to help out with a place to stay while in the bay area and it was great enjoying a glass of wine (or 2 or 3) with you and Eden on the flybridge!

Safe travels, maybe we'll run into you "down South" You know if you guys need anything Holla

Chris and Emily B
 
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Wow, Santa Cruz was nuts! The marina seems so quiet but hundreds of people pack the restaurants at night!

Yesterday, four of us decided to be kids again and got all-day passes at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. We must've done 15 rides, including the Giant Dipper twice! We finished the day at the Mexican restaurant in the harbor (good recommendation, caltexflanc).

This morning I went down to the harbor entrance at sunrise to watch the swells roll in so I knew what we'd be up against on the way out. The abnormal SW swells were breaking spectacularly on the breakwater and every once in a while a breaking wave would actually get into the entrance. I saw many a boat make it out safely by patiently waiting for a gap between swells so I figured we'd just do the same.

When our turn came I slowly rode over two swells as I creeped up on the entrance, then pegged the engine and got the hell out of there at 9 knots, no problem whatsoever; one last amusement park ride we'll call it!

It was very rolly over to Monterey, 6 foot+ swells out of the west and we hit fog about halfway across that persisted until about a mile from the marina. We got ourselves a sweet end-tie for $28/night so maybe we'll stay longer than the two nights we planned. Monterey seems like a great city!
 
What a wonderful trip you are on!

If you slow down a little I'd love to buy you a beer in Santa Barbara early November. :)
 
Hawgwash said:
You're so close, don't miss Carmel.
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Carmel looks beautiful, but don't think we'll make it there. Spent most of my day today equalizing the batteries - turns out they're in great shape.

Tonight we're celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with two other Canadian boats that are with us in Monterey. Tomorrow we'll finally have a chance to explore Monterey before we depart on Wednesday (I already added a third night to the moorage here).
 
Make sure you do the aquarium. really excellent.

Haven't been to Monterey in 10 years or so; our daughter went to prep school there. Can't even remember the names of my favorite restaurants, which shows you how long it's been!
 
caltexflanc said:
Make sure you do the aquarium. really excellent.

Haven't been to Monterey in 10 years or so; our daughter went to prep school there. Can't even remember the names of my favorite restaurants, which shows you how long it's been!
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Rules of travel. Never miss an aquarium, a zoo, or a lighthouse. I've never seen a bad one of either, just some not as good as others.
 
When in Monterrey I strongly suggest dinner at Ocean's Edge restaurant at the Highlands Inn a few miles south of Carmel on the PCH. The food/service is second to none and the view is incredible at dusk. Worth the taxi fare from Monterrey.
 
So, we like this place so much that it's going to be our "maintenance stop" instead of San Diego. Cheaper, great marina, good weather, easy access to West Marine and other hardware stores, and the marina office is more than happy to accept packages on my behalf.

I'll finally be installing the SSB, as well as a watermaker, and maybe even some solar panels.

We'll be leaving no later than the 28th of October!
 
VicTrawler said:
So, we like this place so much that it's going to be our "maintenance stop" instead of San Diego. Cheaper, great marina, good weather, easy access to West Marine and other hardware stores, and the marina office is more than happy to accept packages on my behalf.

I'll finally be installing the SSB, as well as a watermaker, and maybe even some solar panels.

We'll be leaving no later than the 28th of October!
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There is a great company, Cruise RO at Morro Bay if you are looking for a really good watermaker at a great price!
 
We'll be leaving no later than the 28th of October![/QUOTE]

If you're still headed south when you leave, and plan to stop off in Marina del Rey (Santa Monica Bay) shoot me a PM as I'll likely have excess dock space available for a visit.

It appears that Stout will be sold and gone, but I'll have to give notice to release my end tie.

Happy travels,

Jay Becker
M/V Stout
 
ksanders said:
There is a great company, Cruise RO at Morro Bay if you are looking for a really good watermaker at a great price!
Click to expand...

We DID end up going with Cruise RO in the end; chose the 30 GPH unit. I anticipate we'll have the hardware by Thursday for Friday and I'll hopefully get the install done on the weekend.

As for the rest of the jobs, the HF whip is now installed and I'm 80% complete the cable runs. Once I have the GTO-15 in hand (probably Thursday) I'll finish that job.

Decided to go with a single solar panel for now, 140W. It will sit on the elevated deck on the bow, just behind the hatch above the v-berth. Should be enough power for the small chest freezer and the bar fridge. The batteries will still drain but much slower now, and I'll just top them up with the generator while we're making water or using the SSB. Still going to need to plug in to a marina every once in a while to get in a good 100% charge and keep the sulfur off the plates. The controller for the solar panels can definitely handle another panel or two, so there's room for expansion in the future should we go that route.

The other job I've completed is the installation of a new heat exchanger on the engine. Pretty sure the existing one was original and though it probably could've been cleaned up in an acid bath and returned to service, the new one really wasn't that expensive and it's always nice to know you have reliable cooling, especially when operating in warmer water. The transmission and oil coolers were also replaced earlier in the trip.

Looking forward to departing here in a week with the new and improved Halcyon I!
 
Stout42 said:
We'll be leaving no later than the 28th of October!
Click to expand...

If you're still headed south when you leave, and plan to stop off in Marina del Rey (Santa Monica Bay) shoot me a PM as I'll likely have excess dock space available for a visit.

It appears that Stout will be sold and gone, but I'll have to give notice to release my end tie.

Happy travels,

Jay Becker
M/V Stout[/QUOTE]

Very much appreciate that, Jay! We're definitely heading south and I will be in touch if we stop in Marina del Rey. Have yet to plan the stops after Pt. Conception.
 
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