From
First Mate
Bob Nelson
Continued making our way north up the central California coast.
Conditions still very light.
The conditions at 1200 were as follows:
DOMINENT SWELL – NW @ 3 ft
WINDS - <>
TEMP - 68° F
DISTANCE TRAVELED BY 1200 – 122 NM
Yesterday we closed our ship to visitors around 4 p.m. and prepared to leave Santa Barbara. As we cleared our mooring lines a few of our new friends gathered on the dock to wish us bon voyage. The sail up the coast was uneventful—smooth blue swells, southerly winds. Oil platforms march along the coast like brightly-lit space stations.
We saw Pt Conception lighthouse from many miles away, and at midnight we passed it. For more than a year, the crew have been hearing nightmarish stories about the winds and weather that can be encountered off this point, so it was a pleasant surprise and a testimony to the expertise of our captain and officers that brought us around so smoothly. One of the losses at Pt Conception involved a young crewman named Danielle; she was lost overboard from Californian during a trip when the vessel was under ownership by Nautical Heritage Society.
At midnight, Mr. Nelson and a few assembled crew members held a memorial for Danielle. Mr. Nelson said, "Danielle, you are a sailor we never knew but we share with you a love for this ship. May your dreams be realized in Fiddler's Green, where the music never stops and the dancers never tire. We remember you." We threw Hershey's chocolate into the waves for Danielle.
By dawn we were cruising smoothly through a heavy marine layer, safely around Pt. Conception and Pt. Arguello, alongside San Luis Obispo. The sea here is filled with birds, sea lions, sea otters and passing whales, all feeding in the kelp beds below. Visibility is limited to a few hundred yards around us, and it's surreal to sail through a mist of uniform gray, gray water merging with gray fog, no visible horizon. Our fog horn sounds every two minutes. There is no other sound.
By noon the fog burned off and we can see the steep cliffs of the coast between Moro Bay and Big Sur. The ship has been making such good time that the captain has throttled back our speed; otherwise we would be arriving in Monterey in the middle of the night. After dreading the potential rough weather around the two points, it's almost anticlimactic to be here so quickly and easily. Captain McGohey reminds us that we should "enjoy it while we can." There is still a potential for rough weather ahead.
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