Passage to Monterey, CA
After spending a wonderful week in the San Francisco bay area, it was time to head south. And this time it was with a new crew. Our wonderful Seattle - San Francisco crew was back to their lives and our kids had joined us. We had used the time in Sausalito to see sights and start boat school. Now it was time to get our first family passage under our belts.
There are three factors we looked at. First, departure timing. Second, passage duration and timing. Third, weather window.
First, on departure timing. From what we’ve learned and read, it is best to leave San Francisco Bay on a dying ebb, without a strong inflow breeze or large ocean swells. A flood would make it slow going for us thru the Gate - possible, but slow and potentially pretty pushed around in eddies. A strong inflow breeze meeting an ebb would create short chop. A strong ocean swell meeting an ebb will create confused seas. There are certainly many configurations that would work and much of this depends upon the boat and the crew - but for our boat and the crew on board, we wanted to avoid conditions that would make folks nervous.
The other element of leaving was tides. We were at Clipper Yacht Harbor, a super nice marina, but with a shallow entry. We had to leave on a +1 foot or more tide state. There was plenty of depth at the dock and on the way to the fuel dock, it’s just the entrance to the marina that gets a bit shallow.
Second, on passage duration. It’s just shy of 95 nautical miles from Sausalito to Monterey. At our typical speed - 6.2 to 6.4 knots averaged over a typical passage - that means it’s 15 to 17 hours. That’s too long to make it from sunrise to sunset. The options are to leave before sunrise and arrive before sunset or leave in the evening and go overnight. Arriving in a new port at night is something we try and avoid so that puts leaving at sunrise or later off the table. Leaving before sunrise is an option, but that would have put us navigating through the Golden Gate at night and that’s not ideal - particularly if fog was present. Taken all together, an overnight passage seemed like the best choice - leave in the evening before sunset and arrive after sunrise.
Third, on weather. With the help of Jamie at Totem we are leaning more and more about what to look for and how to read the many weather resources that exist. PredictWind, the National Weather Service, TimeZero, and Windy are all resources I am regularly cycling through. Since I’m not an expert, I won’t even pretend to be. For the crew we’ve got right now we are looking for downwind or broad reach wind angles at 20 knots or less sustained & waves at 2 meters / ~6 feet or less with a period over 7-8 seconds from an angle that doesn’t make us just roll side-to-side. Some part of this last, long sentence I’ve gotten wrong, I’m sure of it. It’s the wave part that I’m least comfortable with - a period in seconds of two times the wave height in feet is a general rule of thumb I’ve read and been told, but I think there is more to comfort that just this. direction matters. Wind waves vs. Swell matters. Absolute size matters given how waves are measured and reported - where every once in a while larger waves can come and occasionally much larger waves.
Our goal is to get everyone comfortable in the open ocean and building their skills and confidence. Sailing is a part of that. Navigating is a part of that. Motoring is a part of that. Being on watch is a part of that. Shorter sleep cycles. Not seeing land. There are so many parts to moving yourself from once place to another by sea, and our aim is for the whole crew to learn about all of them.
Put all of this together and the night of Saturday, September 10th looked like a good time to make the passage. We readied the boat, spent some time running out the energy, and had dinner before pulling away from the dock at 6:30 PM.
Departing Sausalito, with a mixture of cloud, fog, and smoke
There was smoke in the air from forest fires mixing with some fog, creating a bit of an ominous look as we rounded the corner and headed out to sea. Everyone was super excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge up close. As night settled in, we made our way out the Channel. We didn’t cut the route and head south due to the dying light and wanting to make sure we didn’t end up at cross-purposes to incoming vessel traffic.
As we made the turn to port to head south the swell settled into a rocking back-and-forth and the wind completely died. We started our two hour watch shifts.
The evening was cloudy, but the Moon was full and peaked out. I enjoyed the time on watch tremendously and felt connected to the sea and my crewmates
The moon off Pillar Pt as we motored south - the motion of the swell makes it hard to take a crisp photo at night
As the sun rose, the smoke had largely cleared, and we were treated to spectacular wildlife in Monterey Bay. Grey Whales and Risso’s Dolphins came close and were mesmerizing.
Sunrise in Monterey Bay
We arrived at the dock around 9:30 AM on Sunday, September 11th. We got a spot on the end of the B Dock in the Municipal marina - and were greeted by more large, loud, and smelly sea lions that I’ve ever seen. Amazing to see so much wildlife co-existing in this ecosystem.
A lot of sea lions hanging out! Eventide is near the center of the picture on the end of B dock.