After a long and chilly two day voyage from San Francisco and the dip in the cold waters landing dinghy, dog, and crew on the beach, the morning coffee tasted exceptionally fine as dawn broke sunny and warm over the range of mountains to the southeast of the semi-protected waters of Santa Cruz anchorage. After a short breakfast, I weighed anchor around 1230 HRS. With only a light breeze, as we had experienced the entire voyage so far, I raised sails once again in the hopes of getting some wind for the twenty two mile crossing of Monterey Bay to the town of the same name and the historical harbor there. Because it was only a short distance, I elected to leave the dinghy in the water and tow it. Visibility was around 10 miles, so our destination was apparent only to our trusty compass, with the sandy coastline wandering off to port. A large sailboat had sailed just ahead of me out of the anchorage and had steered left, so I simply followed their course for a few minutes until I determined that they weren’t headed for Monterey or were staying in sight of shore, and so adjusted our heading to the course I had worked out the night before. We chugged along under motor for only a short time until the breeze finally filled in enough to shut down the engine and sail along at 3 - 4 knots. An hour or two into the crossing, the wind was blowing steadily at around 15 knots just aft of the beam giving us the best sail yet encountered since leaving San Francisco, with Minerva happily settled in making 5 -7 knots. The seas were a gentle 4 – 6 feet rolling easily along giving a welcome change from the flat, glossy, nearly nonexistent seas encountered the two days prior. The sun had been covered by a light cloud cover encouraging me to put on some warmer clothing, but the exhilaration of a good wind and the promise of an easy passage kept a smile on my face the whole trip. We made the outer harbor buoy on the mark, turned to windward and secured the sails at 1630 HRS, only a 4 hour sail. I had read the cruising guide and had studied the local chart to help find the anchorage into which we motored. There were several small fishing boats anchored just inside the fishing wharf and opposite the inner harbor channel from the mooring field, but it didn’t seem too crowded, so I got the hook ready to set and started searching for a likely place to hang out for a while. I was on my third pass through the anchorage looking for just the right spot when a Harbor Patrol boat showed up to advise me that this was not the anchorage but was located on the opposite side of the fishing wharf. I thanked him for catching me before I dropped the hook, as the anchor windlass wasn’t working properly and I was hauling up the 45 lb CQR with 3/8” chain by hand. That isn’t a job to be taken lightly! As it turned out, I would have likely lost my anchor and chain had I set it in the inner harbor which was extremely foul, according to the Harbor Patrolmen. Anyway, we got settled without further ado about 500 feet off of the wharf, just in front of a second mooring field standing off the beach and outside the breakwater. The sun had returned, albeit a bit low in the sky by this time, the boat was sitting comfortably at anchor, and we had just completed the best sailing day, out of sight of land, that I have had in much too long a time. I was ecstatic! I prepared a fine dinner and was sitting back with a cocktail looking at the lights of the city and harbor when I heard a very deep breathing just off my stern. Now I’ve heard seals, sea lions, and porpoises grabbing air as they swim by but this was much deeper and of longer duration than any I’ve heard before. Looking toward the sound, there was just enough light from the wharf to illuminate a small “bow wave” moving across my stern toward the wharf. Reason told me that it had to be a whale, but we were anchored in just 30 feet of water and only 1000 feet from the beach! The bow wave disappeared for several minutes as I waited for either the wharf to collapse from the collision of the brute or some other indication of the whale’s progress. The pier didn’t move and I heard another “blow” giving evidence of what I fancied as a young bull whale moving off from the pier toward open waters. What a finale to a fine day and a splendid welcome to Monterey!
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