Nexus

Anna, at inner harbor anchorage, Monterey.

Perhaps nowhere, does the military-industrial-wildlife nexus become more apparent than along the stretch of coastline that lay between Half Moon Bay's Pillar Point and Monterey Bay's Point Pinos.

Moving slowly southward from San Francisco we took our time to enjoy the last remnants of the northern and central California coast before making the leap around Point Conception and into southern California. We made three stops along the way. The first at Pillar Point, the second at the Elkhorn Slough, Moss Landing, and the third at the end of the public dock, in Monterey's inner harbor.

Pillar Point, also known as Half Moon Bay is a superb, extensive, natural anchorage, which is further protected by an enormous breakwater. The wind can blow through the anchorage (feeding our wind generator and topping off our battery banks) but there is no fetch to allow waves to develop. As a result, the boat hunts around to follow the wind, but there is no rolling action to complicate matters down below. Anchored within the protection of the breakwater and excellent, sticky-mud bottom of the outer harbor, one can see the waves breaking, heavily, over the reef at Maverick, just a hundred yards away.

Sun sets at the Pillar Point anchorage.

And there is of course, adjacent to the crashing, booming breakers just below it, the backdrop of a military installation of radar domes and antennas, which sit quietly atop their own little rock looking out to the endless expanse of ocean to our west and the endless expanse of heavens, above.

Pillar Point radar station busy tracking objects of interest.

Their mission: accurate and precise tracking of missiles and satellites and aircraft and space boosters and orbiting bodies and other 'objects' off the coast of central California. At least, that's what Vandenberg AFB admits to.

Neighboring Moss Landing power station and marine lab
 research-vessels tower above the Elkhorn Slough wetland reserve.

Our next stop along the way was Moss Landing, in the exact center of the coastal crescent that describes Monterey Bay. We sailed into the north arm of Elkhorn Slough on a full, minus, ebb tide. There was but two feet under our keel through the narrow channel.

Cat keeps an eye on the depths ahead.

Wetlands and dunes at north channel,  Elkhorn Slough.

We had apparently brought along the first instance of summer weather to the Elkhorn Yacht Club (EYC). It was now deep into fall and Moss Landing was still shrouded in heavy fog -- that is, until we arrived.

Shadows on deck indicate arrival at Moss Landing at sunset.

And for our efforts they had rewarded us with gratis moorage at their wonderful guest dock, on the slough, just off the wetlands and dunes.

Minus tide at the Elkhorn Yacht Club guest dock.

The EYC was unsurpassed in hospitality during the week we were lucky enough to be staying there. Amid sea lions, endless species of bird life, sand dunes, and an eclectic mix of genuine, friendly people.

White and gray herons in the wetland grass, off our bow.

It is getting late in the season for getting good, 2-3 day weather windows on this last stretch of relatively difficult, California coastline. We need to round Point Conception and the Northern Channel Islands, but we need about two days and nights to sail it, from Monterey Bay.

The weather patterns are beginning to resemble winter patterns here, lately. Strong winds and cold fronts have been dominating the weather recently. Frequent wind shifts over the ocean have been generating big, confused seas in the area. Storm systems marching across the North Pacific now are relentless. Most provide about a 20-hour window of reasonable conditions once every five to seven days, between storm systems. We need 48 hours of stable weather to set up before we will round Point Conception. We are currently looking at a GRIB (computer-generated weather forecasting model) that appears to indicate a 48-hour window of good combined-seas height, direction and period, and wind speed, for a two-night, two-day offshore passage, from Monterey to the Northern Channel Island group. About 217 nautical miles. After rounding Point Sur (off Big Sur) the coast drops off to the southeast. We would keep heading offshore on a southerly track if we are lucky enough to get a northwest breeze and following seas. This should move us about 50 nautical miles off Point Conception before we round the corner -- just south of the shipping lanes at the westernmost island in the Northern Channel Islands group -- and jibe back in, to the south and east and the start of Southern California. Of course, that's based on a computer model projecting conditions 48 hours from now. 

Weather, the primary driving force
behind our decision-making (click to enlarge).

Probability of accuracy, two days from now in unstable weather systems, is 50:50. We'll simply have to make our final decision as the forecast model develops over the next couple days.

Anna's new cast-bronze bowsprit star will help us find the way.

Meanwhile, we are now at the Monterey Public dock. On an end tie, as far out as it gets. Enjoying the comings and goings of the commercial fleet.

Lounging around the docks.

Barriers on dock help keep sea lions off.

Squid mural on the wharf.

Sea lions are barking and growling and snorting and coughing and sneezing and competing for space on their raft, 50-feet  from where we are sitting, in Anna's cockpit, enjoying some hot coffee and watching the high-wind clouds fly by as a strong cold-front passes through.

Monterey Public Wharf #1 adjacent to Anna.

Anna, patiently awaiting a 48-hour weather
window to round Point Conception.

The canneries ramble and rattle and squeak until the last fish is cleaned and cut and cooked and canned and then the whistles scream again and the dripping, smelly, tired WOPS and Chinamen and Polaks, men and women, straggle out and droop their ways up the hill into the town and Cannery Row becomes itself again-quiet and magical. 

-- John Steinbeck, Cannery Row