So we've finally made it to San Diego.  This last sail from SF was a lot less stressful than the our first leg from the Columbia.  The weather(and the water) has gotten warmer and warmer as we sailed south and the seas have been a lot kinder.  

From SF we had a two day cruise which at times scared the newbie crew but was otherwise uneventful.  

Until we made it to Santa Cruz. This place was awesome, friendly people, easy to walk around. We never did find the school, but during the day we found amazing mexican food and new swim trunks for Matt. Everyone is beach blond and in hot pants, a little pricey in places but cool music venues (didn't make it into the tech9 show) and a sweet night life. Characters everywhere and one guy told us we smelled like hippies. He had it all wrong, we stink of salt water sailors. Speaking of... a little story. So we were anchored out in the bay just in front of the rollercoasters cuz our boat was too big for the harbor or something.. anyhow, we had to dinghy to the pier and lockit to one of two docks. One dock was completely taken over by sea lions, our constant friends on this journey, and it wasn't until the evening that we ever have problems with these guys. When the sunlight goes down, the sea lions like to take over all surface areas and this can mean trying to beach themselves on your dighy.  Before we even got to that problem, we realized they wouldn't even let us near the dock, so we had to make a beach landing. This was all great and good, surf and fairly decent wave onto the beach, hop out and run the dighy ashore. No issues there, we locked it up and went out on the town. The whole crew can get pretty wild and it has been so fun to go out in an entourage most times, our captain likes to spoil us with the first few rounds and then its all about him finding the only Big Buck Hunter video game in the entire town. He is addicted to this game. Anyhow, we are all a bit giddy and swaying back to the dock with our crew, and now we have to make it to the boat. Not really thought of as a hard task until we were DENIED the first attempt back out. Matt kinda watched the whole thing cuz he was in the back, but basically we ranranran the boat out, jumped in, just to get slammed nose into the air and everybody spilled outta the boat. All cameras, phones, shades, hats and clothes were either destoryed, lost or permanently crusty. Now we scan beaches for the best entrance spot and time sessions of waves for the right window. Amazing the learning curve on this wild water stuff. 

Since then the boat has been called the "whatever" cruise because Matt and Capt. Dave are the only ones with working cell phones, leaving everyone pretty blase about their land lives. So, we cruised on to Santa Rosa Island and then to Catalina Island eating peanut butter and jelly sammies and trying to brush our teeth everyday. Snorkeled a bit on both islands and sleep as much as we can, we are loving this trip more and more. The Santa Anna winds kinda blow all the smoke from the mainland fires and smog our way which is kinda lame, but the sun is a ripe 85 degrees everyday and we are gettin pretty tan. Matt works on knitting and I've finished Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" which was amazing and we have a lot of work here in San Diego gettin ready for the next leg of the trip. 

Yesterday we saw the brand new BMW/Oracle Americas cup contender boat (DoGZilla) going out to for some more seatrials.  That thing is incredible. Then last night I met a guy who knows one of the carbon fiber masons on the boat and said I might be able to catch a ride sometime this weekend.  I'm definitely not going to hold my breath but that would be amazing if it worked out.  We'll get some pics of it soon.  

Costume party tomorrow and a prize if you wear it on the first day of the rally. There are Baja-Ha-Ha boats everywhere and people are friendly about making the trek south. Captain Dave is ready to start mooning the other sailiors for the trip, but we told him it would be bad form until we are finally underway. So Monday should be exciting as we set sail for wonderful Mexico. 

Hope you are all well and let us know what is new when you can.

Much love from,

Katy and Matt

Riders On The Storm

So we're already almost three weeks into this adventure, and a lot has gone on over these past weeks.  The best parts to share have been the past week, but we will start from the beginning.  

For those of you who don't know what we're up to, Katy and my's goal is to sail to New Zealand any which way we can.  We started our adventure in Portland, and all options are on the table as far as our route, how long we stay, and who we sail with.  That being said, we first had to meet the Daves. One Dave being the owner of a Hudson Force 50 and his accomplice Dave who is a sassy big guy who spent 20 years fishing out of Dutch Harbor in Alaska. There is no substantial evidence that Capt. Dave is as ready for this trip, but he made it through bringing this boat up from Cali. Anyhow, workworkwork on the boat and a few nights of sweet partyin in Portland and we are on our way. 

Oct.1st we left Pirates Cove Marina and motored to St. Helens where a week was spent finding more and more problems. We began to think we might just fly to New Zealand. We were also graced with the presence of another friend of the Daves. Don is the coolest electronics guy we've ever come across and he is into sailing this vessel (which had never been sailed before.) So finally after almost a week of stormy weather in St. Helens OR, we got to leave the dock and head for Rainier and the best crab louie on the Columbia River (according to Big Dave).  A day and a half later we had made it to Astoria and our last stop before setting sail for San Francisco.

The sail to San Fran was AMAZZING and was heavenly dreamy with large waves rolling alongside us, carrying us South. Porpoises came outta nowhere and just before things got a bit hairy. See the first day out, we had to cross the Colombia Bar, which is notorious for claiming vessels, but everything went very well. Winds started to pick up and the swell was getting a bit bigger, rollers were coming up alongside the boat. The first night was great, the next night Matt and I had to sail through some almost gnarly squalls, but the third night was unlike any sailing/boating/surfing experience. The third day started casually, everyone was up, sails were full and merriment all around. We were taking notice of the larger rollers we were surfing and then realized we had missed the last chance to turn to land and wait for some weather to pass by. We expected 20 knot winds from the north, fluctuating between NE and NW, but consistently with us, except that as we rounded Cape Mendecino there were 25-30 knot gusts expected. As the evening progressed, and everyone got tucked in for the midnight shift, Matt and I sailed though some of the biggest cresting waves we have ever seen. I couldn't man the wheel for the response time had to be quick and strong. I sat backwards and read the waves to Matt, what direction, how big and Matt bobsledded this tank of a boat down each hill of water until it was time to rest. At this point we had experienced up to 40 knot gusts and had surfed the boat up to 19.1 knots in speed, no sails up anymore, all motor. As we turned the helm over, Big Dave set it to auto helm and that boat was a rockin and rollin all night. Waves crashin over and I personally thought that was it for us. We finally slept and were relieved upon waking that everything was gonna be great, we'd made it around the Cape, and it was only a few hours till Bodega Bay. 

Since then life is sunny and wonderful!! We arrived under the Golden Gate bridge two nights ago, and the city came to life and the dusky night fell upon a wealth of lights. We anchored right in front of Ghiradelli chocolate factory and then we saw Angel Island go up in a forest fire started by some campers. Now we are in San Fran now cruising the streets and visited a friend and some family while our boat waits for more crew. We have no idea where they will sleep on this already filled boat, but we look forward to more sun, great sailing, and good eats.  

More soon from more California

pictures are coming