The Way Home

After our wonderful stay in Santa Barbara we kept a weather eye out for the rounding of Point Conception. Of coarse the weather doesn’t pay attention to birth dates, so Debbie agreed to spend her birth day in Cojo anchorage and our anniversary in Monterey. Point conception has a well deserved reputation as one of the nastiest capes on the coast. Converging currents and a squash zone with the pacific high combined with local topography provide a cauldron of boiling water and wind. The cruising guides suggest anchoring at Cojo anchorage to await a lull in the wind to round this cape and head north. Sosiego, at best, can make 5 knots to the good as long as the head sea is not too bad. San Luis Obispo was the next stop 69 miles up the road. We arrived at Cojo to find a cup full of wind and lots of kelp. The kelp goes a long way to smoothing out the wrap around swell from the point and the holding is good between the fields of kelp. We felt our way in and set the anchor long before dark. There is a ship wreck ashore of a full keel sailboat. This view, is a grizzly reminder that the anchorage is exposed to southerly wind and swell. We had a good dinner and settled in early in order to set sail at 5 am and round Conception at first light. The video shows just the wildness of this place.
Video 1
We lucked out and found a counter current on the coast and had a relatively peaceful rounding of the cape. San Luis entrance is protected by a number of sea mounts and rocks that must be avoided. We picked our way through and picked up a mooring for the night. San Luis is very beautiful and we had a very restful night. From San Luis to Monterey there is 130 nautical miles of coast with no safe harbor to run and hide. Point Sur juts out from the coast and deserves a wide berth. The weather held and we set sail after a good breakfast. We motor sailed with almost no wind from the west. We were astonished to see the speed on the GPS reach greater than 6 knots over the ground. Our luck held and the counter current was strong here. The wind never exceeded 8 knots but was fair and helped us complete this 26 hr passage in 22 hours. Debbie woke at 6 am to do her watch only to discover we had arrived in Monterey.