Passage Across the Monterey Bay!

Our passage from Monterey to Capitola! This happened back in July, however, with the start of school and family birthdays, needless to say we were a bit busy! =)

Jared and I had been talking about making the passage across the bay for awhile now. In addition to waiting for the right time to do it, and good weather conditions, summer  over on the CA coast, is sketchy. Fog is ever-present, so we decided to just go for it.

The passage over was foggy and cold. The kids mostly stayed below playing games with occasionally coming up top to look for wildlife. We monitored our progress using a navigational app on the ipad. When traversing the trench, we noticed the swell was much calmer. We sailed between close-hauled and a beam reach.

En route to Capitola (about a 3.5-4 hour sail due to lack of adequate wind):

Our solar charger worked well despite the foggy conditions!

Arrival to Capitola (mooring balls only, no anchoring or slips):

Once we were tied to the mooring ball, we hailed the water taxi (didn't have the dingy this trip) and went ashore to find some dinner. Imagine our surprise when the guy told us that he stops running the taxi at 6pm! It was 5:30pm when we arrived, so we had to get dinner to go.

The kids made friends right away! There was a group of kids fishing off the pier, so naturally ours had to join in the fun!

The rest of the evening was spent fishing, sipping hot cocoa, and enjoying the time on the boat. The next morning, we ventured to shore to find some breakfast.

We left Capitola around noon after fishing for a bit and made it back to Monterey by 4pm. We had a few patches of sun for our return passage, which was nice.

Arriving back to Monterey (in the fog):

This was a great experience for us, as it was another passage under our belts. The kids and the dog did very well. =)

~S