Feast of Lanterns

At the end of summer, our town holds the Feast of Lanterns. It is an annual celebration, over 100 years old, of the legend of the Blue Willow, a fabricated "Chinese" story.
From the Feast of Lanterns site: 

"Long ago in far off Cathay, a land now called China, there lived during the reign of Emperors a wealthy Mandarin named T'so Ling. His land holdings were vast and fertile, and his treasures beyond counting. His palace was built of fine woods and rich lacquers with a roof of blue tile that gleamed in the sun, and a handmade fence that ran below the palace. Behind the palace grew an orange tree, and beside the palace ran a river with a graceful willow that gave shade in the heat of the day.

Of all T'so Ling's possessions, his beautiful Princess daughters with their jewel names were his greatest joy. The Mandarin delighted most in his eldest daughter, Koong-se, who he named Topaz, so named for the golden lights that twinkled from her eyes. Topaz passed her days in a summerhouse that leaned over the rippling water, where she did elegant embroidery on silk while listening to tales of old Cathay as told by her faithful nurse, Chun Soy.

T'so Ling thought Topaz so lovely that he wished to crown her as Queen. A coronation ceremony was planned, and all the princes, potentates, maharajahs and lords of the realm were invited to attend the coronation. One of the old Mandarins brought a chest of gold so impressive that T'so Ling thought this rich man would make a fine husband for his daughter Topaz. T'so Ling made plans to combine the coronation with a marriage feast.

Topaz heard this news and became quite despondent, for she had fallen in love with a poor, young scholar called Chang. Hearing of this, T'so Ling forbade his daughter to marry Chang. Topaz wandered off into the dark to drown herself. T'so Ling alerted the villagers to search for Topaz with lighted boats and lanterns. During the search Topaz and Chang reunited. In a final burst of lights, Topaz and Chang were illuminated as they changed into Monarch butterflies and escaped into the sky.

The pageant, which takes place on the last night of the Festival, tells the story in pantomime and ends with a burst of fireworks overhead as the lovers are seen for a brief moment departing in the guise of Monarch butterflies."

We love to anchor out in the bay to watch the show and lovely display of fireworks. Also, to avoid the huge crowds that cram themselves onto the beach. We often bring out friends, food, and have a lot of fun. This year, we truly had a boat load of people on board! =)

Fun times!

Glow sticks are lots of fun! Plus, a great safety hack for keeping track of the kiddos.

View of the shore.

Sleepy time. The kids were worn out after a fun evening out on the bay!
The wagon in this pic is AWESOME. We use it for just about everything (walks to the grocery store, hauling beach or boat gear, and even sleeping kiddos!)

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

Crabby Visitors

These red crabs have been coming into the bay off and on over the past few months.

Here is Z checking out the visitors from the dock. He also brought one onto the boat earlier that day.

From what we learned online (Wikipedia): "Pleuroncodes planipes, sometimes called the pelagic red crab (or simply "red crab"), tuna crab or langostilla, is a species of squat lobster from the eastern Pacific Ocean. Pleuroncodes planipes lives on the continental shelf west of Mexico, and is unusual among members of the Galatheidae in that it lives in shallow water. It is usually found only south-west of San Diego, but in warmer years, its range may extend northwards into California.This is usually indicative of an El Niño event."

The kids enjoyed watching them swim around the marina and after a few attempts, Z caught one so we could get a better look. Science and Geography lesson for the day, boom!

Friends in town!

Last weekend, we had friends come to visit. Of course, this meant we had to go tide pooling and, you guessed it,... sailing! We had 14 people on board! The kids (and adults) had a blast!

The previous day found us hiking at Garland Ranch and then lunch at Baja Cantina in
Carmel Valley. What a great day!










Tide pooling and beach fun at Asilomar Beach,

 

Passage across the Monterey Bay

March 31st, 2016

We've sailed all over this bay and today we decided to take the kids over to Moss Landing for lunch at Phil's before they closed (MBARI owns the building and are expanding). Phil's is a local hangout and was featured on one of those food network TV shows. We go there because the kids can eat all the fish, crab, and shrimp they want and Phil's offers that all in one place! The prices aren't too bad either, so feeding this family of 5 won't break the budget there.

We started out around 10 am and had the laziest and warmest sail ever. We didn't even have to tack once! Wildlife abounded! Whales and dolphins were all around us! Sea lions darted playfully around the stern. It was a fun and relaxing couple of hours. Matt even took over as skipper! He did a great job. The sail back was quite the opposite, but I'll get to that later.
Cadence blowing the conch shell as we exit Monterey Harbor.




We radioed ahead to inquire about a slip and secured one pretty close to the entrance to the marina. The kids helped to tie up the boat and within a few minutes, we were off on our adventure. The walk to Phil's is about 10 minutes from the marina and there is lots to see on your way. MBARI is on your right with its research vessels and interesting equipment, tourist shops and restaurants, and general dock traffic. We must have had luck on our side, because no sooner had we stepped up to order, a huge line had formed behind us! Talk about timing!

After lunch, we walked over to the beach to let the kids burn off some energy and then headed back along the marina to the boat. By this time, the wind had picked up and we noticed that things would not be as calm a sail as they were earlier.

After exiting the harbor, the swell was on the beam and we were close-hauled. Not a fun ride. It was bumpy and wet! Zach and Cadence went down below and fell asleep--their way of avoiding sea sickness. Matthew hung out with Jared and I huddled under his dad's jacket. He wasn't spooked though and even asked if he could take over the tiller. We decided that it would be better if he just watched how his dad handled things so he could learn. We left Moss Landing around 2:30 pm and arrived back in Monterey Harbor around 4:45pm. While not as enjoyable, it was a good experience for all of us. We've been in larger swells and a few squalls, but this one was just a different angle and altogether a different experience.

Zach and Cadence napping through the rough ride.

Back home safe and sound!