On a brisk Sunday night, September 22, 2013, 7 pm we finally left Point Richmond for good. In other news, Angela Merkel was elected to serve a third term as Germany’s chancellor. Can’t catch a break around here.
I watched the sun set over the beautiful skyline of San Francisco with a bit of sorrow in my heart. It will be a long while before I see the city again, and I’ve grown quite fond of her.
The melancholy was quickly forgotten when we left San Francisco Bay. The dog puked around 8.15 pm, twice. It took me until around 9, only once, despite the fact that I had taken Dramamine. They make this new, non-drowsy Dramamine now. Don’t try it. It doesn’t work.
Utterly miserable I was able to climb into my bunk, thanks to the fact that Bill Noonan had decided to join us on the first leg to Monterey. What a blessing not to have to function through the misery! We had very little to no wind, and TJ was disappointed that he went through all the trouble of rigging the Code Zero and then only got to use it for 20 minutes.
We got to Monterey around 10.30 am on Monday morning. 
The friendly lady at the Brickwater Cove Marina office told us to go ahead and take slip 17. We kept looking for it and looking for it and were about ready to start believing that our eyesight had failed. There were no slip numbers to be seen anywhere. Before we got completely stuck trying to find our way around (the wind was picking up, too) we yelled at a friendly person at the fuel dock who pointed us the right way.
This is the slip:
This is the slip number:
What a joke!
Monday was a very quiet day. Bill rented a car and made his way back home, and TJ and I napped on and off through the afternoon. In the evening we took a little walk to explore the city. That night we found out that there was no 30 AMP shore power and we didn’t have an adaptor, so the next morning we wen to the little Marine Supply store close to the marina to buy one. They, of course, didn’t have one and sent us on a “1 mile walk” to West Marine. About 3 miles later we discovered that West Marine also didn’t have the adaptor. The joys of cruising and not having a car! At least we got a good walk in and had a pretty good idea of what the city has to offer. Later in the afternoon we explored the famous Cannery Row.
We had been planning to leave very early on Wednesday, but the weather didn’t cooperate. Gale force winds and big waves in the forecast kept us in port, and we gladly obeyed because who would have wanted to miss the last, winner-takes-it-all race of the America’s Cup?
Wednesday morning we took a backpack tour to the store, then found ourselves an English Pub to watch the race at. What excitement! Oracle won, Jimmy Spithills kicks ass! I must have jinxed Emirates Team New Zealand with my appearance on NZL TV 😉
Thursday Morning we woke up and felt somewhat foolish for not leaving because of the weather conditions. So we jumped out of bed and left Monterey within a half hour. We had about 25 knots of wind, gusting to 30, and a 15 foot swell.
Rocket Science finally got to show us what she’s made to do! We saw a steady 12 knots, and a top speed of 17.4. Jeez, what a difference to good ol’ Western Explorer!
Watch TJ’s statement here:
P1050801
We got close to Santa Barbara the next day and decided to take a break. 
After all, what’s the hurry? We got an end tie at the marina there, which turned out to be quite entertaining. We got to watch the traffic in the entrance channel, which consisted of power boats going too fast, sailboats under sail, a bunch of dinghys, tourists on SUPs and in kayaks, and generally a lot of people who didn’t seem to know what they were doing. Then there were the gawkers. I’m not sure that I’ll ever get used to that. Somebody actually asked us if we’d like to show the boat in a Junior Sailing Benefit boat show. Huh?
We spent two nights in Santa Barbara, then it was finally off to San Diego! There was no wind, and we motored the whole way. Talking about extremes!
