We made it! Sailing the West Coast of Northern California

We have lots of catching up to do! We’ve been cruising further and further south but haven’t made the time to share our adventures here for a while. Our travels have been jam-packed with epic sailing, remote anchorages, and amazing adventures ashore. This post is brought to you by Chris (the other half of the crew), to catch you up on what we’ve been up to. These next few posts may not be as eloquently written or perhaps as grammatically correct as our previous posts, but I assure you they will include the best parts of our trip so far. First up, sailing the West Coast of Northern California!

Westport to San Francisco

We had some ground to make up after our extended stay in Westport where we were able to become a research vessel and do science at sea. Check out this post if you haven’t already. We stocked up on provisions and sailed right past Oregon, covering over 650 miles on our way to San Francisco. We took advantage of one of the last few northerly winds of the season and rocketed south under a full main sail and spinnaker. When approaching the notorious Cape Mendocino, the wind died! We proceeded to motor around Mendocino in benign conditions, waving to a Coast Guard helicopter that came by for a low buzz. After consulting the latest weather forecast, we decided to drop anchor nearby rather than continuing to motor. What a gem we found just south of Mendocino called Shelter Cove! We would not recommend this anchorage in anything but the calmest conditions as it’s normally a rolly anchorage, but for an overnight it was a perfect stop to break up the trek south. There’s a nice beach to land a dinghy and an ale house up the hill that served cold beers and delicious food.

The wind returned the next morning, and we sailed the last 200 miles to San Francisco… but wow did the wind come back in force! We made excellent time surfing down the large waves, consistently hitting 10+ knots with a double reefed main sail. Lucky for us, the fog was minimal at the entrance to San Fran as we came in at daybreak. We decided to drop the hook at Angel Island and catch up on some sleep after the sporty sail.

Angel Island was a great place to stretch the legs and get an aerial view of the bay. We anchored on the east side of the island in China Cove. After some sleep and a hike up to the highest point on the island, we were ready to head to our next location, but our anchor would not come up. It was fouled by something down below, and after countless tries we decided we had to dive down and see what the issue was. I put on my scuba gear and hopped in the water to investigate. There was not much to be seen, however, as I couldn’t even see my hands at 25ft down in the murky water. After moving around by feel rather than sight, I realized we had snagged not one, but TWO old and heavy anchor chains. I cleared them from our anchor and away we went. Not off to a great start! If you decide to come here, we recommend rigging a trip line on your anchor or visit the other anchorage (Ayala Cove) also on the north side of Angel Island.

Have you ever heard of Trader Vic’s? Well, he is something of a legend to me and my family (we have one of the original rum cookery and drinkery books) and now Cory is also whole heartedly a fan. One of the two last remaining Trader Vic’s restaurants in the U.S. is at the top of the dock of the Emeryville Marina, on the east side of the bay. We stayed there for a few days, enjoying the Polynesian food and rum cocktails before heading over to downtown San Francisco.

We highly recommended anchoring in the Aquatic Park right in the heart of the San Francisco downtown waterfront. For $10/night to the National Parks Service, you get an amazing anchorage and a safe location to keep your dinghy ashore with the NPS within their gated park area. This was a perfect launching point for us to explore the city. Our electric scooters were perfect for getting around. We rode them along the waterfront to the Golden Gate Bridge and even through Chinatown! We also had a great time checking out the California Academy of Sciences. Thanks to a friend for that recommendation!

San Francisco to Monterey Bay

We parted ways with San Francisco with our sights set on nearby Monterey Bay. The relaxed town vibe was just what we needed along with a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, though we also had sea otters drifting right by our boat. It was time to swap our zincs and clean the bottom of the boat, however it didn’t feel right hopping in the water at our anchorage alone since a shark was recently spotted in the bay, so we decided to get a slip in the marina for the day. After that chore was done, I made my way to a nearby dive shop to refill my scuba tank. While at the dive shop, I was told that a 13ft white shark was spotted IN the marina that day! Glad we didn’t notice each other down there…

Next stop, sailing to Southern California!