Our first sail out of Half Moon Bay, we saw between 50-100 humpback whales — humps, tails, spouts, even some breaches! And the closest encounter was a whale RIGHT NEXT to the boat who dove and splashed us on deck with his tail — what a welcome to the ocean!
After all the whale encounters, we continued to have several wildlife encounters — common murres (a bird who screeches MURRE when our boat would come near and dives immediately underwater), lifer sightings of black-footed albatrosses outside of Monterey Bay (birds that fly thousands of miles and nest in the Hawaiian Islands), dolphins, startled sleeping sea lions on the sea surface who did their best Scooby-Doo impressions of “ARRRTTTT.” As nighttime drew in the cold and foggy mist, we settled in for an overnight sail — and found our sailing chops nearly immediately. The waves were somewhat short and steep and we were sailing as close to downwind as our jib (forward-most sail) would let us, and it made for quite the ride. In the moonless foggy night, we each took our four hour shifts and both we and our boat did a great job dealing with the close following waves and winds as well as waking the other person up for sail changes or questions. It wasn’t easy sailing by any stretch, and we were proud of how we handled ourselves and the boat.
In the mid-morning, we found some sunshine along the Big Sur coast and instead of continuing on, we decided to break up our run south with a stop at Hearst Castle anchorage. We took a tour of the castle the following day, decided once again that billionaires should not exist, and drank some of the Hearst Family wine at the winery overlooking our boat and decided we were starting off in style.
After another challenging overnight sail around Pt. Conception which is famous for its strong winds (we found them at 3am), we are finally in SoCal at the Channel Islands National Park and don’t have any more overnights nor super tough sailing in our immediate future. We have found some more sunshine after many days of fog and mist, and have been easing into cruising life with paddleboarding amongst purple starfish and bright orange garibaldi fish (and one VERY surprised male elephant seal), hiking, reading, and writing.
We continue to unfold from the stresses of everyday working life and are happy so far with our teamwork, with our beautiful boat and learning how she sails, and to be amongst so much wildlife on the California Coast. Even a bad time on the boat is way more exciting than an average day behind a computer!
Love this update — the wildlife, the central coast, the smiles!
Coming to LA soon — will be in touch!
Definitely just cried when I saw the Scribe wine! So excited to watch these adventures and miss you so much.
-your biggest fan, Sam
It really is the best house boat wine I can imagine.
Wow, congrats guys, when you sent us a note last year as you brought ZoZo to SanFran, we were accepting delivery of our new Outbound 46, we think this is a huge boat, I cannot imagine a 55. You must have huge storage and must have had quite the time provisioning! Sail safe, keep us posted!
Hope you are loving your Outbound! So far so good on sailing a 55 — she handles following waves like a true champion, we both love the center cockpit in rougher weather like we saw in NorCal! Very different sailing, and fantastic for living 🙂
Could not possibly love this more!
You’re the best, Lis!
Ahhh! I’m loving all the beautiful vivid descriptions and getting a window into your beautiful adventure. Also “Even a bad time on the boat is way more exciting than an average day behind a computer!” hahaha 100% agree!
And it’s only just begun!
Kindly requesting more whale / wildlife / wine photos! Pining from my desk… LOVE a small taste of your adventure!
Will see what we can do for you D! 🐳
Thank you for sharing this amazing look into the start of your new adventure! So thrilled for you two and envious of your nature experiences that have only just begun! 50-100 humpbacks?! Albatrosses?! Incredible.
The California coast is soul-giving. Even LA harbor has wildlife, which deserves huge kudos to making sure the water is clean (garibaldi! spotted rays!).
So excited to follow this blog like it’s 2005! Will read it to the kids! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
“Early century”= 2005 (or is it “early millenium”?)
What a wonderful adventure so far! Love reading your blog and seeing your pictures. Impressive. Enjoy!
I love this in so many ways! I’m also feeling nostalgic about Channel Island National Park (the least visited national park) and the time we camped on Anacapa Island during seagull mating season (this was an adventure of a different kind)! Excited to hear more about your adventures!
I look forward to the margaritas in Mexico where we discuss CINP adventures!
“Even a bad time on the boat is way more exciting than an average day behind a computer!“ 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼