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September 2016

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Everyone look closely. According to the CBP folks that ‘shadowed us through the marina.’ in their adorable police boat. We somehow entered Mexico and then came back into the United States.

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Interactions:

  • CBP: why did you go so far south to come into the Marina
  • Me: Because that entry (pointing 100 yards away) is the only way in here.
  • CBP: No the big marina
  • Me: What big marina.
  • CBP: The one you came into by (insert local landmark here).
  • Me: I have no idea what you are talking about. I just got here.
  • CBP: You know, where you came in about 2 hours ago.
  • Me: You mean San Diego BAY?
  • CBP: Uh, I don’t know.
  • Me: Where the big Pacific Ocean meets this body of Water?
  • CBP: Yeah!
  • Me: I have to follow channel markers. ‘cutting the corner’ around the channel markers puts me at risk of getting into the surf and possibly dying.
  • CBP: I don’t understand.
  • Me: My head damn near exploded.

 

  • CBP: Why are you coming in at 3AM?
  • Me: Because that is when we came in from Morro Bay, we have been sailing for over 2 days.
  • CBP: blank stare. No one comes in at 3AM.
  • Me: Have you ever flown on a red eye? People travel all the time.

 

  • CBP (while shining his OMG-THIS-IS-SO-COOL-I’M-A-COP-IT-HAS-A-BUTTON-ON-THE-END LED light at my face): Do you have any ID on you?
  • Me: Sir, I am am wearing flipflops and shorts. No, I don’t have ID on me. It is in the boat.
  • CBP: Still shining light in my face. Yeah I meant in the boat.
  • Me: Aim your light at the ground or douse it. If I get blinded and fall into the water while mooring my boat I am going to be pissed.
  • CBP: Oh, sorry.

 

  • Me: Here is my ID.
  • CBP: Do you have any local ID?
  • Me: Dude, I just sailed here from Washington. I got here about 5 minutes ago so I have not yet had a moment to get ID from California.
  • CBP: Oh.. ok.

 

  • CBP: (While holding my Washington ID) So how was Portland?
  • Me: Portland is in Oregon. My ID shows I lived in Washington.
  • CBP: on the phone with some random dispatcher for 5 minutes asks me again. Did you stop in Portland on your way down?
  • Me: Sir, I don’t know how else to tell you this but Portland is in Oregon and it would be almost a 2 day trip up the Columbia River to get there so no. I did not stop in Portland.
  • Local Law Enforcement hanging out with them: Snicker, dude, you have asked him that 3 times.

  • CBP: It is really hard to get to the marina we were at in the dark…
  • Me: uh, how did you get here?
  • CBP: We have a chart plot…. oh.
  • Me: Yeah, we have 4 chart plotters on board. The boat damn near drives it’s self.

Yeah, we don’t need a wall, we need these guys to have more situational awareness.

Overall they were pretty polite guys, just a little clueless. When I asked for a car they were a little shocked. I told them I liked to keep track of all of my law enforcement contacts.

 

We are currently on a mooring ball in Morro Bay. We will most likely be here until Saturday morning. Originally, we were going to leave today, but there is a bit of a storm coming in. Please see the below image:

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This is the conservative forecast. By Saturday morning it should blow through giving us a nice weather window for the remaining 290 or so miles to San Diego. If we average 6knts/hour we will be on the water for a little less than 48 hours. Ideally, we will be in San Diego Monday morning.

Morro Bay is really pretty. As far as places go to be stuck for a week, this one is good. There are a lot of little shops, places to hike and just about everything you might need is within biking distance. As a bonus, the sunsets have a definite Goonies feel.

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We are travelling from Santa Cruz, CA to Morro Bay, CA about 5-10 miles off-shore. We had a small stop off the Capitola Beach so we could get Pizza My Heart like I used to when I was a kid.

I am on watch from 3:30 until Caroline gets up sometime next week. The dog, using all of its ‘feel sorry for me’ skills, is in the bed with her rather than in his bed under ours. 

I have a small boat about 5nm south of me that keeps appearing and disappearing from AIS. I have not yet seen him on radar.

I went outside to adjust our chart plotter and noted the fog was light with pretty good visibility. There is a full moon making the 1-2 foot swells shine. The odd thing was the random whitecaps that kept appearing half-way down the waves. I kept looking at them and then I dawned on me that the whitecaps were breathing! Dolphins! At least 2 dozen were racing, jumping and diving around the Waponi Woo.

You have not lived until you have seen and heard a show like that.

It was too dark to shoot a picture or video so here is a picture of the sunrise off one of the bows: 


1 second after this picture a giant sea lion tried to photo bomb by leaping into the air in the shot.