We finally cut the tie with our marina in Alameda on Halloween day,
October 31! We anchored in Richardson Bay (Sausalito) where we
experienced gale force winds and heavy rain for two nights. But our
anchor hold very well in these gusty winds. We had then one day with a
little bit of sunshine before another gale and… a nice dinner on
Oberon, our friends’ 40ft sloop bound to French Polynesia.
We finally set sail for Monterey, and passed under the Golde Youhouou
n Gate on November 6. The first night at sea with Kenzo was cold,
windy and foggy… But Kenzo enjoyed the experience of sleeping and
living at sea and arrived all rested after a good night sleep! The bad
news however was that we discovered a leak at the thru-hull of the
exhaust system. We spent 4 days in Monterey to fix the leak and test
Plume in the Bay. We also enjoyed the visit of several friends and had
incredibly good weather: the “Monterey Indian Summer”.
Well, we start to love this little city of fishermen, with everyday
fresh fish at $1 per pound on the wharf, beaches for Kenzo and a
delicious french bakery! However we are now ready to move on and wait
for a weather window to sail south again. But this window is slow to
come!
A new photo album is viewable on our gallery.
It took us 8 long days to move our small 2 bedroom house into a 8ft x 16ft x 8ft container… This was hard work since we did not realize how much has been accumulated during the 5 years we rented our lovely home. The trucker who came pick up our Portable On Demand Storage (PODS) asked what we had put inside: we were grossly overweight! Here is how we did it: pods-filling ;-)
Thanks to all of you who helped moving furnitures, cleaning, babysitting, cooking and more!
Two of the crew members (23 month old each) did not weight much, but they took as much room as an America’s Cup grinder! We enjoyed a small cruise from Alameda to Sausalito with two friends, Marie and Bernard, and their toddler Loris. We reached Sausalito in a single tack after the Bay Bridge, because the wind was more West than usual. The 20 knots winds recorded at Angel Island were quite a fresh welcome to this young family for a first sailing day. However, with two reefs in the main we were still very comfortable, and the two boys had a good nap inside. The weather was quite cold and, even in Sausalito, multiple layers were required to enjoy the barbecued tri-tip for dinner.
On Sunday morning, we did an excursion under the Golden Gate Bridge, welcomed by a group of dolphins, which was a magical moment. We were there right at the slack, so the waters were not too confused. The wind was blowing a little bit less than Saturday, so our trip downwind was quite relaxing. Everybody enjoyed the long lunch on deck with views to San Francisco.
Photos of the weekend are in this new album.
What we learned: Six people can fit on a Norsea 27, but at bedtime, with one toddler in the aft cabin and one in the main cabin, there is only the cockpit left for the adults… So prepare your warmest cloths and leave the bottle of wine outside!