Leaving Monterey, heading south

I'll be leaving Monterey Sunday morning, heading south.  There is fleet of boats arriving tomorrow, and the space I'm occupying, as well as all the other spaces I can fit into are going to be used.  I've been here six days, it seems its time to move on.

I liked Monterey.  Its a small city, easy to walk around.  The Marina is at the heart of the town.  On one side there is a beautiful beach which goes for miles and miles.  On the other side there is interesting coastline which is a mixture of rocks and little sandy beaches.  There is a walking path which follows the coastline in both directions as far as you could care to walk, probably much farther.

From the marina, there is a decent english style pub within 2 minutes of the harbor masters building.  Being a creature of habit, I had dinner there...5 nights.  It would have been six, but the crew of Sockdolager (Jim and Karen) invited me for dinner aboard the last night, which was most excellent.  There is a great sports facility with an amazing swimming pool within a 5 minute walk - I had my best swim there in probably 2 years.  Fishermans wharf is an easy walk away.  Cannery row and the aquarium is an easy walk away.  There are lots of restaurants within an easy walk.  The theme is that you can walk everywhere.  There is also free wi-fi which covers the marina - although a wi-fi amplifier such as the Uqiquity Bullet helps.

This is the part where I mention everything I did, including the museum, aquarium, night life etc - except that thinking back on it, I didn't do those things.  Each day I would have some sort of theme - scout out the town and figure where everything was; then go to the pub for a beer or two and dinner.  Then find a hardware store to buy a new sink stopper; and head to the pub for a beer or two and dinner.  Find an outdoor store which sells headlamps and replace the headlamp which was destroyed by all the saltwater that got into the cockpit; then head back to the pub.  Then it was time to start provisioning - I have enough food on board for a couple weeks again.  Do a few things around the boat; do laundry; and that's about a wrap.  Looking back on it, it was a very satisfying stay.  I could live here.

The coastline west of Monterey

Some of the sea life

Me!  On the beach east of the marina

Oops.  I didn't take any pictures of the town itself.  As I'm leaving Sunday at the crack of dawn (10am-ish) I won't have time to add any tomorrow.  Google "monterey" for more pics!

I'll be leaving here heading south, toward Santa Barbara with a possible stay along the coast earlier if needed to escape weather.  As I leave there are strongish winds forecast south.  The forecast region  I'm in is pzz575.  The zone south of that is pzz670.  The one south of that is pzz673.  On Saturday evening, pzz670 is showing "15 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS TO 30 KT" monday afternoon and evening.  The zone south of that, the one that is appropriate for Santa Barbara is showing "NW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT" for monday with strongish winds tuesday as well.  So I may tuck into San Simeon for a day - I'll make that call tomorrow.  If the forecast calls for 20-30 knots, it might actually end up much stronger.  Or that was my experience earlier with 25 forecast and my ending up sailing in 33.

This cruising life is pretty sweet!