Santa Cruz – April 2023

Between storms and strong winds, my father and I found a window of mild weather to sail from Berkeley to Santa Cruz. We motored from Berkeley to just past Alcatraz, at which point the winds quickly picked up. I had chosen the genoa due to the light wind conditions, but we were quickly overpowered. As we headed to a more sheltered position near the San Francisco shoreline, I swapped out the genoa for the class jib. With just two tacks, we had cleared Lands End and were sailing comfortably along the coast on an upwind tack. We stayed on the same tack until Half Moon Bay. Around Montara, the already mild winds died down even further. I put back the genoa, which we probably could have been using for most of the day after clearing Lands End. As we got closer to Half Moon Bay, the winds shifted and we were sailing downwind between the buoys marking the approach to the harbor. After clearing the last of the marker buoys, we found ourselves sailing upwind to a nice breeze leading up to the sea wall. We sailed in the lagoon behind the sea wall and dropped anchor for the night.

The morning was completely calm and we started out of Half Moon Bay by motor. This was the first opportunity I had to use a new gas tank with fuel line that avoids me having to manually add gasoline to the outboard’s gas tank every few hours. It worked like a charm. As we cleared Pigeon Point, the winds picked up. The forecast called for light winds, so I started out with the genoa. We sailed on a broad reach until Table Rock, taking down the genoa and eventually reefing the main when the winds picked up. When we dropped the jib, we were able to sail at a run, without jibing, into Santa Cruz. Only as we passed the Boardwalk did we bring back up the class jib to sail into the harbor at a beam reach. All together, it was a pleasant two days of sailing with exceptional visibility along the coast and sightings of whales.