The Taco Traveler

10:45 AM
I had a very good night last night, with plenty of sleep in 20-minute bursts before my iPhone countdown timer would wake me up for a radar/AIS/light check. I usually set the timer for 25 minutes, and occasionally fall asleep about 5 to 10 minutes into the timer, I think. Anyway, I feel pretty fresh, but my eyes are sore. I'm going to bypass Morro Bay and instead go straight for San Luis Obispo and just anchor out. I don't really have a need to go ashore, but we'll see. Mainly, I just need to anchor for some good sleep (and anchoring practice, as I haven't yet anchored Chemistry (II).
 
I have to say, I really love AIS. It's so comforting to be able to look at my Nobeltec charting and see all the AIS targets all around me and know their size, heading, speed, destination, etc.... I've got a screen grab from last night where I had no less than nine AIS targets (mostly container ships) in my vicinity but much farther offshore. I'll upload a screenshot when I can. I'm having trouble uploading it because both Picasa and Blogger want to resize it for me, and it's a GIF with text, so a resize screws it up.

After a beautiful sunset this morning, I rested a bit more, snoozing in the rays of the rising sun. There's been almost no wind since yesterday late afternoon, so we've been motoring along at 7 knots (2500 RPM) for 16 hours now. After snoozing a bit, I decided to throw out the fishing line with tuna jig. Not 5 minutes later the reel was spooling. It had to be something big because I had the tension set pretty tight. I went back (carefully) and tried to reel it in, but it was very very strong and wasn't coming along easily. I tried to keep tension on but it got away, which is probably good since I'm not absolutlely positive it was a tuna. I'm a bit close in for tuna, but who knows.

Shortly after the missed tuna(?) I got more company, as a pod of dolphins came by and cruised along in my bow wave for a bit. I wasn't able to get a picture as I was heading directly into the sun so all the camera saw was glare. They weren't relly playful anyway - just swimming and not surfacing much. Then a seal cruised by and leaped out of the water to get a better look at me. Needless to say I was much too slow for a picture of his jump.

I'm about 8 miles offshore at almost the latitude of Morro Bay. Need to get some work done, so I'd just as soon keep going rather than sit in a marina or at anchor and work. More later.

4:45PM
At anchor in San Luis Obispo. This is the first time I've anchored this boat. Not the first time I tried; I tried up near Seattle at Port Ludlow, the night before she went in for the mast step overhaul in Port Townsend. But on that occasion the chain was all gnarled up in the chain locker and wouldn't come out. Today I had the same problem after the initial 30 feet or so, which was sort of scary since the bottom depth was 29 feet, so I had about the worst amount of chain out possible: long enough to drag along the bottom, but not long enough to bury. If I hadn't been able to force additional chain out by banging on it, and if I'd been drifting towards other boats, I might have had a problem. Anyway, I got enough out, but I'm not sure how much. The windlass has issues (primary issue being I'm not aware of all its features/quirks) but I can't get it to go out; I can only make it bring chain in. I know the previous owners deployed the anchor from the cockpit (he even told me how many feet/sec the windlass pays out (1 ft/sec)). So I have more playing around to do before I'm completely comfortable. I also need to repaint the markings on the chain so I know exactly how much is down there. There are marking on there now, but I have no idea if it's marked every 40 feet, 50 feet, 100? I lost track of length there on the bow tugging and kicking trying to get the tangled chain out of the hawsepipe.

Anyway, I'm having a margarita, eating some chips & bean dip, and getting ready for a bit of soup for dinner before going for a nice long sleep (unless my GPS alarm wakes me to say the anchor is dragging - ugh). It's pretty windy out there, but my anchoring spot is pretty well protected, and the anchor is a slightly over-sized plow (50 lbs) for this boat. Plus the tide is going out (non-boaters, look up "anchor rode 'scope': water depth's effect on". :) Ugh, check that. The wind has shifted and now is trying to blow me towards the pier (one of the piers; this bay has 3 piers). I've got about 400 feet between me & the pier, so if I do start dragging hopefully I'll get to the motor quickly enough. I just let out more rode (increase the scope), and I appear to be holding pretty well. I hate the idea of re-anchoring. I'll probably double-check and test the GPS anchor alarm, and in any case I'll not sleep as well as I could have with no wind.

I leave tomorrow mid-late morning for another 20+ hour run. This time to Catalina or somewhere therabouts. Hoping to hit San Diego by Sunday night or early Monday.

TT