BAGLEY OCEAN RACING: May 2014

Post Vallarta Race delivery:

Seeing the ultimate weather window north, Mark3 (with multiple Marks racing on Deception, we have been reduced to numbering them) and I grabbed two salty friends, Alex and Melinda. We spent less than an hour in SB and shoved off. It proved to be a wise move.

The Channel looked smooth and light, so why waste valuable light air? We watched an amazing sunset and shifted to our watch scheds. A favorable current was with us until we turned the corner. At 0200 we rounded Conception (missing the blue whales due to darkness). The wind meter read 20 knots on the nose, but it felt more like 10 knots. The swell was running about 3 meters from the north. It was like tiptoeing passed a sleeping giant.

The oil platforms were lit up light cruise ships, in fact, one of them WAS a cruise ship. Other than said cruiseship, we saw no traffic until Morro Bay, The stars were brilliant and the Milky Way gave us quote a show. There were even a few shooting stars. Bioluminescence shot off the stern, making the cold of night, not so cold.

We awoke to a mercurial sea with a lavender dusted sunrise. It was as if we were in an anime cartoon. The sea was so calm. Winds light. We were making good time. The breeze started to clock and to build. I still didn’t believe the true wind speed reading. Mark3 was hot to hoist the jib. I was not so hot about it - looking at the sea state, I doubted sufficient ACTUAL wind to carry. Jib up, Bags off watch (drooling into fleecy sleeping bag of dreams, snuggling with a chainplate), a whole bunch of noisy nonsense on deck, jib down. We saw some grey whales off in the distance, some small spouts, some larger spouts. Later, we were visited by two Dall’s porpoise- they look like miniature killer whales and are quite speedy. So fast, I could not capture them on “film.”

We made a cassoulet for dinner, even though there was no can opener on board (a bored 25 year old, a hammer, and screwdriver solved said inconvenience). We headed inland a bit to see the Big Sur lighthouse before another miraculous sunset.

That night I saw the most amazing thing. Initially, I was bummed that we crossed Monterey Bay at night because I had heard that killer whales were sighted in the area. However, I wouldn’t change a thing. We sailed through a forest of luminescent jellyfish, it was like a sea of flashing stars, at the surface and at differing depths. Absolutely amazing, The Milky Way was out again, this time without the light pollution from the oil platforms. Well, at least until Half Moon Bay - where the squid boats looked like they were on fire (we confirmed lack of fire with binocs).

We spent Thursday morning dodging crab pots. Makes you want to have a big crab dinner. Funny how at night, you don’t seem so concerned about crab pots….

We cruised under the Bridge about 1030 hours and were happily surprised by Bill and Jasper on HeyAlice - with breakfast sandwiches - a great compliment to the Pacificos with lime that we just cracked open. Bill seemed to be happy that Mark3 hadn’t cannibalized the boat a second time for fishing, cribbage, or whatever.

40 hours. Smiles. Laughs, Good times. It’s nice to have Big D home. I can’t wait for our next adventure.

Peace Out, Bags (and Mark3)