Having successfully stolen my husband from me for the PacCup in 2014, Greg and Susan were now trying to tempt me to join them for the 2016 race.
Picking a long weekend in June, we made our plans and dropped the anchor at Cone Rock just as the sun was setting on beautiful clear night. Cone Rock is located in the Bay, just close enough to Sausalito to hear the Friday night revelry; the chink of glasses, some live music and occasional laughter.
Nothing like an early start to kick off the weekend; 3 am alarm call and we were under the gate by 4 am. Just us and the container ships!
Bleary eyed and surrounded by fog, once we were under way I thought I would take leave and go below to catch a few Z’s only to be told that I was only 10 minutes away from beginning my 2 hour watch. Hmm, first lesson of the day…pay attention to the watch schedule! So, as I layered up and got comfy on deck, Mike headed below deck to do a splendid impression of sleeping beauty.
I’m actually quite happy with the way things worked out though because during my watch Greg and I saw a whale off to starboard as well as a magnificent jelly fish; big, orange and floaty!
Once sleeping beauty was roused from his slumber, it was my opportunity to catch up on some sleep. I have to say that returning to each of my watch schedules today was actually very pleasant; the first one I was greeted with a hot coffee and a bowl of Susan’s delicious oatmeal, the second to find the engine off and us sailing wing on wing with a nice steady breeze.
We arrived in Capitola at 5 pm and were moored up by 5:30 pm. Mike put the kettle on for a cup of tea which raised eyebrows among our hosts who promptly got out a bottle of rum and very politely told us we can have whatever we want but for them, Captains Hour was about to begin (I have to add that Greg and Susan are terrible timekeepers because happy hour continued well into sunset).
We had great company at our mooring; a female otter and her cub swam circles around Rapture for hours, playing and crunching their way through seashells. Felt like we were extras in a David Attenborough documentary!
We were just about to get an early night when our neighbor unexpectedly put on a spot of entertainment for us. One man and his dog returned to their yacht but unfortunately, didn’t secure the rib. 5 minutes later the rib was floating across the bay with the man jumping up and down yelling at his dog (not sure it was the dogs fault?). We thought he would launch his kayak from the foredeck and paddle to retrieve the rib but instead he quickly left his mooring, swung his yacht around, put it in full throttle and raced across the bay in the fading light. We watched closely and cautiously not knowing if he was competent or crazy. Fortunately, it was the former and he was soon back on his mooring ball sans rib and dog. Quite impressive!
After all that excitement, it was time for bed!