Half Moon Bay to Monterey

After an early start the day before the skipper allowed us a lie in, this time until 6am :) We woke to a decidedly cloudier morning to the one we were expecting. However it didn't matter, the wind was from the North West and that was exactly what the doctor ordered. For the first time we were gonna sail! After leaving the harbour it wasn't long until the wind was strong enough to allow us to turn the engine off and cruise at 6 knots with nothing but wind power :) As this trip was gonna be a 12 hour marathon, Johnny, in a burst of unbridled optimism broke out the fishing rods. In the rich waters of the Pacific Ocean, what chance did the fish stand! A good one if anyone has ever seen John fishing. After 9 hours of trolling the closest thing to a fish being caught was when one of the lures got caught on a piece of weed. However the combination of Mike refusing to slow down or stop the boat and the bit of weed being a giant kelp plant meant it was a good fight. After 10 minutes and Johnny's reel nearly being spooled, he began to gain ground on the big green beast and eventually won the battle. 

The highlight of the day had to be once we got into Monterey Bay where we were greeted by a huge whale. Debate still rages on the boat as to species, whatever it was it was a big boy, moving fast, small distinct dorsal fin and with a big tall blow. Some say blue, some say fin and others say sei. We'll never know cos we don't have a photo. Some more familiar cetaceans we were able to see were the distant breaches of humpback whales. Fabulous. On coming into Monterey harbour we were all amazed at the hundreds of sea lions lining the outer rock wall and seeing wild otters frolicking off the back of the boat, diving down then lying on the surface cracking clams on their tummy's. We all drifted off to sleep listening to the honking of hundreds of sea lions.