San Francisco to Half Moon Bay

We left Angel Island's Ayala Cove this morning and motored out the Golden Gate into 10 knot headwinds and a calm sea. When we got to Seal Rock we were able to shut down the engines and start sailing on a close reach. Intermezzo sometimes struggles going upwind unless her sails are trimmed just right. Even then, we're lucky if we can do 100 degrees tacks, which puts a real damper on making progress directly upwind. Today, however, the boat sailed well, boosted by a knot of southerly current. Winds were between 8 and 12 knots from the South-Southwest and we were able to make it 3/4 of the way to Half Moon Bay maintaining 5-plus knots of speed with less than half a dozen tacks.

It was a beautiful sunny day, a bit cool outside at the helm, but warm and comfortable inside the cabin. I sailed the boat while Renee caught up on setting up her computer with the photo and video editing software she wants to use for the trip. Towards the end of our passage, we were treated to see a whale breech several times about a mile away from us.

We crossed tacks with Huzzah, another boat heading to San Diego like us to join the Baja Ha-Ha and contacted them on the radio. Her skipper, Jerry, and crew, Ken and Ray stopped by to say hello after we had anchored in Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay; our first contact with fellow Ha-Ha'ers.

We're snugly at anchor and spent the evening stowing all the food that was stacked in boxes on the port forward berth. The boat is starting to get organized.

Tomorrow, Brigitte and Jean are going to visit to say their final goodbyes. Renee is going to do a bit of shopping for some miscellaneous necessities. I'm going to start up the watermaker which I hope works properly so we can keep taking showers like we did this morning. Nothing like a hot shower on a boat; definitely a luxury.