WEB LOG OF OUR TRIP
SAN FRANCISCO TO SAN DIEGO

SANTA CRUZ

Day 3-10

2009

Chart

Sep 14-15

In port, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is a small, but very busy little ocean harbor.  The harbor is reached by a narrow entrance that is known to shoal in the winter.  The entrance divides Santa Cruz beach into a relatively quiet southern stretch and the much more active northern beach that includes a classic New-Jersey-style Boardwalk.  Similarly, the harbor is divided into two halves by the Murray St. bridge.  Larger sailboats are confined to the outer harbor by the clearance of the bridge.  The snug harbor past the bridge is larger and populated by power and sail boats with low clearance or cantilevered masts.

Day 3
Craig inflated the dingy, after Sue left for her business trip to Germany, and motored around the inner and outer harbors taking pictures.  The dinghy's outboard is still coughing and sputtering at high speed, so our efforts at cleaning out the gas cans were only partially successful.  Will try changing the spark plug tomorrow.

Craig was invited to join the "raft" for a potluck supper.  A gregarious group of people off 11 boats that cruised down from San Francisco about the same time we did.  Most of the group is leaving tomorrow for either Capitola, Moss Bay or Monterey.

Day 4
Had breakfast at Aldo's Cafe at the top of the hill above the marina.  Helped the rafted boats depart safely.  Removed and began rebuild of forward starboard hatch.

Fat innkeeper worm

86 foot long female blue whale skeleton (real bones, not a model)

Day 9 (Sunday)
Sue came home from Germany yesterday afternoon and today we get to play.  We decided to bike to the Seymour Marine Research Center (UC Santa Cruz).  It was a cold and foggy ride, but the center was very interesting and we got a tour of the research area where we saw a couple of bottle nose dolphins that used to be part of a US Navy research program.  In the center's small aquarium section, we saw something we had never even heard of: a Fat innkeeper worm.  This was a worm about 1.5 inches long that continually takes in water at one end and spits it out at the other.  He (she?) was translucent and looked for all the world like a small piece of intestine performing peristalsis.  The site also has the largest blue whale skeleton in the world.

We ended the day with massages at the Tea House in downtown Santa Cruz followed by a long submerge in one for their private hot tubs.  It was the perfect end to a bike ride for two people who live on a boat where the shower is the size of a phone booth!  After, we had dinner at the Santa Cruz Yacht Club.  Sue had prime rib and Craig had calamari steak.