Welcome to Morro Bay _ Sailing Avocet

All right, well, it is the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday. End of the day. We are just now getting very close to Moor Bay. The rock is right behind me. We've got probably 20 more minutes. I didn't film anything last night just because rounding Point Sur was quite the feat. We had projected 10 to 15 knots of wind with swells of five to six feet. Usually whenever you round a point or a cape, you can double it. That's kind of a good status quo and that was definitely what we had last night. So we actually had about sustained 25 gusting in the 30s from I want to say 8.30 to four in the morning today. So it was a really long night of going very fast. We were averaging eight and a half, nine knots all night long. It was really cool. I enjoyed surfing down all the waves and you know, that was awesome. But I am glad to chill out because I didn't get much sleep last night. So that's enough of my rambling. I can tell I'm tired. We're about to go through the breakwater of Morro Bay, get a spot to anchor and get some food and go to bed. After an extremely sporty and stressful night passage, we arrived in Morro Bay, a quaint seaside town in central California known for its seafood, otter population, and of course its most notable landmark, the rock. Tensions were high as the uncertain state of our engine loomed over us, but we settled into the anchorage and took a deep breath, agreeing to put the engine project on hold for a few days so we could enjoy Thanksgiving. The Morro Bay Anchorage is pretty narrow, sandwiched between the beach and the Embarcadero Street with the approximate depth of 15 feet. As we would soon learn, the tides here are extremely strong and the wind does not often agree with the tide. So it's a pretty easy spot to drag if you don't have sufficient ground tackle or a good anchor set technique. Since it is such a small anchorage, there is only room for maybe up to five boats, depending on the vessel sizes, of course. You can anchor for free for up to five nights, but every night after that is charged depending on your vessel length. The Harbor Patrol is on it here, so they will come by and get you in the system the minute you set your hook. Good morning, everyone. It is 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning, which means it's time for me to get up and cook. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it's a time where my extended family all gets together at my great aunt and uncle's house for an amazing feast, which is why I'm a little bit sad to be missing out this year for cruising. But I'm equally excited to have the opportunity to try and cook a Thanksgiving feast aboard Avocet in our galley for just Chris and I. So I should probably stop talking about it and just get to it because that food isn't gonna cook itself, and I know that Cleo definitely isn't gonna help. So let's get some coffee and get going. Cooking aboard is an art, not only because of the limited space, but also because our resources are not infinite. I had to take propane use, electricity, and water consumption all into consideration as I crafted the meal of a lifetime. It was truly an all-day affair. While Chris began researching our engine troubles, I was laser-focused on the feast I was creating. From 8.30 to 4, I was in the galley slaving over our meal, and by 4.30, I had the table set and ready for us to indulge. Although we were missing our beloved friends and family around the table, it felt nice to be together and reflect on everything we had to be thankful for. We took a few photos to commemorate the celebration, then watched a movie and let the food coma set in. It was nice to have friendly faces around Morro Bay, from our Ventura friends aboard watercolors to our family friend Reed and his pup Ellie, who would quickly become a couple of our best friends. Still hurting from our massive dinner the night prior, we gladly accepted Reed's invitation for morning coffee and a walk on the beach. Hey, everybody that knows Avaset. Welcome to Morro Bay, a three-mile stretch of sand dunes known as the Sand Spit, connects Morro Bay all the way to Montaña de Oro. And it's one of the best places to explore and get your feet nice and sandy and wet. I grew up in Los Osos, just a little stretch of land, sleepy town between Morro Bay and Montaña de Oro. We're enclosed in a, nope, that's not poop. No, out of the natural flow, sorry. Although he was a little camera shy, he did share some facts with us off-camera about the area's most notable landmark. Morro Rock is a volcanic plug at the entrance to the Morro Bay Harbor. A causeway connects it with a shore, making it a tide island. Despite its iconic nature, the 581-foot-tall marvel was almost quarried into oblivion between the years 1889 and 1969. The harvested rock was used to build the Morro Bay and Avila break walls that both had to be rebuilt later on due to the, quote, poor quality of the materials. In February of 1968, Morro Rock was given California Historical Landmark status. Not only is the rock protected as the Morro Rock State Preserve, but it holds sacred significance to the local native tribes. The right of the Selenian people to climb Morro Rock for their biannual solstice ceremonies has been established, in which they celebrate the time and legend where a hawk and raven destroyed a two-headed serpent monster as he wrapped his body around the base of the rock. Speaking of the base of the rock, you can look, but you can't touch. It is illegal for the general public to climb the rock, even though it would be a rock climber's dream come true. A little further down the shore, we were able to convince Reed to give the interview another go. So I grew up here learning to sail in Morro Bay, the back bay. Started out in Los Osos on Alito 14, and moved my way up to an Erickson 30, then an Ingrid 38, and now I have the Landfall. I fell in love with sailing, I think when I was a young teenager, really. I just knew I wanted to spend my life floating more than I did on hard ground. And I wanted to take on the challenge of sailing around the world, because it's one of the last few frontiers we have as humans, you know? I've just tried to gear my life towards doing that, and it's nice to spend a little chapter back on the Central Coast in adult form, and soak up some home time before I head out to take on the rest. And then we asked Reed the question that everybody wants to know. What do you think about living on a sailboat? It's the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and it will force you to be stretched beyond what you think you can handle, but in the end, you'll be way better for it, and you're gonna know yourself better, and it helps to teach you that you're capable of more than you think. And after you make it through that, you usually get rewarded with the best memories that you couldn't even imagine. It ain't no vacation, but it's way better than a vacation. It felt good to have the sand between our toes and the sun shining down on us. Reed warned us not to get too used to the nice weather, since it was unusual for the area. With his warning, I held onto the warmth a little tighter in anticipation of the cold days to come, if only I knew what was actually coming. I truly didn't think I would ever be a candidate for altitude sickness, considering the amount of time we spent living in the mountains, but after dwelling at sea level for so long, I had a very rude awakening. Down in Ventura, we met our friends Peter and Olivia, a young couple, our age for once, that were preparing to live aboard a Hans Christian 38 with their two dogs, Harlow and Ginger. We became fast friends, and were stoked to be within close proximity to their land base in San Luis Obispo, opening the doors to adventure opportunities, such as hiking Bishop Peak, which is a 1,546-foot volcanic plug and the tallest of the Nine Sisters, the picturesque volcanic moros that stretch across San Luis Obispo. The iconic mountain has a rocky crown shaped like a bishop's miter, which provides panoramic views over the city and nearby peaks. The single-track trail to the summit is demanding and rewarding, a truly excellent hike with a 950-foot elevation gain. This hike was relatively casual, nothing that we haven't experienced before, but somewhere around an hour into our ascent, I simply couldn't catch my breath. My body felt fine after weeks of sailing and biking, strong even in the beating sun, but my lungs were on a different page entirely. I would inhale, but only half of the air would fill my chest. Eventually, we made it to the top with a full 360 view of the valley below. A note for next time, take it slow or take an inhaler. Although we had hoped to have been in Ventura by the time December rolled around, the engine dilemma had kept us stuck in Moro Bay. Fortunately, there are worse places to be stuck, and we were glad that Avocet would be left surrounded by good friends over the holidays. So today we're leaving our beautiful anchorage here in Moro Bay to a slip that we got right off of the Embarcadero Street. Going to a slip because we're gonna go visit some family for the holidays, and of course, naturally, we have a little bit of boat work to do. Obviously, we all know what happened when we were leaving Monterey. We have an engine issue. I thought I had resolved it with just a nice oil change, but we have kind of the same issue that happened back there where diesel's making its way into the engine inside of the oil, so that's not good. And we've already replaced our lift pump. We did that in the bay. The only other cause of this issue is a high-pressure pump going bad, and that is more like Pandora's box when it comes to fixing things on the engine. So we're gonna head over there to our slip today, not only because it's freezing and we like to plug into some shore power, but we need to take apart the engine again to remove the high-pressure pump and just have it in our hands. So while we're home for about four weeks, I can either have the one we now have currently rebuilt or buy a new one. We pulled our hook from the sandy seabed and made our way over to the slip that we reserved in front of Giovanni's restaurant. What do we think of that slip? Slip's pretty small, so we're gonna ask for some help to hopefully keep our paint job. Phone a friend. Phoning a friend, Ed. Luckily, the watercolors crew was on standby and Reed was quick to make his way over. Thank goodness for good friends. With so many friends nearby, we were able to borrow their home addresses to order various parts to begin fixing our engine. Beneath the floorboards, Chris detached and retrieved the heat exchanger, raw water pump, mixing elbow, all four injectors, fuel lines, oil sender, starter motor, and high-pressure fuel pump, hoping that the high-pressure fuel pump was the true cause of all of our issues, including the runaway. If the rebuild and replacements didn't work, we would be faced with the realities of repowering, which meant replacing our engine with another, which is a very costly, unplanned expenditure. On mine, a Beta 50 with a PRM 160 came up. Never been used. This engine and transmission can go over $25,000 mark, and right now it's for sale for 15. And we have so happened to have a lot of issues with our engine right now. So I'm just kind of honestly thinking and putting some real thought behind maybe not putting more time and energy into this engine and just getting a newer engine that is arguably a lot better in a lot of ways, but it is a lot more money. So that's all, just having some existential crises. Although it seemed grim, we were still hoping for a miracle that our beloved Perkins could be saved. She is a real workhorse when functioning, simple in theory and easy to work on. Not to mention, parts are relatively affordable and we already have various parts of a rebuild kit. So repowering would be a major bummer. I'm gonna go to the store. I'm gonna go buy a compression tester so I can do a compression test on this engine. I still don't know if we f***ed up anything when we had the runaway. If we did, so if there's any cylinders that have less than 400 PSI, then we have an issue. Either the rings or head gas gets blown. Then I'm more inclined on doing a repower or even rebuilding this engine in the time that we have. If there's nothing wrong with that, I think we should just fix the injection pump and the injectors and call it a day. Luckily, after our compression test, we concluded that we had great compression on all of the cylinders and felt confident moving forward with rebuilding the engine. Luckily, Fresno is a major agricultural hub. So finding a spot to service our old tractor engine wasn't super difficult, but based on reviews and experience, we chose a business that specialized in rebuilding pumps and injectors, which we thought was the best option. With the engine out of sight and out of mind, we could return home and focus on friends, family, and epic skiing and snowboarding at China Peak Mountain Resort. We also drove from Shaver Lake to Los Angeles to buy a Laser International 14 to gift our nephews for Christmas. So it was still a very busy break away from the boat. We are headed back to the boat, which is in Morro Bay. It's been about a month since we left her for the holidays. So we are just jumping in a bit to get back home. Hopefully there's no leaks because it's been raining a lot. Next on Sailing Avocet.