USA – Page 6 – Road and Ocean

5 pelicans

April 17, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

As usual my alarm went off at 0630, but this time it was plugged into charge at the chart table so I had to get up to turn it off. Whenever I have to get up to turn it off, I never get back into bed. It’s too good an opportunity to kick the day into action. I’m a bit groggy as I wander back and forth trying to figure out what I’m doing, suddenly launched into the land of the living after being deep asleep, but before long I take a peek outside and see that it’s calm, warm, and the sun is just about to come up.

I grab a bowl, throw some granola and yoghurt together, pull on a hoodie and step up into the fresh pre-dawn air. There’s not a breath of wind, the only sounds are the birds having a chat (argument?) and the distant rush of the highway. I shut out the highway noise and all is peaceful. I can hear rose finches, back in the marina again now that winter has passed. Last year, when we were away from the boat, one family made its nest in our sail cover.

I’m staring at a bright light in the eastern sky, trying to figure out whether it’s moving, whether it’s a plane, a satellite, or the last star to leave the sky as the sun rises, when five pelicans flap casually over the docks. They pass by overhead, the one at the back attempts to come into land on one of the pilings nearby, but the others are having none of it. He aborts at the last minute, figuring he’s gonna lose his mates if he takes a break. Maybe they sense he’s tired, maybe they’ve flown a long way and all need a break, or maybe they are lost in their own thoughts and realise they’ve missed their landing – they all come round again and settle down just outside the marina breakwater.

The sun peeks his head over the hills and the direct yellow light instantly accelerates the mood. Shadows appear. The day is here. Time to get moving.

Fried eggs — Cats’ eyes catch the early morning light, looking like dark fried eggs on the road. Breakfast time!

The Lost Coast

April 14, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Just some pics for now

Fog city

April 10, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Some moody shots from out on the bay last night. The wind ranged from calm to 38 knots, visibility ranged from excellent to less than 50 metres in the fog, we started in full sunshine, and finished in pitch black. Life would get boring if it was calm and sunny every day.

South bay

April 1, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Just some shots from Sunday when we took the boat into the south bay with Mum, David, Mike and Rachel.

David's first time at the helm — David’s first time at the helm

Ahoy! — Enjoying the wind, sun and cider

Trader Jose — Shooting for a Trader Joe’s commercial

Paradise cove

March 22, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

We’re sitting peacefully at anchor at Paradise Cove as the sun rises over San Pablo bay. We arrived last night and dropped the hook a few yards off the end of the pier.

The morning high speed ferry powers past, sending a wake to the shore. The waves roll under the boat, making it rock; the cupboards make the click-clunk noise so familiar when out at sea in a swell. The half finished bottle of rum from last night nearly slides off the galley onto the floor- it’s just rescued in time by falling into the sink. A minute later, the waves crash on the beach, and then all is calm again.

A man is taking his morning swim in front of the huge, luxurious beach homes. Rose and I try to decide which is the ugliest house. She tells me about her studio mate back in Sausalito, a lady in her forties who was born and grew up in this area. The two of them were out with our kayaks the other day, Maude saying how when she was a kid, there were no houses here, and how they found old arrow heads in the dirt, wondering whether it was an old Indian settlement. How much things have changed, in not very many years. There’s hardly a spot of spare land on this peninsula now.

The sun has decided that it wants to be the boss again today, and burns away the morning cloud by ten. I’ve only connected one of my solar panels up so far, and it’s starting to do its job, trickling some charge into the batteries. Rose is getting on with her knitting, and I’m just enjoying being out here.

We’re only half an hour away from our dock, but I feel we’re well and truly down the road towards self-sufficiency, a taste of future adventures a long way away from people and civilisation. Yesterday I finished installing the new alternator, which means that, when both solar panels are also connected, we’ll be covering all our electrical power needs without any help from the outside.

Last night’s wind has all but gone, with only a light zephyr blowing from the north. It brings with it the faint sound of trains and ships, making their busy way back and forth across on the other side of the bay in Richmond. Not a hundred yards away on land, the green hills are filled with bird song, and every now and then I catch a snip of conversation between the men fishing on the pier.

All is well.

Joshua Tree

March 18, 2014July 22, 2018 Chris TannerLeave a comment

We left San Francisco late on Thursday afternoon, aiming to drive down the coast of Big Sur and find somewhere for the night before continuing on to Joshua tree the next day. Tight on time, it was dark not long after we left Monterey Bay, but we managed to get a fair way before losing the light. Rose found what looked like a nice camp site perched on the top of the cliffs overlooking the sea, and we figured that we could just turn up on a Thursday night and they’d have space. Turns out that this is a pretty popular spot, and all the pitches were officially booked – with paper tags attached to the posts, put there by the campground host. It was 10 pm and a few places were still empty so we took our chances and set up on one of them. Nobody disturbed us, and we woke to an amazing view over the sea. Our pitch was just metres from the edge of the cliff, and we could hear the waves crashing on the rocks below.

The sun started poking its head over the hills in the east as we prepared breakfast, and then once packed up we were off on the long drive across the hills to Joshua tree.

We turned off the coast and headed inland just south of Cambria, scooted down highway 101 for a short distance then continued eastwards on the 58 across miles and miles of hot, dusty, desert.

We were still a way off as we chased our shadow down the road, heading towards Yucca Valley, where a big American burger dinner was followed by a short hunt for a Motel and then some rest.

Next morning we were up early and straight into the park. The scenery changes so quickly as you gain altitude leaving the town of 29 palms, with the Joshua trees being pretty dominant amongst the scrub and smaller, similar looking yucca plants. The rangers at the gate said that all the campgrounds were full, but confident from our previous night’s stealth technique we thought it would be worth checking for ourselves. Yeah, it was pretty busy, but we did manage to find a spare spot, so we set up camp right away and then headed out exploring the park for the rest of the day.

I keep my longboard in the van all the time, and over the past few months we’ve driven along so many awesome skating roads, but I’ve not yet managed to stop. This time I couldn’t resist. “See you at the bottom!” … endless miles of perfect asphalt, hot sunshine, pretty much no traffic – an epic skate.

David had forgotten to bring a sun hat so we fashioned a head scarf that made him look like a real explorer.

I love the big, open, arid spaces of the desert.

The obligatory long-exposure night time shots of the desert, with some loon running around with a torch. It was full moon while we were there, which meant that as the sun went down the moon was rising, which was pretty awesome. And in the morning, the moon was just setting over the west as the new day was starting with the sun rising in the east.

Mum and David planning where their travels will take them next. We left early on the Monday morning and dropped them off in Bakersfield to pick up a rental car while we bombed back to San Francisco.

Out on the bay

March 8, 2014July 22, 2018 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Mum arrived a couple of days ago with David, and one of the first things we had to do was get the boat out for a sail! We rode the ebb tide under the Golden Gate bridge and out to sea. I’ve stopped taking pictures of “the most photographed bridge in the world”, it feels too familiar now. Though it did make a nice backdrop to our lunch time anchorage, just inside point Bonita.

Tahoe weekend

February 24, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Rose and I made a last minute decision on Friday to head up to the mountains for the weekend. There were a bunch of folk going snowboarding, and the weather looked good. The original plan was to leave late on Friday night after Mark and Heather had left after dinner … but when it got to 10.30 the prospect of packing the van and driving for hours wasn’t so appealing.

We set our alarms for 0430 on Saturday morning instead, and hauled ourselves out of our bunk into the van, well before the sun was even thinking about peeking its head over the hills in the east. We were well across the causeway to Vallejo by the time the first signs of dawn were showing.

Our early start paid off and we were up at Northstar by 9am to meet Mike, Rachel, Brent and Michelle. I spent the day snowboarding while Rose hung out around the village, soaking up the sunshine and reading the papers. At first, I wasn’t sure about getting back into the whole snowboarding thing. I’d not forgotten how to snowboard, but it seems I just didn’t get the buzz from it that I used to. I wasn’t as excited about the day on the mountain as I thought I should be. The stinger of a $119 lift pass probably went some way to needing justification! How much is fun worth? Tough question.

I managed to ride quite a bit while I was in my early- and mid-twenties, then didn’t get out to the mountains in winter for many years until a trip (to Tahoe) in January last year. Since then I’ve been to the Alps once, and then again to Tahoe over Christmas just gone. None of those trips were blessed with good conditions, which meant not much fast riding, and not riding with a gang of close buddies. Hmmn. I wonder if I’ll ride again this winter. The snow looks good for next week, but for some reason I’m just not that amped for it.

Anyway, I ended up having a great day; classic spring-time snowboarding – in February! It was hot enough to spend the afternoon riding in just a T-shirt (yes, and pants/trousers). As the sun settled down over the mountains the temperature fell rapidly, Rose and I bundled back in the van and headed around the lake to see Amanda (Shane was away for the weekend). She had a load of buddies around for a “pot-luck” meal – good times hanging out with some real American folk, being educated in the culture of The History of Rap with Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon.

Sunday was a day off the hill, spent checking out the east shore, south shore and a short walk up to Fallen Leaf Lake where we had a wonderful, peaceful snooze in the sun. The only thing you could hear was the gentle lapping of the lake and the wind in the fir trees. It looked like this place would be pretty busy in the summer, with docks and boats and wealthy folk hanging out in their lake-side mansions … but the road was closed and all the houses were boarded up. The only person we saw was a lone kayaker way out on the lake, towing his fishing line.

Striking colours in the winter vegetation. My phone camera and photo skills don’t really do it justice:

After exploring Emerald Bay as the sun went down, we grabbed some grub in Truckee then headed back to San Francisco after the traffic, getting back to the boat at about 11pm. Mission accomplished! It took just 3 hours each way, much faster than last time when we had 5 crew aboard and all their baggage. We only managed to get 13 miles per gallon out of the beast, even driving in super-eco mode. Ouch.

Drying out

February 13, 2014July 22, 2018 Chris Tanner

The sun is back! The last few days have been pretty wet and windy – though nowhere near as bad as they are getting it back home in the UK. Every day I’m checking in to various news sites to hear more stories of flooding and chaos. Poor folks.

The docks here are busy with people coming to check on their boats after the weekend storm. We had 4 days of solid rain, with winds at the masthead well over 50 knots one night. Down here at deck level it was a whole lot less frisky – but that’s still some mean wind. Unsurprisingly, we found a few more leaks – the incessant water being lashed against all windward facing portholes found it’s way inside in a number of places. Rose’s wardrobe got in the way of one of the drip lines and a load of her dresses are more than a bit damp, so everything is hanging up around, drying out. We’ll need to pull those portholes out and re-seal them. More jobs for the job list! The one I re-sealed a couple of weeks ago didn’t let a drop in. Woohoo! All things considered, it’s pretty dry in here. The new spray hood was finished just in the nick of time! Having that really makes a difference to our exposure to the elements – even when down below. When the wind coming from the bow, we can have the hatch open in the pouring rain. Joe lives on his boat on the other side of the fairway, stern to this particular storm, and got a fair bit more water inside than we did.

To celebrate the arrival of the sunshine this morning I went for a short paddle in the kayak. There’s still a fine haze of mist hanging around which dampens the sound of the distant highway and gives the place a diffused light which is pretty cool. I can just hear the sound of the fog horn on the Golden Gate bridge when the wind brings it this way.

Found a sunken boat that clearly didn’t weather the storm too well. As the gentle swell rose and fell, the water level inside the boat pushed air in and out – the poor ship’s last dying wheezes. I wonder what’s going to happen with it next. It’s fairly big. Judging from the bit I could see, perhaps a 25 footer. I hope it wasn’t someone’s home.

We also discovered that we have a nasty leak in the van. The whole mattress was waterlogged. That’s something we’re going to need to fix soon – not least because I’m storing a whole load of spare plywood in there to keep it dry! So, off I go to the auto shop to pick up some filler.

Flow trail

January 31, 2014 Chris Tanner

So far here in the US I’ve only been out on my mountain bike for three rides. In more than 3 months … with dusty trails just a few minutes away, and no rain. That’s not something I’m too proud of, though I am riding a good few miles to work most days on my trusty mid-90s road bike which keeps the fitness levels up. The fact that two of those three rides have been at night says something though … even if it is dry and dusty, it is still winter, which means that by the time I get home from work it’s dark.

Last night a few of us headed up to a spot which had already built a legendary reputation for itself in my mind, just in the few conversations I’ve had with local bikers – “The Flow Trail”. It was awesome. I can’t wait to ride it during the day. We did laps, drunk a load of beer, rode fast and loose, and nobody got hurt. This beer drinking on a bike ride is new to me. Andy always seems to rock up with a 12 pack in his rucksack, and we get through a can or two at the top of each climb, to celebrate.

The flow trail is made up of endless swoops, dips, drops and turns on dry hardpack dirt, twisting in between the trees. Just like a tight, well built BMX track, but twisted onto the side of a mountain. Each lap was faster and faster – but my mind was always very aware of the unknown dangers lurking just out of sight at the edge of our little pools of white light. It sometimes felt like we were riding along the rim of a dark, deep crater, where one slip off the trail would end up in a long, nasty fall.

Woop woop!

I got pulled over by the police on the way back. It was almost midnight and there were more cop cars out than I’ve ever seen before, and I guess the van isn’t your usual suburban family car, so it does attract more attention. I passed the patrol car in a gas station and saw it pull out behind me. Uh oh, what do they want from me? After driving down the road a short while, on go the lights, and I pull over. The guys come up to the window with blinding flashlights, I have visions of dramatic scenes from numerous American movies with drivers held to the bonnet [hood] with arms twisted behind their backs.

Turns out I just needed an illuminated rear licence plate – something that I’d actually been warning about ages ago by a local shipwright nearby. Must get that sorted some day soon. And a Californian driving licence.