Cindy and I took early retirement from the Aerospace biz in 1999 and planned our first big event to be a cruise to San Francisco. I retired on April 1 and started to get the boat ready. Cindy retired on June 1 and got herself ready. Fuzz the cat was already ready. We had close friends getting married on June 6, so on June 7 we left on our adventure. We had a lot of experience with the boat, including spending a month most summers in the Channel Islands. We had been around Pt Conception once before, to Morro Bay and Port San Luis, but most of our sailing experience was between Pt Conception and San Diego.

The boat itself is a 1987 J40 with a 43hp turbocharged Volvo diesel. We generally cruise at 7+ knots at 2400-2500 rpm-important for going North, since we were reconciled to motoring most of the way, with maybe a little motorsailing thrown in. Preparations were modest. We cleaned the aft cabin out, leaving home things like solar panels for later pickup. Instead we took spare oil and filters, Cindys piano keyboard, a basket for the cat, even an electric blanket and heater in case the weather was cold in the bay. We had rerigged the previous year, and were using a 9 year old mainsail and 12 year old 110 genoa as our sails. For navigation, we used Visual Navigation Suite on a laptop, and were very pleased. For sailing directions along the coast, Brian Fagans book "California Coastal Passages, San Francisco to Ensenada" was very helpful. It covers refuge anchorages, and gives information on outlying obstructions, advice on distance to maintain from shore, other helpful advice. Within the bay, we found three cruising guides useful: Fagans "Boating Guide San Francisco Bay", the Mehaffys "Cruising Guide to San Francisco Bay", and Kimball Livingstons "Sailing the Bay".

In all, we were gone a little over 3 months. We rented a post office box in Alameda from Mailboxes ETC and sublet a slip in Marina Village, Alameda, for 2 months. We asked about slips on the Internet (LiveAboard mailing list) and found someone who was planning on sailing to the Delta for the Summer and wanted to rent his slip out instead of giving it up. Cindy went home for about a week each month to see her mother, check on the house, etc. The first trip was a flight home; she drove a car back and we had transportation for the rest of the stay. We left the car in Alameda when we sailed south, and picked it up later. We also had an old friend/roommate of mine from UCLA who had been living in Alameda for over 25 years. He acted as our unofficial guide, chamber of commerce, and showed us a lot of things we would otherwise have missed. Thanks again, Ron.

The narratives to follow will be in three parts. Part 1 will cover the trip from Redondo Beach to San Francisco, part 2 will cover cruising the Bay, and part 3 will cover the trip from San Francisco to Redondo Beach, via Catalina.

Three weeks of leisurely motoring up the California coast between gales, seeing lots of ports, eating in restaurants, meeting other cruisers and seeing friends along the way.

Eight weeks of great sailing, great people, great places to visit.