Ending Days in Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay has been a wonderful place to spend the past 12 days.  The weather is exceptional, the harbor beautiful, people were friendly, we accomplished a few significant boat projects and we saw some new friends and old friends.  We plan on leaving for Santa Cruz tomorrow morning at first light.  We've decided to do some shorter hops down the coast instead of the long one we were planning.  There is not a big enough weather window that suits our needs, so we will try shorter trips.


Today was a special day for me, as we were visited by Connor Murphy and his girlfriend Shelby.  They are both nurses in San Jose, full of vitality, fun, and love to visit the ocean, but today they made the trip to visit us and have brunch together.  I was so happy to see them.  Connor is the son of my good friends Marian and Charlie from Tolland, CT.  I've know Connor since he was born. Their other son, Patrick just relocated to San Diego so hopefully we can hook up with him when we sail there.  Here are a few photos of this fun afternoon.

Here Captain Connor is pointing to his first mate, Shelby which direction to steer the boat.  She was a natural!

Thank you Connor and Shelby for the wonderful visit.  Come to Mexico to see us!

Once we replaced the starter in our engine and we could relax again, I got to do a little hiking and biking around the area.  Dan and I took a few nice walks as well.  The wind forecast was not great to take off, so we played it safe and stayed in the harbor.  Here are some photos to share.  With the winds came waves and the surfers came out in great numbers.  I think they did more waiting than surfing, but I did not wait around to watch.




My friend Angie had told me about Quarry Park, so I rode my bike the two miles there, locked it and started hiking.  It was very nice, but I also started to chat on the phone with friends back home.  When I went back down, I realized I did not know how to get back to my bike.  I could get down OK, but it did not come out where I started.   My Google Maps did not really help either.  Before long, it was a 3 hour hike, but I did make it back and it was a glorious day. Navigating is not my skill set.

Later, I still had energy and the day was so beautiful, I biked to Pillar Point as I could see the waves breaking from a distance.  I thought perhaps there were surfers at mavericks.  There were no surfers but the waves were breaking on the breakwater.

I was enjoying the ride so much, I decided to explore the ridge trail overlooking the Pacific and the famous Mavericks - surf spot.   We had hiked it earlier in the week but this time I rode some nice hard packed dirt roads and covered more ground.

There was some really nice view of the airport and farms looking east.

Later that same day, Dan was interested in taking a walk along the bay and it was low tide so we saw lots of wildlife and birds.  Here was another stunning shot of that old fish house.

We did our final preparations for a sail, as this would be our last night in Half Moon Bay.  Fill the water tanks, stow the bikes in the V-Birth and put the fiddle boards in for travel.  Dan scored some nice looking sushi and we had a delightful dinner.  We really do eat pretty well on the boat.

I took a final shower before we depart the marina.  This was the view as I walked the dock to the shower room.  Farewell Half Moon Bay!