The "Glass Beach" sparkling in the sunshine.(click on it to see in full size)
Back in the early 1960's, Fort Bragg used to dump their trash right into the ocean just North of town. Cars, glass, steel--you know--just trash all went straight into the ocean to be swept out to sea. At least sort of. Come the 1970's, the town father's got smart and stopped the dumping and created another land fill farther inland and the dumping of trash into the ocean stopped.
As time went by, the things that would disintegrate(cars) did so and that which would not stayed. Well, they dumped a lot of glass into the water and over the years, it has been slowly polished and pushed back on shore in such great quantities that an entire beach is now covered in small pieces of polished pieces of glass. Reds, greens, blues, yellow and white as well at lots of clear pieces cover whole sections of the beach. What had been the dump is now a tourist attraction drawing thousands(including us)to it each year. And to think they thought nothing good would ever come of dumping trash!! Now it's a money maker for the city.
People used to go out with buckets and bring back lots of it Finally in the 1990s, the town deeded the section over to the state for a park(costs the city nothing but makes them money-smart!)where people can go to look at not only an incredible shoreline, but a beautiful sparkling beach covered in small pieces of colored glass. It's now illegal to collect the glass, though we saw lots of people taking small pieces with them(us included). I took off my shoes and slowly walked along the coast, through the glass and the sandy beach. It's the first time since we started this journey that I have done so. I finally got sand on my toes!!! It was a beautiful day--the fog left early--and the sun was beautiful to see.
We left for Zephyr and I barbecued a bunch of brats for dinner and meals while we are on passage. It's much easier to reheat than cook as the boat rocks and rolls through the waves.
I walked to the marina office and paid for the past few nights since we had originally intended to leave Saturday. Several boats had snuck into and out of the marina over the weekend with out paying. Only one got nabbed and paid before leaving. I paid through tonight and the plan is to set off for Drakes Bay tomorrow just after lunch so that we arrive in daylight. It's about an 18 hour sail to get there and it's better to arrive in the day to drop the anchor than the night. We've talked to George and Celeste from Nereid about their stop there so we know what to expect. Some wind and a muddy/sandy bottom with good holding. We figure a night there and then on to San Francisco for a few days to see our son and his fiance and some of the sights. We also have an anchor light to replace at the top of the mast(again). Then off for Half Moon Bay south of the city for a while(plan written in sand of course).
We had a question in the "comments" section yesterday about our boat. She's a Shin Fa 458 Custom Cutter made in 1982 in Taiwan. And Jeff and Brenda, it was good to hear from you too. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to put them in the "comments" section and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
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