Day 509 Amazing day!

San Simeon in the morning.  The fog lay just off shore waiting for us.
Small houses along the shore.
The fog just south of us.
As we left, the fog was all ready for us.
The west point of San Simeon Cove.  The swells still roll right around it and make the anchorage very rolly for the night.
Into Port San Luis.  The wall of white on the horizon was the fog we finally broke free of as we entered the harbor.
Avila Beach and the long wharf beside it.  We'll be taking our dingy there to get ashore.
Another picture of the wharf.  The dingy dock is out near the end on the far side.
Another picture of Avila Beach.
The wall of fog sitting just off shore.

We opted out of going into San Simeon since there was no place to safely dock the dingy without getting soaked pulling it up on the beach.  Instead we decided to take off for Port San Luis about 35 miles south.

We upped the anchor and set off about 1000 and took off in(of course) cloudy, foggy weather.  And that was the way it stayed all the rest of the way to Port San Luis(just west of San Luis Obispo).  We fired up the radar again just for safety and had a watch on our AIS(Automatic Identification System) on the computer screen.  There are (sometimes) lots of boats out there and we really want to avoid them.  

One thing we didn't avoid was an incredible pod of dolphins heading north.  They came at us out of nowhere.  HUNDREDS of them.  Wave after wave all heading north.  Many got sidetracked by Zephyr and came over to play in the wake of our bow.  Each wave of them sent 6 to 10 over to play for a few minutes.  We've never seen so many in one area at one time.  It was an incredible sight to see.  They kept pace with us and squeeked and squacked talking between themselves as they surfaced beside the bow.  Over and over the waves of dolphins just kept coming.  It's sights like this that make the trip so worth while.  Tracy had earlier seen a large whale tail break the surface a ways behind us and go down for a deep dive.  We never saw him come back up.

As we headed south, I called George and Celeste from Nereid to see if they were in Port San Luis.  Yes, they were having gotten in the day before.  They filled us in on the place with the best places to anchor and what to see and where to take the dingy to get ashore.  A few minutes later, we were getting approached by a large power boat(Terrie O) that had showed up on my AIS.  I called him on our VHF radio to see what his speed was as I was reading him at only 3.5 knots and he was passing us and we were doing 6.5.  His actual speed was  over 15 knots.  It confirms that I have a problem with my AIS.  George has a transmitter on his boat and I have never been able to read his speed at more than 2.2 knots.  I sent an email to the company that sold us the unit asking for help.  We'll see what they say.  

The folks on Terrie O asked if I had any information about Port San Luis so I filled them in on what George had said.  They particularly asked about fuel.  About a hour later, George called me back to tell me that Port San Luis had run out of fuel and wouldn't have more till later in the day.  He was at their fuel docks trying to get filled up.  I put in another VHF call to Terrie O to let him know and he immediately changed course for Morro Bay to get fuel there.  He thanked me for the call.  He filled up and later passed us as we continued south.

As we neared Port San Luis, the fog got heavier and thicker with visibility down to under a 1/4 mile at best.  Suddenly, it was all gone just as we entered the harbor.  It was a vast wall of white right behind us.  Port San Luis was in brilliant sunshine.  What a change!  We motored over to where George had suggested and  dropped the anchor(35 10.492N  120 44.312 W) about 1635 and she set at the first pull on the chain in about 25 feet of water.  The anchor set really well in the soft bottom of the harbor.  We were in for the night and will be spending the next day here for a few tasks(change the oil in the diesel injectors again) and some sight seeing ashore.  They have a dingy dock here.

We called George and Celeste to let them know we were in and it turns out that they had watched us come in from ashore.  We invited them over for dinner and that is how we finished the day.  

Now on to projects and some relaxation.