Santa Cruz

Oh right the rollers…. I would love to hear a foghorn all night if it would mean these rollers would stop. We are anchored to the west of the pier at Santa Cruz. What a neat spot. Just a few kilometers towards shore we can watch the surfers from the boat. But oh the pitching and rolling….

Trying to take the dinghy to shore turned out to be quiet the story. We brought it into the beach on the east side of the pier, and the pier was dampening a lot of the waves. The beach landing worked great- we raced the dinghy up the shore on the wheels. But we couldn’t get it far enough up to get out of the waves. It was quickly clear that we could leave it here. Turning around we battled the surf to get back floating, not an easy feat. Once Kolby was puttering away- heading back to the boat to pick us up later- a lifeguard swam out to him. “You can’t use your motor within the white markers!” “What white markers?” Kolby asks. The lifeguard looks around “Oh, I guess they just removed them! Do you have a paddle?” “Yes but… I would rather not paddle this beast of a dinghy.” “Ok I will tow you!” replies the lifeguard as he grabs a line and starts swimming. Kolby of course can do nothing but grab a paddle and help. The two lifeguards on the pier see what is happening and figure Kolby is having engine problems. They run down to the public access dock, which is covered with sea lions, and start to (unsuccessfully) clear the beasts off. “Umm I can just drive away now …” Kolby calls out between roars of protesting sea lions.

We did in the end use the public access dock for loading and unloading at the pier, stepping around the sea lions. There is a sign the reads “Dock is for public use. Please prod sea lions off the dock as needed.” It also says 20-minute maximum stay. I don’t think it would be a good idea to leave a boat here anyway, unless you are cool with a sea lion party in the dinghy. The only safe place to leave the dinghy is in the yacht basin. This place is worth checking out, just to watch the boats surf into the harbor. The huge breakwater stops the surf from breaking at the entrance but the waves can still be pretty big. It is definitely a timing game, waiting for a lull then gunning it. On our first trip in we had four dolphins mucking about at the entrance, which was really fun. There is one dinghy dock here, just behind the fuel dock and the ramp leads to the Market. You could leave your dinghy here for the day and visit the beach or the roller coasters at the boardwalk. There were also a few restaurants at the basin serving up some pretty tasty looking breakfasts. There is a free barge that will take you form one side of the harbor to the other and a dog friendly beach by the breakwater. On the way out of the harbor we actually were airborne as we came off the top of a particularly large wave. Fun!