Into the Bay! Thurs-Fri, May 9 and 10, 2024

A month or so ago Jimmy and I signed up to join our friends, Marlene and Cliff and son, Keith, on a halibut-fishing charter boat out of Santa Cruz, Calif.  Mmmm, who doesn't love fresh halibut?  Of course, there's a two-per-person and minimum 22" size limit, but we all hoped to catch the max.  Every RV park or state park in the Santa Cruz area was booked solid, so we opted to go a bit inland and settled on Cotillion Gardens RV Park located in the redwoods at nearby Felton.  As a plus, the weather looked promising for our sojourn along the coast.

Our site under the trees, with Marlene and Cliff next to us.

Redwoods are so magnificent.

Check out the burly base on this tree directly behind our rig.

A nice campfire in an old washtub ring (?) with wood they brought from home.  Jimmy and I usually don't have a campfire, which made this all the nicer.

This RV park abuts Henry Cowell Redwood State Park.  From our site we walked to an entrance and betook ourselves for a wander among the big trees before our friends arrived.  A perfect undertaking after a tedious four-hour drive.  Do you see Jimmy?  As long as I dodged the poison oak, our walk was just what we needed.

We discovered this 1909 trestle bridge over the San Lorenzo River, walked across it and just as we stepped off the rails on the opposite side, a maintenance choo-choo train came whizzin' 'round the bend!  Whooee!  That was fun.

At 7AM Friday morning, we met up with Cap'n Tom of F/V MEGA-BITE (yup, up real early), and boarded the second boat in on the photo below.  We were dressed in layers, expecting chill temps from the cold Pacific water.  And wind.  Always wind.

Sunny day, however!

Santa Cruz Breakwater (Walton) Lighthouse, dedicated in June 2002.

Spied a few birds:  Top left is a Brown Pelican, right are Western Grebes.  Bottom right is a group of Cormorants (unsure which kind), and bottom left is a Surf Scoter.

We motored out into Monterey Bay, always within sight of land, and came up empty-handed at a couple of spots and then BAM, fish on!  Jimmy was closest to the rod, so he managed to haul in a 30", 12-pound halibut!  Tyler, the deckhand, gaffed it.  I won't tell you what happened next, except to say it landed in the cooler, below.

Great job, Jimmy!

Thing weighed heavy on his outstretched arms!

Well, and that was it for fishing.  No more bites.  No more fish.  Not even a diversion to the rocks to reel in some rockfish.  One halibut for five people.  Lousy odds.  If you look at it another way, I can tell you we enjoyed a beautiful day on the water, warm enough to doff jackets, the bay as smooth as silk.  Also, we found a ball, basket-ball-size, floating far, far from shore, all by itself.  Maybe it was a balloon.

As we approached the jetty, the wind had kicked up enough to encourage sailboats to head for the open water.  What a pretty sight!

We remarked about how icky it would be to have a million+ dollar waterfront house with a slew of noisy Pelicans and Cormorants sitting on a stinky guano-laced rock shelf out front!  Or, maybe, who cares?

Here's the famous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, with amusement park rides, such as the Big Dipper Roller Coaster.  This is our first trip to Santa Cruz (traffic was horrible) and I suppose we should've gone to the boardwalk, but we didn't.  Maybe next time. 

Ah, life is good when you can find a good spot to snooze.

Back at the dock at Noon, here we are!

Tyler, the deckhand, fileted Jimmy's fish and put the filets in baggies.  Four baggies for five people?  We kept one; everybody went home with a taste of halibut to come.  The captain did say when we began that it was early in the halibut season, but every day in fishing is different.  One day they catch six, next day none.  We love being on the water and enjoyed our morning, nevertheless.

Next up:  Moving south to Monterey.