Lyn's Log, 16th October 2008
Monterey

Monterey, California
N36º36', W121º53'
19,295 miles.

Sunday night the group of four yachts anchored in Half Moon Bay. We made an early start the next morning and motored pretty much together to Monterey Bay. During the afternoon the wind decided to blow a little stronger and we managed to sail for an hour and a half with the spinnaker and give the engine a little rest. This ensured that once again we were at the back of the fleet, but that’s not a problem. We had two days exploring Monterey and Peggy and Chuck on Alert caught us up.

Monterey is the oldest colonial city in California, founded by the Spanish in 1770, and Alta California's capital prior to the state becoming part of the USA in 1848. The Spanish influence is still much in evidence, and with the palms and cacti we feel we are definitely getting into the warmer south. The customs house (above) is one of the oldest buildings.

The town has many literary associations, including John Steinbeck's Cannery Row which is located here. The sardine canning industry collapsed in the 1950's, but one of the old cannery buildings has been transformed inside into one of the world's topmost aquariums. There were huge tanks with large and small specimens of the local sea life. Some had glass walls from floor to ceiling, about forty feet high, where I could just sit and watch for ages. One unusual exhibit housed a mock up of a sandy islet surrounded by water, containing fish, moved by a wave machine. Here were many different sea birds that had been rescued. They were free to fly around this particular area but were mostly happy to wander around their island and stretch of water. Some would be released back into the wild when recovered, but some would never be able to and would be looked after in the aquarium. It was wonderful to be able to get so close to these birds. The sea otters were great to watch, but there were also wild sea otters around the boats in the marina, along with the seals and sea lions.

An area on the outskirts of Monterey, called Pacific Grove, has become a tourist attraction during the winter months because thousands of Monarch butterflies migrate there from the northern United States. It was early, but there were already several hundred when we visited, clinging to the eucalyptus trees, and at first, hard to spot, looking like dead leaves until they fluttered their wings. When Alert was sailing towards Monterey in the afternoon, they had a swarm of these butterflies fly over the yacht.