Friday March 8th
We still had yet to receive our autographe that Noddy said he would bring over, which was not exactly a great surprise, going on past history. Bob managed to talk to our agent in Santa Cruz, and was told we could go ahead and sail over and he would give it to us upon our arrival.
Before leaving the bay we had to shoo away a sleeping sea lion on our swim platform, he had managed to climb aboard despite the fenders we had placed there to prevent him using it. He was sleeping soundly underneath all the fenders, I took a photograph, and the clicking of my camera woke him, he opened one eye and looked up at me with such a sweet look on his face, but then when Ed and I tried to shoo him off he barked loudly making the two of us jump out of our skin.
The sail from San Cristobel to Santa Cruz was absolutely lovely, we actually had enough wind to manage a decent sail across. We also spotted a few dolphins and sea lions on the way.
We arrived at Santa Cruz late afternoon. There were a great number of Oysters and other vessels anchored there, so finding a safe spot to drop anchor proved to be a little difficult. We had to make two attempts to get the anchor set in a way that we were all happy with. You could say that the conditions were less than perfect!
The wind was finally blowing strong, there was white water in the bay, Daisy was rocking violently from side to side, throwing us all about on board like a bunch of drunks. Getting dinner must have looked like a side show at the movies, as I bounced from side to side in the galley desperately trying to cook a mushroom risotto without throwing it all over the floor…
It was a horrible night, I was aching all over from constantly trying to hold on and stop myself rolling across the bed. Sadly, the morning didn’t bring forth any calmer conditions, and I was so happy to get off the boat, take the water taxi ashore and another taxi to collect Danni from the airport. I was praying the water would calm by our return, Danni hasn’t been on a boat in almost eight months, this would not be a gentle introduction to being back on board!