My crew and I were able to get Sunday-Monday-Tuesday cleared off the schedule and were able to make it to Coches over the Weekend of May 10th. The weather report called for fairly calm conditions and patchy fog. We did not see much fog but lots of overcast on the way. Primary concern was kelp motoring past Yellowbanks as my outboard does not do well with large patties.
Coches was somewhat overcast, with a south swell that while not threatening, did stir up the cove making visibility a little rough. In the future I may suggest Alberts as a back up as the diving and anchoring looked like it would be better under those conditions.
For food we tried a couple new things. My tiny charcoal grill was able to cook a tri-tip. The crew brought the tri-tip frozen, and by the time we cooked it that night it was ready to go. I have found that the little hibachi grill only requires about 10 match light briques to get really hot. Also tried out a carton of liquified egg product (which fit into the cooler nicely), which worked great for breakfast burritos with the left over tri-tip.
The way back was about the same conditions, as we left about 1pm on Tuesday. That is a little late because it had started to get dark by the time we got back to Ventura. Again we had to be careful with kelp near Yellowbanks. Past San Pedro point on Santa Cruz we did pick up some wind, which helped with speed, but it did start to die near Ventura. All in all a great starting shakedown cruise!
