Morro Rock as it was as we came into the bay. The stacks behind are not a nuclear power plant, that is 10 miles further south.

We are in Morro Bay, California. The entrance to the bay has the famous Morro Rock, it is featured in lots of photos. It was a long day yesterday, up at 0500 and we motored for 12 hours to get to San Simeon. We could see the barren mountainous coastline, with the highway winding along the edge of the hills. There were a number of bridges that were probably huge. We passed Big Sur, the land of the large surf, although it was pretty calm out there yesterday. We arrived in San Simeon, home of the Hearst Castle just as the sun went down. It really goes down in a hurry here, no fooling around, boom it falls out of the sky and it is dark. Anyway I was going to try and get to shore this morning and see about touring the castle, but we awoke to dense fog, so I decided that I didn't want to bother in the fog, then the fog started lifting and I tried to convince Barry to come to shore with me, but he wouldn't. There was no dock to land on so you would have to brave the surf and their was a possibility we might get wet and the dinghy might overturn, he wouldn't go for it no matter how much I weaseled. I figured I could have gotten in by myself, but did not know how I would get out through the surf myself. I would have had to paddle the zodiac through the surf and then get the motor down, it is hard enough to paddle the thing in a straight line by yourself never mind through the surf. ( We don't have oars, just paddles) We left San Simeon just after noon and had a pleasant if slow sail down to Morro Bay. We are going to explore the town tomorrow and then head towards the DREADED CAPE CONCEPTION. Apparently after you go around this cape you get into warm southern California and there are no more major capes until Cabo San Lucas at the bottom of the Baja. Notice the treeless hills in the background. This is basically the view of the coast we had for 12 hours from Pebble Beach to San Simeon.