Sailing from Monterey to Santa Barbara offers a rewarding but demanding coastal passage of roughly 170-200 nautical miles along California’s scenic Central Coast. The fleet of 2026 was exposed to mostly ideal sailing conditions albeit stalling winds in the final miles. (I have gratuitously added a picture of Merlin here from the Spinnaker Cup, held Memorial Day weekend. – tempesta).
An overcast sky and winds breaking 10-14 kts pushed the fleet out of Monterey Bay in relatively quick time. Most of the fleet hugged the Carmel shoreline to take advantage of near beach breeze. Leaving the rugged Big Sur shoreline, the fleet sailed an outside route, 12-15 miles offshore, projected to have the best downwind forecasted breeze at 15 gusting to 24 kts. The reality was closer 12 -19 kts.
The distance from the charging Zeus to the next fleet began to span 7-15 miles and getting greater. At 2 am, 30 nautical miles north of rounding notorious Point Conception boat lead changes happened 4 to 5 time with each of Zeus, Meanie, Merlin and Ragtime on corrected rating. Prevailing northwesterly winds and the south-flowing California Current provide favorable conditions with wave heights maxing at 3-5 feet for a relatively smooth downwind run south.
Ruffles, Javelin, Argo4 and Astra in ORR B ran relatively close to the frontrunners until dawn when winds began to die heading into the Santa Barbara channel. Most of the fleet including ORR A experienced 3-7 kts the last 10 miles to the finish. With later fleets after the noon hour receiving a welcome sky of sunshine and light breeze.
iPhone photos are difficult to capture, start to sunset. We encountered over 30 whale sightings off the vast Big Sur coastline for nearly an hour. Many within 100-300 yards port and starboard of our path. (Title inspiration thanks to CCR – tempesta)
Tina Roberts
Ragtime
