Merrymaid

The one constant throughout my life for the last thirty years is my schooner Merrymaid.

She has been with me through three of my four wives and a very long term relationship.

She is a Downeaster 38 schooner and we have been together for almost thirty years now.

Since Feb. of 1982, she has been my home afloat. 

I raised my two sons on her and she is my lifeboat. When all else turns to shit, I can take her to sea and feel better about things. I suppose that some would say that a grown man shouldn't get so attached to an inanimate object. But she has always been there for me.

What else is there to say. 

Febuary of this year will mark my 27th. year of living aboard her. That is a lot of history.

Road Food

One of the pleasures of being on the road is eating at some new or other place not normally frequented.

On this trip San Luis Obispo, we stopped at Fat Cats Cafe in Avila Beach on Wednesday evening. 

This is a very pleasurable spot to stuff your pie hole sitting at the base of the pier that serves Port San Luis. Cyn and I shared an ubiquitous "fisherman's platter". Clams, oysters, fish; calamari rings, tubes & steak, all fried. All good except for the oysters. I only like the suckers raw. As a healthy appetizer, we had fried onion rings. Very good and very different from the burger shack variety.

After dinner we strolled down the pier and around the boatyard. Much different than LA/Long Beach.

Thursday evening we ate ate the Apple Farm's restaurant. We both had a course of three different red blends from the JanKris Winery in Templeton, CA. 

There was 

Crossfire 50% Cab, 25% Syrah & 25% Merlot.

Picaro which was a blend of Merlot, Zinfandel & Cab.

And Riatta 50% Sangiovese, 25% Cab & 25% Zin.

Three 3 oz. glasses of each for $10. Not bad, about a buck an ounce.

All very good the next trip up in the Templeton area, I'm going to stock up.

The food was only good but the ambiance was very nice.

I had Schweiner Schnitzel and Cyn had a huge trout.

Friday late afternoon was The Sea Shanty in Cayucos.

Nice little sea side cafe. Grilled fish sandwich Cyn had a fried veggy san.

Saturday afternoon we strolled the beach at San Simeon and had several close encounters with 5,000 bull Elephant seals who appeared to be on their last flippers, we ate at Sebastian's General Store and Cafe. These poor old guys had harems of 30 to 40 cow seals and had fought hundreds, if not thousands, of battles with would be competitors and now that the old bull had been ousted.

This is where they end up. All alone on a sunny spot of beach five miles away from their old harems. Barking about the good old days and how cool it was to service 15 or 20 bitches a day.

Who knows what beach I may end up on reliving when life was really good in my feeble mind.

About Sebastion's. It is a real General Store that has been run by the same family for a hundred, or more, years. I had a meatloaf sandwich. Or should I say I had a meatloaf betw

een the top & bottom of a small loaf of Chabatta. You name it, it had it on it. Lettuce, tomato, pickles and lots of it all. Cyn had a club sandwich which she could only finish half at one sitting.

While waiting for our food I reconnoitered around the store and lo and behold, I found a brand new Whizzer motorbike for sale. Big frigging deal, you may say? If you were born before Eisenhower became pres. , and you're from Cleveland. It is a big woop de doo. Of course the preceding criteria does thin out the herd a bit, big time.

Under way by New Year's Day

As long as you're reading this, I might as well crow about my repower project.

Merrymaid ate her third diesel in

 thirty three years, two Ferryman's & a Volvo, so it was time to repower once again.

Out came the Volvo 2003T, three cylinder turbo.

And in went a brandy new three cylinder naturally asperated Yenmar. 

I hope like hell this engine actually out lasts me. That would be about a 30 year life span, I hope.

Hearst Castle

I don't know if the Hearst Castle is in the book "One Thousand Places To See Before You Die", but it should be, if it isn't.

It is simply one of the most gaudy pretentious pieces of real estate in California. And that's saying something. Old man William Randolf Hearst simply plundered post World War One Europe of much of it's Rococo art. You don't have to like it. But you should go see it.

Apparently the guests used to say that this was a good place to sit out a depression.

While masses of people were starving, this guy was spending, spending, spending.

Ah, to have been an old time robber baron back then.

SLO to San Simeon

Friday afternoon, after finishing up at Cal Poly, we set out for Hearst Castle at San Simeon.

It was raining like mad as we drove through Morro Bay so we didn't stop or see much.

We did stop in Cayucos however for lunch at the Sea Shanty. Cayucos is one of my favorite little towns in California and how could I pass up dining at The Sea Shanty? 

Cayucos is a funky little beach town off of the beaten path and the Sea Shanty is a somewhat funky little restaurant. Unfortunatly it was still raining and cold so we ate inside.

After Cayucos we journeyed on to the town of Harmony. Harmony bills itself as the smallest town in California with a population of only 18. It was still inclement but we still stopped and prowled the pottery and glass shop for a half hour.

And then we went on to Cambria which is what I refer to as Laguna North. Lots of artsy shops and coffee places, but relatively reasonable. For the coffee at least. The Farmer's Market was pretty good and I bought three baskets of berry along with the obligitory nuts and cookies. I bought strawberries, raspberries & blueberries. The berrys were, in a word, delicious. Much better than the supermarket variety.  I read years ago that the strawberries grown for the supermarkets were bred for size, shelf life and external color. That left flavor as a secondary consideration. These strawberries were defiantly much more flavorful. After Cambria, we went directly to the Elephant Seal haulout north of The Hearst Castle. These are truly memorable animals to see up close in the wild. The males are about 5,000 lbs. and about twenty feet long. By comparison, a Toyota Prius is about 16 feet long and weighs less than 3,000 lbs.

Next blog, Hearst Castle.

On the road again.

We just got back from another road trip.

We went to Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo.

They have a fifteen year old machine of mine and have never used it.

I usually go on the road in a pickup truck. It's very manly traveling that way you know.

But this time Cynthia and I took her Hybred. Not so manly.

We had a great time however. We stayed at The Apple Farm hotel in SLO.

The Apple Farm is a great place to stay, but not too often. It is very girly. 

You know it's like cruising around California in a hybred automobile.  You better

be secure in your testosterone level. Four poster bed and lots of of floral wallpaper adornes the rooms. The  side benefit of staying at such a girly place is you hear lots of comments like "this is so romantic". Much better than hearing "Oh no. Not another Motel 6".

Both the business aspect and the recreational  component was a complete sucesses.

After two days & nights in SLO, we went on to San Simeon to tour the Hearst Castle and see the Elephant Seals.

More on both later.