With the birthday festivities successfully behind us it was time to think about moving on to our next destination, just a hop, skip, and a jump towards the east, the quaint and very picturesque town of Capitola. We did a quick provision, hit the thrift shop to get Charles some cooling shirts and jeans, and the next day headed in to the fuel dock to top up our water and diesel, and empty our holding tank.

With one last, “Magick Express? I heard a rumour about you guys, is it true?”, we were off, Capitola bound. We didn’t bother with sails, motoring the 45 minutes to the anchorage by the Capitola Wharf, the colourful and festive vacation rental beach homes that Capitola is known for, visible as we set our anchor. We wouldn’t have much time here, we were leaving the next morning for Monterey, so we headed in to the dinghy dock on the wharf to explore the town with the little time we had.

During prior visits to Capitola, when we would drive, parking was definitely one of the main issues and had always clouded my opinion of the place. The town center is small, with residential and vacation properties intermixed with shops and restaurants. In the past, I never knew if I would be stopping, it depended on finding parking, not to mention the tiny clogged and congested streets between said shops and restaurants always made me lose my gumption. So what a pleasant surprise to experience this little jewel of a town with the biggest headache, parking, removed!

We found a dinghy spot right away and with nary an inkling of parking annoyance or traffic frustration we walked the wharf and along the beach, pausing to take in the views on the bridge over the river, then continuing on the beach again, Magick Express at anchor in the distance, heat radiating upwards in waves from the sand, beachgoers seemingly oblivious to (or perhaps there because of) the warmth, salty-wet hair and sandy feet, surfboards and wetsuits, summer. We sat, watching the various levels of talent practice their surfing skills, the degree of difficulty increasing as you move further along the beach.

We grabbed some delicious and surprisingly inexpensive street tacos and then set out to see the downtown, poking into shops and exploring streets and alleyways, getting a feel for the vibe of Capitola. We were beginning to relax a bit more, the stress of The Bay Area was diminishing and we were beginning to settle in and enjoy our circumstance. We were less shell-shocked, we were starting to breathe, and we were beginning to be interested in our surroundings again. We started taking more photos, as evidenced by this current ‘image-heavy, information-light’ post of a place we stayed for less than 24 hours. We were getting excited and were starting to take it all in.

As we meandered and poked our way back towards the boat we took a small detour along Soquel Creek, checking out the houses and enjoying the comparative tranquility that is so easy to overlook when your senses lure you to more energetic and noisy localities. It was the perfect end to our shore excursion, a palette cleanser from the hustle and bustle of the beach and downtown.

With daylight beginning to ebb upon our return to the boat, we sat out in the cockpit watching the colours of the day shift towards dusk. Large numbers of pelicans were busy diving for those last few fish, each with their own relentless chaser-gulls never far behind. The brazen and annoying gulls squawk constantly, dive bombing the pelicans and trying to steal any part of the catch they can, even if that catch has started making its way down the pelican’s gullet. The pelicans seem resigned, like exhausted mothers, their rambunctious, petulant toddlers oblivious to anything but their own incessant needs.

I love watching pelicans, their robusticity making them the bumblebees of the bird world, flight seemingly impossible with such bulk. They are graceful and majestic when gliding like bombers skimming the waves, and then clumsy and awkward when plummeting and diving for their catch. Watching them silently (I have never actually heard a pelican!), stoically, tolerating the incessant hounding of the gulls, they are just so relatable, I feel you pelicans, I feel you. At times I am graceful, rarely would I be called majestic,… but clumsy, awkward, and too tolerant of incessant hounding? Well, that does sound familiar.

Capitola was a surprise in so any ways. It was initially an afterthought, I wanted to go past the concrete shipwreck in Aptos because sharks are commonly seen in the area so we decided, ‘What the heck! Let’s spend a night in Capitola to position for crossing the bay via Aptos’. But arriving by sea gave the town an entirely different feel than driving, it was much less stressful and I could see better the pearl that others see. All I needed was to look at it from a different perspective. How many pearls do we miss by being unwilling to consider something from another viewpoint?

And so, Capitola became more than just the tiny eastward repositioning blip on our cruising map, more than an overnight stop in a place we had already seen. It became a little poke, a gentle ‘pssssst,… wake up, or you’ll miss it all!’. Yes the future is unsure, it is terrifying, but if you can’t look around and enjoy the ‘now’ as well once in a while, then maybe it is time for a change. Be it mental, or be it physical, go explore another perspective or another place. You never know what you might find. But one thing I do know for sure, life is better when you don’t have to look for parking.