Young Aussie on adventure of a lifetime

by Ian Gill-Vallance / Dylan Gill-Vallance on 14 May 2007 Follow Young Aussie Surfer Dylan Gill-Vallance as he sets sail on his Dream Surfventure, sailing from California across the Pacific via French Polynesia and eventually home to Australia.

Like all of us Dylan dreamed of surfing undiscovered breaks and going where the wind blew. Unlike most of us he made it happen! He flew to the US and purchased 'Bali Hai' a 1968 Cal 34 . Then sailed up the California coast to Morro Bay, a tiny seaside town with a neat Surf culture, where he lived on a mooring for eight months, while he totally refurbished and fitted her out for open ocean cruising.

Prior to this, Dylan's sailing experience was sailing a tiny 10' Dinghy more like a bath tub really. He and a mate used to sail the Sparrow in the ocean from Torquay to Breamlea or Barwon Heads. Many times breaking the mast and various other bits as they surfed it home over the reef. Now he is embarking on a 7000+ mile journey, hopefully the surfing will be board riding, although knowing him, the skiff will get a work out too.

I hope you get a buzz out of following his adventures via postings, pics and articles over the next few months.

If you or anyone you know care to help him out with a donation or sponsorship of any kind contact me Ian Gill-Vallance by email ianlgv(at)gmail.com. As always the costs have blown out already and Dylan will appreciate any help.

The start of Ian's adventure - Episode one: From Morro Bay to Santa Cruz Island.

But first a quick look at the man....

The boat and the starting point.

Bali Hai is a 34 foot yacht built in 1968. Although she was sound and in pretty good condition when Dylan bought her, she was no where near ready to sail in the open ocean or live aboard for a year or two.

Dylan is a 24 year old surfer and part time snowboard instructor who loves restoring old cars, photography and riding fast motorbikes. He has worked in the local surf industry for Quiksilver and is a Marine, Freshwater and Environmental Science Graduate. He is more of a doer than talker, but he has enjoyed writing his journals for this trip and I think you will enjoy reliving them. Dylan's mate Jim from San Luis Obispo quit his job to join him on voyage too.

Morro Bay is in Central California pretty much at the start of the Big Sur road. Bali Hai was moored in the most picturesque setting you can imagine nestled in behind a line of low sand dunes the mooring is quite protected. Outside the waves are often more than 25' and the opening is frequently closed due to dangerous surf conditions. A great place for a surfer to sit and work on his boat. All work and no play as they say!!

Part 1: Morro Bay to San Diego....Whale of A Time & Great Surf at the Ranch
We left Morro bay on Thursday night after a doc party that pretty much got out of hand. With a mate from Morro bay aboard to show us around the channel islands we motor sailed down to Point Conception (CA's Cape Horn) over night to avoid the worst of the conditions. When we pulled into government point.(Hollister Ranch area) next morning were greeted with a perfectly clean head high swell. We had the place to ourselves until a small power boat arrived with a few local surfers.

You can imagine our stoke at getting pretty incredible waves within the first day out of port and on our journey? The wave breaks off a kind of reef at the top of the point, and then swings in and runs down the sandy portion, a magnificent, long ride. While we were surfing we had a whale jumping right by the boat, maybe 40 ft off. I was a little nervous as I had heard stories of boats being destroyed by whales, it turns out that it has to be a freak accident on the whales part if it lands on the boat.

Two days later we left Govo's in true style, pulled up the anchor and sailed out wing and wing with out using the engine at all. What a way to start the trip!. We made it all the way to Santa Rosa Island and anchored up in 30 knots (60kph) of wind all with out the engine just before dark. The next morning we headed around to Santa Cruz Island where we anchored out at Albert's, a beautiful little cove with a sand beach about 200 metres long, we went ashore and hiked up the valley to look down on the boat anchored out in the cove. While we were on shore a fishing boat came into the cove, when we went to check it out they offered us 4 nice fish! So we ate well that night then had a little fire on our private beach.

Next - Channel Islands to San Diego.

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