Monday, November 20, 2006
SUNDAY, 12 NOVEMBER2006-- FINE OUTING WITH 3 NEW SAILING MATES
sunday we had a special afternoon treat for our sailing outing with three new sailing mates [compliments of sfsailing.com crew lists], all women, joining us, along with michael, who said he was tempted to spend the day in bed after a rough week of business travel through 3 time zones. the three new mates were carol and svetlana, both psychiatrists who had taken some sailing lessons a while back, and austin who has just moved to SF about a month ago and is job hunting in the non-profit sector.
we headed out with just a light breeze blowing and put up full canvas. the current was flooding and the breeze was out of the west, so we were sailing to the northwest and being pushed by the flood current toward the east.
this small race boat was sailing downwind with the current, past the east marina seawall.
off to starboard, the RUBY was heading for home port.
as we ghosted toward the northwest, we came upon this lone kayaker...
...who kindly stopped paddling so we could ghost past him in the light breeze without altering course.
the breeze freshened a bit and we were then making some nice headway to the WNW, passing a number of sailboats, like this Santa Cruz 53 that we often see on the bay lately...
....a large sailboats passing the shore of alcatraz...
...a small sloop heading SE....
...another small sloop heading NE.
meanwhile the conversation was flowing smoothly over wide-ranging and interesting topics with all crew members pretty much on the same wavelength and very sympatico!
we ghosted past alcatraz and then began to see sailboats with the gate in the background, like this ketch with nice cloud patterns behind her....
...a nice catalina...
... a valiant off to starboard....
...a small race boat with beautiful cloud patterns behind her.
behind us alcatraz was in shadow and the city behind was in partial sunshine.
this small catalina passed to starboard....
...while off toward the gate, a race boat flying orange spinnaker was sailing eastward-- the spinnaker would be perfect for Halloween!
a beneteau named TRES BIEN passed to starboard, looking very good indeed!
we tacked to avoid an outbound freighter, and then tacked to the west again, sailing past harding rock as the sun was starting to set and the sky in the southwest began to take on some sunset color.
the breeze freshened and it was tempting to head for the gate, but it was getting late, so we fell off and headed for home port, watching the sunset develop.
adventure cat was heading for the gate on her sunset cruise....
....while this sailboat was sailing east with the pretty sunset behind.
a bit later the clouds over the gate began to take on a rosy hue....
... and a short time later the sky was glowing in pink!
a glorious sunset developed as we sailed past alcatraz toward home port....
...and was just beginning to fade as we passed pier 39.
we didnt cover a lot of ground due to the light winds, but it was an outing filled with much and varied pleasures of the senses and the mind!
sunday we had a special afternoon treat for our sailing outing with three new sailing mates [compliments of sfsailing.com crew lists], all women, joining us, along with michael, who said he was tempted to spend the day in bed after a rough week of business travel through 3 time zones. the three new mates were carol and svetlana, both psychiatrists who had taken some sailing lessons a while back, and austin who has just moved to SF about a month ago and is job hunting in the non-profit sector.
we headed out with just a light breeze blowing and put up full canvas. the current was flooding and the breeze was out of the west, so we were sailing to the northwest and being pushed by the flood current toward the east.
this small race boat was sailing downwind with the current, past the east marina seawall.
off to starboard, the RUBY was heading for home port.
as we ghosted toward the northwest, we came upon this lone kayaker...
...who kindly stopped paddling so we could ghost past him in the light breeze without altering course.
the breeze freshened a bit and we were then making some nice headway to the WNW, passing a number of sailboats, like this Santa Cruz 53 that we often see on the bay lately...
....a large sailboats passing the shore of alcatraz...
...a small sloop heading SE....
...another small sloop heading NE.
meanwhile the conversation was flowing smoothly over wide-ranging and interesting topics with all crew members pretty much on the same wavelength and very sympatico!
we ghosted past alcatraz and then began to see sailboats with the gate in the background, like this ketch with nice cloud patterns behind her....
...a nice catalina...
... a valiant off to starboard....
...a small race boat with beautiful cloud patterns behind her.
behind us alcatraz was in shadow and the city behind was in partial sunshine.
this small catalina passed to starboard....
...while off toward the gate, a race boat flying orange spinnaker was sailing eastward-- the spinnaker would be perfect for Halloween!
a beneteau named TRES BIEN passed to starboard, looking very good indeed!
we tacked to avoid an outbound freighter, and then tacked to the west again, sailing past harding rock as the sun was starting to set and the sky in the southwest began to take on some sunset color.
the breeze freshened and it was tempting to head for the gate, but it was getting late, so we fell off and headed for home port, watching the sunset develop.
adventure cat was heading for the gate on her sunset cruise....
....while this sailboat was sailing east with the pretty sunset behind.
a bit later the clouds over the gate began to take on a rosy hue....
... and a short time later the sky was glowing in pink!
a glorious sunset developed as we sailed past alcatraz toward home port....
...and was just beginning to fade as we passed pier 39.
we didnt cover a lot of ground due to the light winds, but it was an outing filled with much and varied pleasures of the senses and the mind!
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 2:44 PM 
