Sunday, December 03, 2006
SATURDAY 2 DEC. 06-- AFTERNOON OUTING WITH EASTERLY BREEZE
Stevan, who sailed with us a couple of weeks ago, brought his wife Stela, Austin joined us for her second outing, and Jeff came for the first time-- hailing originally from Michigan and a recent immigrant to SF.
Waiting for Austin to arrive, we moved ANTICIPATION to a slip further down on D dock temporarily to make sure that we didn't become grounded on the shallow spot behind our slip due to the negative tide.
We headed out and put out full canvas, since the breeze was a moderate northeasterly.
We then headed for the Bay Bridge on port tack and fell off a bit to give right of way to ADVENTURE who had been sailing on jib only, but was now raising its main sail.
We had good winds and so were making good headway against the strong ebb current toward the D-E span of the Bay Bridge, when this Santa Cruz sailboat passed to starboard sailing with the current.
Over closer to the shore of Yerba Buena Island, a couple of sailboats, one flying a colorful spinnaker, were about to suffer loss of wind from the lee effect of the island and had to then motorsail under the bridge.
A large freighter passed us to port, cutting off our wind for a while, leaving us just barely stemming the current, but eventually a sufficient breeze reasserted and powered us under the D-E span. We continued sailing eastward while enjoying views of our favorite little lighthouse on the southeast point of YBI.
After sailing out an eighth of a mile or so, we tacked to the north and sailed toward the east span of the Bay Bridge, enjoying a view of the city through the Bay Bridge suspension span.
We had to tack twice more to line up to sail through the span of the bridge east of YBI, and this Santana 22 passed to starboard.
As we sailed up the east shore of Treasure Island, a Hunter sailboat with poor jib trim was ahead of us, sailing a bit more off the wind than we.
She crossed in front of us as we were catching up to her, but then tacked back to the east.
We continued sailing to the WNW making good headway across the bay, hoping to be able to reach Raccoon Straits and then head for the gate, with Steven at the helm and Jeff, Austin, and Stela enjoying the warm sunshine.
Eventually, this nice Catalina passed to starboard....
....followed by the race boat SOLAR WIND...
....that raised her spinnaker, but took a long time to trim it properly.
We made progress to about two-thirds of the way up the east shore of Angel Island before the wind softened too much to give us headway against the ebb current, so we fell off and headed back toward the central bay as the almost full moon was brightening.
We sailed on port tack broad reach to the south, toward Alcatraz, and then gybed to head for the gate, and several of the crew went forward to sit on the bow to watch the sundown into the ocean through the gate.
We were ghosting toward the gate as the sun slowly sank beneath the horizon of the ocean....
... followed by a colorful sunset.
The breeze softened too much to allow us to reach the gate against the now building flood current, so we gybed and headed for home port, enjoying the moon shining on the bay waters on one side and the sunset on the other side....
....together with brightening city lights-- MAGIC TIME ON THE BAY!
After docking, we all traipsed over the hill to North Beach for pizza and flowing conversation at North Beach pizza, and then headed over to Cafe Greco to top off the evening with coffee and more interesting conversation.
Stevan, who sailed with us a couple of weeks ago, brought his wife Stela, Austin joined us for her second outing, and Jeff came for the first time-- hailing originally from Michigan and a recent immigrant to SF.
Waiting for Austin to arrive, we moved ANTICIPATION to a slip further down on D dock temporarily to make sure that we didn't become grounded on the shallow spot behind our slip due to the negative tide.
We headed out and put out full canvas, since the breeze was a moderate northeasterly.
We then headed for the Bay Bridge on port tack and fell off a bit to give right of way to ADVENTURE who had been sailing on jib only, but was now raising its main sail.
We had good winds and so were making good headway against the strong ebb current toward the D-E span of the Bay Bridge, when this Santa Cruz sailboat passed to starboard sailing with the current.
Over closer to the shore of Yerba Buena Island, a couple of sailboats, one flying a colorful spinnaker, were about to suffer loss of wind from the lee effect of the island and had to then motorsail under the bridge.
A large freighter passed us to port, cutting off our wind for a while, leaving us just barely stemming the current, but eventually a sufficient breeze reasserted and powered us under the D-E span. We continued sailing eastward while enjoying views of our favorite little lighthouse on the southeast point of YBI.
After sailing out an eighth of a mile or so, we tacked to the north and sailed toward the east span of the Bay Bridge, enjoying a view of the city through the Bay Bridge suspension span.
We had to tack twice more to line up to sail through the span of the bridge east of YBI, and this Santana 22 passed to starboard.
As we sailed up the east shore of Treasure Island, a Hunter sailboat with poor jib trim was ahead of us, sailing a bit more off the wind than we.
She crossed in front of us as we were catching up to her, but then tacked back to the east.
We continued sailing to the WNW making good headway across the bay, hoping to be able to reach Raccoon Straits and then head for the gate, with Steven at the helm and Jeff, Austin, and Stela enjoying the warm sunshine.
Eventually, this nice Catalina passed to starboard....
....followed by the race boat SOLAR WIND...
....that raised her spinnaker, but took a long time to trim it properly.
We made progress to about two-thirds of the way up the east shore of Angel Island before the wind softened too much to give us headway against the ebb current, so we fell off and headed back toward the central bay as the almost full moon was brightening.
We sailed on port tack broad reach to the south, toward Alcatraz, and then gybed to head for the gate, and several of the crew went forward to sit on the bow to watch the sundown into the ocean through the gate.
We were ghosting toward the gate as the sun slowly sank beneath the horizon of the ocean....
... followed by a colorful sunset.
The breeze softened too much to allow us to reach the gate against the now building flood current, so we gybed and headed for home port, enjoying the moon shining on the bay waters on one side and the sunset on the other side....
....together with brightening city lights-- MAGIC TIME ON THE BAY!
After docking, we all traipsed over the hill to North Beach for pizza and flowing conversation at North Beach pizza, and then headed over to Cafe Greco to top off the evening with coffee and more interesting conversation.
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 9:51 PM 
