Monday, December 04, 2006
SUNDAY 03 DECEMBER-- FULL MOON-- DOUBLE GGB KISS
Michael and his brother-in-law, Randy, came for a sailing outing on a day that had suffered without more than a slight breath of wind. We decided to motor out and hope that a breeze of sufficient velocity would come up to enable us to do some sailing against the strong ebb current.
We put out full canvas and tried sailing against the current toward the east, but were dragged backwards by the current until a freshening northerly breeze came up, allowing us to make some headway against the current while this sailboat passed us sailing with the current under jib only.
The breeze kept freshening and we were making some real headway toward the Bay Bridge when p39 neighbor boat THAI SAPPHIRE came motoring up.
She then turned into the wind and raised sails, but was still being dragged backwards by the current and was soon over a half mile behind us.
This beautiful center-cockpit sailboat passed to port, sailing with the current.
Since the afternoon was wearing on and Michael and Randy had to be back in port by 5 pm at the latest, we came around and headed back toward pier 39, sailing with the current and passing this jib-only sailboat motorsailing east.....
...followed by that same sailboat that earlier passed us sailing with the current and now motorsailing against it.
JOLLY MON with a huge asymmetrical spinnaker was making good headway to the east against the current.
The sun was glinting off the Bank of America building as we were passing the pier 39 marina.
A short time later, 30 SOMETHING passed to port, motorsailing eastward.
This Catalina with a large genny passed to starboard....
...and we noticed the full moon rising over the haze in the northeast.
We came about, pulled in the jib and motored into the slip on the end of A dock to drop off Michael and Randy and then headed out again, noticing the sun dropping behind pier 45 as we entered the central bay.
We sailed with the ebb current to the southwest, passing the end of pier 39, where the flags were fluttering in a breeze of about 5 knots.
As we sailed toward the gate, the breeze freshened to about 8-10 knots and soon we were blasting toward the gate with the full moon rising behind us.
The Golden Gate Bridge was backed by a dusky marmalade sunset sky. As we sailed westward, we noticed THAI SAPPHIRE sailing toward home port from the west, apparenlty having sailed over to near Sausalito.
We were at the gate 10 or 15 minutes later, enjoying views of the north tower of the bridge at dusk....
... and the south tower also.
We shot the gate near midspan and sailed out just a short ways before coming about and heading back inside, with the bridge lights now on and a marmalade sky near the horizon.
Ahead of us the full moon was creating a brilliant path on the rippled surface of the bay, and with a good breeze, we were making good headway toward home port.
City lights were bright in the now dark sky as we passed Aquatic Park.
It was still too early to enter the marina with the negative tide still in effect, so we came about and headed back toward the gate, and blasted our way back out the gate a second time, enjoying the views of the lighted bridge towers as well as the moon behind.
Again we just ducked out and then came about and headed home. We now had some flood current assist and good winds so made great headway until we reached pier 45 where the wind softened to almost a whisper, so we motorsailed the rest of the way to home port, happy that we were fated to experience the only winds of the day in the late afternoon and evening.
Michael and his brother-in-law, Randy, came for a sailing outing on a day that had suffered without more than a slight breath of wind. We decided to motor out and hope that a breeze of sufficient velocity would come up to enable us to do some sailing against the strong ebb current.
We put out full canvas and tried sailing against the current toward the east, but were dragged backwards by the current until a freshening northerly breeze came up, allowing us to make some headway against the current while this sailboat passed us sailing with the current under jib only.
The breeze kept freshening and we were making some real headway toward the Bay Bridge when p39 neighbor boat THAI SAPPHIRE came motoring up.
She then turned into the wind and raised sails, but was still being dragged backwards by the current and was soon over a half mile behind us.
This beautiful center-cockpit sailboat passed to port, sailing with the current.
Since the afternoon was wearing on and Michael and Randy had to be back in port by 5 pm at the latest, we came around and headed back toward pier 39, sailing with the current and passing this jib-only sailboat motorsailing east.....
...followed by that same sailboat that earlier passed us sailing with the current and now motorsailing against it.
JOLLY MON with a huge asymmetrical spinnaker was making good headway to the east against the current.
The sun was glinting off the Bank of America building as we were passing the pier 39 marina.
A short time later, 30 SOMETHING passed to port, motorsailing eastward.
This Catalina with a large genny passed to starboard....
...and we noticed the full moon rising over the haze in the northeast.
We came about, pulled in the jib and motored into the slip on the end of A dock to drop off Michael and Randy and then headed out again, noticing the sun dropping behind pier 45 as we entered the central bay.
We sailed with the ebb current to the southwest, passing the end of pier 39, where the flags were fluttering in a breeze of about 5 knots.
As we sailed toward the gate, the breeze freshened to about 8-10 knots and soon we were blasting toward the gate with the full moon rising behind us.
The Golden Gate Bridge was backed by a dusky marmalade sunset sky. As we sailed westward, we noticed THAI SAPPHIRE sailing toward home port from the west, apparenlty having sailed over to near Sausalito.
We were at the gate 10 or 15 minutes later, enjoying views of the north tower of the bridge at dusk....
... and the south tower also.
We shot the gate near midspan and sailed out just a short ways before coming about and heading back inside, with the bridge lights now on and a marmalade sky near the horizon.
Ahead of us the full moon was creating a brilliant path on the rippled surface of the bay, and with a good breeze, we were making good headway toward home port.
City lights were bright in the now dark sky as we passed Aquatic Park.
It was still too early to enter the marina with the negative tide still in effect, so we came about and headed back toward the gate, and blasted our way back out the gate a second time, enjoying the views of the lighted bridge towers as well as the moon behind.
Again we just ducked out and then came about and headed home. We now had some flood current assist and good winds so made great headway until we reached pier 45 where the wind softened to almost a whisper, so we motorsailed the rest of the way to home port, happy that we were fated to experience the only winds of the day in the late afternoon and evening.
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 10:57 PM 
