Thursday, January 04, 2007
MONDAY 1 JAN 07-- A BRILLIANT NEW YEAR'S DAY OUTING
No wind was blowing on New Year's Day-- we kept looking for some to show up, but it was nearing mid-afternoon still there was none. We decided to go out and hope for a breeze to come up while we were out there, so we left port about 2:30 pm, the keel dragging in the mud in the shallows of the fairway between D and E docks for most of the way to the east end of the fairway. We put up a full main and motored out into the central bay.
With no breeze blowing, we were at the mercy of the still strong ebb current which began carrying us westward, as this sailboat motored past.
The flags on the end of pier 39 were limp as we drifted past with the current and another sailboat motored eastward.
The city was enjoying somewhat hazy sunshine as we continued drifting with the ebb and praying to mother nature for a freshening breeze.
And voila! we could now see one heading our way across the water from the west-- just a few knots, but enough to full the sails as we pulled the jib out to full and started making headway of a few knots.
We saw a lovely yawl sailing toward us from the gate and tacked over for a rendezvous.
And a beautiful yawl she was!
After passing her, we headed across the bay to the north, picking up a bit more breeze the further we got away from shore, and watching SHARED HEAT heading east and looking good.
The breeze freshened to about 5-7 knots, so we decided to head for the gate and enjoy views of our beautiful bridge.
We just ducked out and then came about and headed back inside against the current, eventually watching this Hunter headed across the bay and looking sloppy with fender dragging and the leach of both main and jib flapping wildly-- i.e. poor seamanship.
The almost full moon was shining in the northeast sky.
We sailed to the north until the sun had dropped behind the Marin Headlands...
....and the Golden Gate Bridge was catching some late sun rays...
...and then we gybed to head for home port to watch the sundown through the gate-- first catching sight of the sun behind the north tower of the GGB.
The sundown in some thin clouds above the horizon was spectacular....
..and we caught the last sunrays as she dropped behind a thick cloud bank on the horizon.
The sunset that followed was quite colorful....
...but faded quickly as some clouds moved in.
Magic time on the bay arrived with city lights brightening in twilight skies and the almost full moon above.
With now flood current assist, we made good progress toward home port with city lights brightening.
A wonderful outing and a great start to the new year!
No wind was blowing on New Year's Day-- we kept looking for some to show up, but it was nearing mid-afternoon still there was none. We decided to go out and hope for a breeze to come up while we were out there, so we left port about 2:30 pm, the keel dragging in the mud in the shallows of the fairway between D and E docks for most of the way to the east end of the fairway. We put up a full main and motored out into the central bay.
With no breeze blowing, we were at the mercy of the still strong ebb current which began carrying us westward, as this sailboat motored past.
The flags on the end of pier 39 were limp as we drifted past with the current and another sailboat motored eastward.
The city was enjoying somewhat hazy sunshine as we continued drifting with the ebb and praying to mother nature for a freshening breeze.
And voila! we could now see one heading our way across the water from the west-- just a few knots, but enough to full the sails as we pulled the jib out to full and started making headway of a few knots.
We saw a lovely yawl sailing toward us from the gate and tacked over for a rendezvous.
And a beautiful yawl she was!
After passing her, we headed across the bay to the north, picking up a bit more breeze the further we got away from shore, and watching SHARED HEAT heading east and looking good.
The breeze freshened to about 5-7 knots, so we decided to head for the gate and enjoy views of our beautiful bridge.
We just ducked out and then came about and headed back inside against the current, eventually watching this Hunter headed across the bay and looking sloppy with fender dragging and the leach of both main and jib flapping wildly-- i.e. poor seamanship.
The almost full moon was shining in the northeast sky.
We sailed to the north until the sun had dropped behind the Marin Headlands...
....and the Golden Gate Bridge was catching some late sun rays...
...and then we gybed to head for home port to watch the sundown through the gate-- first catching sight of the sun behind the north tower of the GGB.
The sundown in some thin clouds above the horizon was spectacular....
..and we caught the last sunrays as she dropped behind a thick cloud bank on the horizon.
The sunset that followed was quite colorful....
...but faded quickly as some clouds moved in.
Magic time on the bay arrived with city lights brightening in twilight skies and the almost full moon above.
With now flood current assist, we made good progress toward home port with city lights brightening.
A wonderful outing and a great start to the new year!
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 5:28 PM 
