Sunday, February 25, 2007
SATURDAY 24 FEB. 07-- OVERCAST SAIL OUT THE GATE AND BACK
The weather was threatening rain, but after returning from lunch with my daughter, I checked the local radar and saw that there was little to no shower activity in the area or in the west, so i called Micael and told him I was heading out in a half hour or so, and he decided to drive over to join us.
We left port about 3 pm with a gusty south wind blowing, raised a single-reefed main and put out a small jib and headed out into the central bay and then headed for the gate on port tack. Winds were highly variable in velocity, so that sometimes we were just ghosting along in light winds and sometimes we were blasting along, well heeled over.
Off to starboard a sailboat was motoring eastward-- motoring when we had good winds and the boat had both main and jib roller furling-- what sense does that make?
The city was grayed out under overcast skies as we sailed between pier 39 and pier 45.
A Hunter sailboat with well reefed main and jib passed to starboard, heading east.
As we continued sailing toward the gate, with Michael at the helm the whole time-- I was adjusting the traveller frequently in the gusty wind conditions-- my hands getting a bit tired-- and way off to starboard, a small sailboat was heading east with a large crew aboard.
A bit later, this small Catalina passed to starboard looking good.
Looking behind us, for a brief time, the city was bathed in some sunshine.
We tacked only one time to ride a large freighter wake, rather than blast through it, then tacked again to head for the gate, and enjoying some of the cloud patterns over Angel Island.
Michael was still at the helm as we shot the gate between the south tower and mid-span.
The city was overcast again as we viewed it through the GGB.
We sailed out about half way to Pt. Bonita in seas with swells growing in size and sharpness, so decided to head back, now sailing with the flood current, so making great headway on starboard tack, seeing a couple of small dolphins swimming westward but not having the camera ready-- no pictures-- and then quickly arriving back inside the gate with Michael still at the helm.
I took over the helm about a mile inside the gate and we were blasting homeward on starboard tack beam reach, doing perhaps 10 knots over the ground with flood assist, and so soon we were back at pier 39 with the city still overcast and grayed out.
Behind us, the skies were seriously darkening with the coming rain.
We pulled in the jib in a quiet spot in the lee of pier 39-- south wind, remember, then doused the main just northeast of pier 35, where we found another lee spot from the south wind. After getting ready to land, we motored into the marina and landed Anticipation by stopping her when she was only about 2/3 of the way into the slip so we could get to the bow before the south wind could push her too far into the slip. It was still not raining yet after we tied her up and covered the main and helm, and it was nice to beat the rain that way after a pleasurable sailing outing.
The weather was threatening rain, but after returning from lunch with my daughter, I checked the local radar and saw that there was little to no shower activity in the area or in the west, so i called Micael and told him I was heading out in a half hour or so, and he decided to drive over to join us.
We left port about 3 pm with a gusty south wind blowing, raised a single-reefed main and put out a small jib and headed out into the central bay and then headed for the gate on port tack. Winds were highly variable in velocity, so that sometimes we were just ghosting along in light winds and sometimes we were blasting along, well heeled over.
Off to starboard a sailboat was motoring eastward-- motoring when we had good winds and the boat had both main and jib roller furling-- what sense does that make?
The city was grayed out under overcast skies as we sailed between pier 39 and pier 45.
A Hunter sailboat with well reefed main and jib passed to starboard, heading east.
As we continued sailing toward the gate, with Michael at the helm the whole time-- I was adjusting the traveller frequently in the gusty wind conditions-- my hands getting a bit tired-- and way off to starboard, a small sailboat was heading east with a large crew aboard.
A bit later, this small Catalina passed to starboard looking good.
Looking behind us, for a brief time, the city was bathed in some sunshine.
We tacked only one time to ride a large freighter wake, rather than blast through it, then tacked again to head for the gate, and enjoying some of the cloud patterns over Angel Island.
Michael was still at the helm as we shot the gate between the south tower and mid-span.
The city was overcast again as we viewed it through the GGB.
We sailed out about half way to Pt. Bonita in seas with swells growing in size and sharpness, so decided to head back, now sailing with the flood current, so making great headway on starboard tack, seeing a couple of small dolphins swimming westward but not having the camera ready-- no pictures-- and then quickly arriving back inside the gate with Michael still at the helm.
I took over the helm about a mile inside the gate and we were blasting homeward on starboard tack beam reach, doing perhaps 10 knots over the ground with flood assist, and so soon we were back at pier 39 with the city still overcast and grayed out.
Behind us, the skies were seriously darkening with the coming rain.
We pulled in the jib in a quiet spot in the lee of pier 39-- south wind, remember, then doused the main just northeast of pier 35, where we found another lee spot from the south wind. After getting ready to land, we motored into the marina and landed Anticipation by stopping her when she was only about 2/3 of the way into the slip so we could get to the bow before the south wind could push her too far into the slip. It was still not raining yet after we tied her up and covered the main and helm, and it was nice to beat the rain that way after a pleasurable sailing outing.
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 12:29 PM 
