Wednesday, March 21, 2007
TUESDAY 20 MARCH 07-- SUMMER STRENGTH WINDS AGAIN!
After a morning of moderate rainfall, skies cleared and the sun came out and a wind of 20-25 knots started blasting us again.
We left port about 4 pm, and raised a single-reefed main and put out a postage stamp sized jib before heading out into the central bay and sailing toward the west with a stong ebb current building.
We sailed westward for a while and then tacked into the lee of pier 45, then tacked away to the west again with the city behind us enjoying the clear air sunshine.
We beat along the cityfront toward the gate, blasting through the wind waves and taking regular blasts of spray over the bow and, once in a while, into the cockpit, and eventually spotted a couple of dingy race boats practicing near the shore, like this one.
One of them came roaring out into the bay, braving the strong winds and waves, blasting past our stern, and I took a brief video clip of them as well, which you can find at this youtube url:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kamNfBgh0ks
Ahead of us, we could see a couple of dozen windsurfers, like this one, scampering over the bay waters, enjoying the strong winds.
A few kitesurfers, like this one, were also skimming around on the bay.
A few more tacks took us out the gate near midspan, with the wind shifting more into the west, so the winds around the gate were lighter than the wind further east.
We just ducked out the gate and then fell off to head back in on broad reach port tack, pulling out the jib to full for downwind sailing. Finding a quieter spot about a quarter mile inside the gate, we gybed to sail to the southeast for a while, and passed this outrigger canoe that was racing over the water.
With a westerly wind, one cannot sail directly toward home port from the gate while flying the jib, but must gybe back and forth downwind. We took the alternative course of pulling in the jib so we could sail direct downwind on main only to avoid gybing in the strong winds.
So we sailed main only from east of Ft. Mason toward home port, enjoying the view of the city in the late afternoon sunshine as we sailed between pier 45 and pier 39.
This odd-looking craft, similar to the WW2 LSTs, and named DIANA, passed to port.
The pier 39 flags were still pegged out as we passed.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse the main, and then motored into port, readying lines and fender as we did so. A challenging summer-like sail for a few wonderful hours, going about 10 miles, and averaging 4.3 knots with a maximum speed over the bottom of 10.2 knots.
After a morning of moderate rainfall, skies cleared and the sun came out and a wind of 20-25 knots started blasting us again.
We left port about 4 pm, and raised a single-reefed main and put out a postage stamp sized jib before heading out into the central bay and sailing toward the west with a stong ebb current building.
We sailed westward for a while and then tacked into the lee of pier 45, then tacked away to the west again with the city behind us enjoying the clear air sunshine.
We beat along the cityfront toward the gate, blasting through the wind waves and taking regular blasts of spray over the bow and, once in a while, into the cockpit, and eventually spotted a couple of dingy race boats practicing near the shore, like this one.
One of them came roaring out into the bay, braving the strong winds and waves, blasting past our stern, and I took a brief video clip of them as well, which you can find at this youtube url:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kamNfBgh0ks
Ahead of us, we could see a couple of dozen windsurfers, like this one, scampering over the bay waters, enjoying the strong winds.
A few kitesurfers, like this one, were also skimming around on the bay.
A few more tacks took us out the gate near midspan, with the wind shifting more into the west, so the winds around the gate were lighter than the wind further east.
We just ducked out the gate and then fell off to head back in on broad reach port tack, pulling out the jib to full for downwind sailing. Finding a quieter spot about a quarter mile inside the gate, we gybed to sail to the southeast for a while, and passed this outrigger canoe that was racing over the water.
With a westerly wind, one cannot sail directly toward home port from the gate while flying the jib, but must gybe back and forth downwind. We took the alternative course of pulling in the jib so we could sail direct downwind on main only to avoid gybing in the strong winds.
So we sailed main only from east of Ft. Mason toward home port, enjoying the view of the city in the late afternoon sunshine as we sailed between pier 45 and pier 39.
This odd-looking craft, similar to the WW2 LSTs, and named DIANA, passed to port.
The pier 39 flags were still pegged out as we passed.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse the main, and then motored into port, readying lines and fender as we did so. A challenging summer-like sail for a few wonderful hours, going about 10 miles, and averaging 4.3 knots with a maximum speed over the bottom of 10.2 knots.
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 2:14 PM 
