Monday, May 21, 2007
FRIDAY 18 MAY 07-- MY FRIEND BOB'S LAST SAIL-- ON ADVENTURE CAT2
My friend of 20 years, Bob Groetzinger, died last October and, years ago, he had asked me to promise that we would scatter his ashes out on the ocean, and I had said that I would. As I was contemplating this promise, it hit me that Bob and his wife Beverly had many friends here in the Bay Area and in California, and I decided to suggest to Beverly that, instead of using ANTICIPATION to take Bob's ashes out onto the ocean for scattering, we charter ADVENTURE CAT so she could invite their many friends to join us for this event. Beverly loved the idea so the plan for BOB'S LAST SAIL on ADVENTURE CAT was born.
Beverly flew out from their home in Florida, bringing her twin sister with her, one man came from Germany, one couple came from Florida, and another from Tuscon, Arizona, and joined many friends from the Bay Area -- all gathering on Friday morning for a 10 am boarding of ADVENTURE CAT2 for a four hour sail, including lunch.
Here's Beverly boarding the CAT as we are getting ready to get under way.
Before heading out, Captain Hans gave his safety lecture, standing next to a couple of Redwood Vineyards wine bottles-- Bob was a founding partner of this winery, and his co-founder Bob Mullen brought several cases of wine for the event. The ADVENTURE CAT folks were kind enough to make an exception for me and allow us to bring this meaningful personal supply of wine for the occasion.
A poster-sized photo of Bob from his hale and hearty days came along with us on this outing, along with his ashes.
Captain Hans skillfully motored the very large ADVENTURE CAT2 catamaran away from the dock at the west side pier 39 marina.....
...and motored us past the sea lions on the floating docks.
As we entered the central bay, the flags on the end of pier 39 showed that the winds were already blowing about 15 knots.
Captain Hans raised the Cat's large main sail using the large electrically powered winch adjacent the helm, and then headed us for the gate after pulling out the small jib to full.
The city was enjoying hazy sunshine as we headed west on port tack close reach.
Behind us, the scow schooner ALMA was heading for the cityfront.
Ahead of us, DORAN, a canoe-stern sloop dragging a dingy, was also headed for the cityfront.
A single tack took us to the shore of the Marin Headlands at Yellow Bluff where we enjoyed a great view of our spectacular bridge!
After tacking to sail to the SSE across the gate, we saw this gorgeous large gaff-rigged schooner sailing across the bay off our port side.
After sailing all the way across the gate with the flood current pushing us eastward, we tacked toward the gate.
Soon we were outside the gate and headed for a cove on the shore of the headlands.
When we arrived at the cove, Captain Hans doused the sails and turned the Cat away from the wind for the commitment ceremony and the scattering of Bob's ashes-- my first time of witnessing such an event. I took a video of this and put it on youtube.com so Bob's many friends who could not attend could share the ceremony. If you are curious about how an ash-scattering looks, you can view the video here:
After the ceremony was over, we headed back inside the gate under jib only with flood assist, the guests enjoying the sunshine on the foredeck....
....and the views of the GGB as we approached again.
Beverly was wearing my old red foul weather jacket as we rentered the bay, heading for Raccoon Straits.
A short time later, we all went into the cabin the of Cat and a number of Bob's friends shared some of their remberances and favorite memories for an hour or so. Then we had a lovely buffet lunch and, I visited briefly with Beverly and some of her friends over lunch. The Cat was blasting back across the bay from the lee side of Angel Island, sailing a bit off the wind to avoid banging into the growing wind waves. After arriving at the cityfront near pier 19, the Cat tacked toward home port and was soon doing 17 knots in the strong breeze-- which seems really fast even on a large catamaran!
After the Cat docked, we all gathered on the foredeck for a group photo. Everyone really enjoyed the outing on a quintessentially nice sunny day in San Francisco. For me, it was a pleasure to meet a number of Bob and Beverly's friends that they had mentioned over the years of our acquaintance. I had hoped to see a couple of men that I had met earlier, but both of them had to cancel out due to health circumstances. All in all, Bob's last sail was a meaningful and momentus event!!!
My personal thanks to Sharon and Hans and the Adventure Cat crew for all their help in making this event a great success!
My friend of 20 years, Bob Groetzinger, died last October and, years ago, he had asked me to promise that we would scatter his ashes out on the ocean, and I had said that I would. As I was contemplating this promise, it hit me that Bob and his wife Beverly had many friends here in the Bay Area and in California, and I decided to suggest to Beverly that, instead of using ANTICIPATION to take Bob's ashes out onto the ocean for scattering, we charter ADVENTURE CAT so she could invite their many friends to join us for this event. Beverly loved the idea so the plan for BOB'S LAST SAIL on ADVENTURE CAT was born.
Beverly flew out from their home in Florida, bringing her twin sister with her, one man came from Germany, one couple came from Florida, and another from Tuscon, Arizona, and joined many friends from the Bay Area -- all gathering on Friday morning for a 10 am boarding of ADVENTURE CAT2 for a four hour sail, including lunch.
Here's Beverly boarding the CAT as we are getting ready to get under way.
Before heading out, Captain Hans gave his safety lecture, standing next to a couple of Redwood Vineyards wine bottles-- Bob was a founding partner of this winery, and his co-founder Bob Mullen brought several cases of wine for the event. The ADVENTURE CAT folks were kind enough to make an exception for me and allow us to bring this meaningful personal supply of wine for the occasion.
A poster-sized photo of Bob from his hale and hearty days came along with us on this outing, along with his ashes.
Captain Hans skillfully motored the very large ADVENTURE CAT2 catamaran away from the dock at the west side pier 39 marina.....
...and motored us past the sea lions on the floating docks.
As we entered the central bay, the flags on the end of pier 39 showed that the winds were already blowing about 15 knots.
Captain Hans raised the Cat's large main sail using the large electrically powered winch adjacent the helm, and then headed us for the gate after pulling out the small jib to full.
The city was enjoying hazy sunshine as we headed west on port tack close reach.
Behind us, the scow schooner ALMA was heading for the cityfront.
Ahead of us, DORAN, a canoe-stern sloop dragging a dingy, was also headed for the cityfront.
A single tack took us to the shore of the Marin Headlands at Yellow Bluff where we enjoyed a great view of our spectacular bridge!
After tacking to sail to the SSE across the gate, we saw this gorgeous large gaff-rigged schooner sailing across the bay off our port side.
After sailing all the way across the gate with the flood current pushing us eastward, we tacked toward the gate.
Soon we were outside the gate and headed for a cove on the shore of the headlands.
When we arrived at the cove, Captain Hans doused the sails and turned the Cat away from the wind for the commitment ceremony and the scattering of Bob's ashes-- my first time of witnessing such an event. I took a video of this and put it on youtube.com so Bob's many friends who could not attend could share the ceremony. If you are curious about how an ash-scattering looks, you can view the video here:
After the ceremony was over, we headed back inside the gate under jib only with flood assist, the guests enjoying the sunshine on the foredeck....
....and the views of the GGB as we approached again.
Beverly was wearing my old red foul weather jacket as we rentered the bay, heading for Raccoon Straits.
A short time later, we all went into the cabin the of Cat and a number of Bob's friends shared some of their remberances and favorite memories for an hour or so. Then we had a lovely buffet lunch and, I visited briefly with Beverly and some of her friends over lunch. The Cat was blasting back across the bay from the lee side of Angel Island, sailing a bit off the wind to avoid banging into the growing wind waves. After arriving at the cityfront near pier 19, the Cat tacked toward home port and was soon doing 17 knots in the strong breeze-- which seems really fast even on a large catamaran!
After the Cat docked, we all gathered on the foredeck for a group photo. Everyone really enjoyed the outing on a quintessentially nice sunny day in San Francisco. For me, it was a pleasure to meet a number of Bob and Beverly's friends that they had mentioned over the years of our acquaintance. I had hoped to see a couple of men that I had met earlier, but both of them had to cancel out due to health circumstances. All in all, Bob's last sail was a meaningful and momentus event!!!
My personal thanks to Sharon and Hans and the Adventure Cat crew for all their help in making this event a great success!
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 12:40 AM 
