Monday, July 23, 2007
SATURDAY 21 JULY 07-- LOVELY OUTING TO THE GATE AND WATCHING RACES ON RETURN TRIP
Yesterday's morning sail was so nice and peaceful, compared to the mid-afternoon gales on the bay that we decided to head out for another morning sail on Saturday, leaving port about 10:15.
Winds were mild, about 5 knots, when we left port.
As we headed west on a southwest breeze with a slight ebb current assist, INCOGNITO passed, heading downwind to the east.
In the west, we could see a flotilla of race boats getting ready for a race, most of them practicing tacking upwind, like these....
.... or flying downwind toward the mark, like these, heading for the St. Francis Yacht Club mark.
Rather than wait for the start of the race, we continued westward toward the gate, planning to watch some of the racing on the return trip. Skies were clear and Mt. Tam was towering over Sausalito as we continued westward.
A couple of sailboats were sailing down the shore of the headlands.
One of them, the charter ketch GLORY DAYS, passed in front of us, crossing the gate, and looking good!
One of our pelican friends flew past as we continued toward the headlands.
As we sailed past Horseshoe Cove, we enjoyed the usual spectacular view of our bridge, with south tower partially obscured.
We tacked to sail across the gate and this lovely small C&C sailboat passed astern, heading for the gate and looking great!
The GGB was vivid in the bright late morning sunshine.
We sailed to about midspan and then tacked to head out the gate as this small sailboat headed back inside the bay.
GLORY DAYS was heading out the gate also, but much closer to the north tower of the bridge.
Though a large sailboat, she is still dwarfed by the tower of the bridge.
Suddenly, we caught sight of LOLA, a pier 39 neighbor boat which operates in charter, and was now heading back inside the gate from Pt. Bonita, looking good against the backdrop of the cliffs of the headlands.
We sailed out a short distance and then came about and headed back inside the gate, and a short time later, E-dock neighbor boat, LUNA SEA, passed to port, heading for the gate and looking great!
We headed toward the windward race mark and this Beneteau passed to starboard, heading for the gate
As we approached Blackaller buoy, which is often employed as the windward mark, we watched this Santana 22 rounding the mark....
... and raising its spinnaker, without dropping its jib.
We then headed for the actual windward mark of the race, set north and east of Blacaller, and soon saw the lead J105s heading for the mark.
The lead boats were quite a few boat lenghts ahead of the bulk of the fleet, which was bunched quite close together, part of the fleet shown here....
....and another part shown here.
A bit later, we spotted the two lead boats heading downwind under spinaker.
Several of the boats fly colorful asymmetric spinnakers as they blast downwind, and here are some of the most colorful.
This J105 gybed away from the rest of the pack and passed us to port, heading for the leeward mark.
By the time we approached the leeward mark, the fleet was already heading back upwind toward the windward mark again.
But we were near the finish line and watched this Melges blasting toward the finish line under spinnaker.
We then headed for home port, passing a couple of kayakers, like this one, and then ducking behind pier 35 to douse sail, and get ready for landing.
As we motored back around pier 35, GLORY DAYS was heading downwind toward her home port at pier 40, south of the Bay Bridge.
We had enjoyed another couple of moderatre wind hours on our bay, and were back in port well before the afternoon winds kicked up to 25 knots or more.
Yesterday's morning sail was so nice and peaceful, compared to the mid-afternoon gales on the bay that we decided to head out for another morning sail on Saturday, leaving port about 10:15.
Winds were mild, about 5 knots, when we left port.
As we headed west on a southwest breeze with a slight ebb current assist, INCOGNITO passed, heading downwind to the east.
In the west, we could see a flotilla of race boats getting ready for a race, most of them practicing tacking upwind, like these....
.... or flying downwind toward the mark, like these, heading for the St. Francis Yacht Club mark.
Rather than wait for the start of the race, we continued westward toward the gate, planning to watch some of the racing on the return trip. Skies were clear and Mt. Tam was towering over Sausalito as we continued westward.
A couple of sailboats were sailing down the shore of the headlands.
One of them, the charter ketch GLORY DAYS, passed in front of us, crossing the gate, and looking good!
One of our pelican friends flew past as we continued toward the headlands.
As we sailed past Horseshoe Cove, we enjoyed the usual spectacular view of our bridge, with south tower partially obscured.
We tacked to sail across the gate and this lovely small C&C sailboat passed astern, heading for the gate and looking great!
The GGB was vivid in the bright late morning sunshine.
We sailed to about midspan and then tacked to head out the gate as this small sailboat headed back inside the bay.
GLORY DAYS was heading out the gate also, but much closer to the north tower of the bridge.
Though a large sailboat, she is still dwarfed by the tower of the bridge.
Suddenly, we caught sight of LOLA, a pier 39 neighbor boat which operates in charter, and was now heading back inside the gate from Pt. Bonita, looking good against the backdrop of the cliffs of the headlands.
We sailed out a short distance and then came about and headed back inside the gate, and a short time later, E-dock neighbor boat, LUNA SEA, passed to port, heading for the gate and looking great!
We headed toward the windward race mark and this Beneteau passed to starboard, heading for the gate
As we approached Blackaller buoy, which is often employed as the windward mark, we watched this Santana 22 rounding the mark....
... and raising its spinnaker, without dropping its jib.
We then headed for the actual windward mark of the race, set north and east of Blacaller, and soon saw the lead J105s heading for the mark.
The lead boats were quite a few boat lenghts ahead of the bulk of the fleet, which was bunched quite close together, part of the fleet shown here....
....and another part shown here.
A bit later, we spotted the two lead boats heading downwind under spinaker.
Several of the boats fly colorful asymmetric spinnakers as they blast downwind, and here are some of the most colorful.
This J105 gybed away from the rest of the pack and passed us to port, heading for the leeward mark.
By the time we approached the leeward mark, the fleet was already heading back upwind toward the windward mark again.
But we were near the finish line and watched this Melges blasting toward the finish line under spinnaker.
We then headed for home port, passing a couple of kayakers, like this one, and then ducking behind pier 35 to douse sail, and get ready for landing.
As we motored back around pier 35, GLORY DAYS was heading downwind toward her home port at pier 40, south of the Bay Bridge.
We had enjoyed another couple of moderatre wind hours on our bay, and were back in port well before the afternoon winds kicked up to 25 knots or more.
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 1:13 AM 
