Thursday, July 05, 2007
WEDNESDAY, 4 JULY 07-- FIGHTING THE FLOOD CURRENT WESTWARD
Winds were moderate as we left port, followed by Paul Coe on his neighboring boat.
As we entered the central bay, this small catamaran passed in front of us.
We headed west against a quite strong flood current that initially put us on a northeasterly vector over the bottom until we increased sail and made headway to the WNW along with this small but fully-canvassed Beneteau.
Our old buddy, Adventure Cat was heading out for an afternoon sail as well.
PRIVATEER, a charter ketch out of pier 39 was blasting toward home port.
We sailed past the lee side of Alcatraz in gradually increasing wind velocities.
As we continued westward, easing out sails a bit as the wind intensified, an Ericson sistership passed behind us.
A lovely sailboat was crossing the bay in between us and the gate, and behind her was a gaff-rigged schooner that we later saw heading for Tiburon.
This well-reefed dark-hulled large sailboat was blasting down the weather shore of Angel Island, now rendered brown by the summer head and dryness.
This Beneteau came out into the central bay and, as they approached us, they tacked to head west again.
We had noticed a couple of sailboats chasing us, but suddenly realized that a large sailboat, the YUKON JACK, a Santa Cruz 50 was overtaking us to port,
sailing beautifully with double-reefed main and full high-clew jib.
The crew must have been enjoying her speedy upwind course as she passed us easily...
...soon leaving us in her wake.
A bit later, we watched this small sailboat with full canvas, blasting across the bay on a parallel course to ours with the GGB behind looking its usual spectacular self.
We did a couple of tacks to the south and then west to make our return trip as nice as possible and then headed for home port on starboard tack, being chased and eventually passed by the charter sloop RUBY.
Here's a short video of RUBY as she blasts toward her home port south of the Bay Bridge.
We eventually spotted a lone windsurfer behind us, and far from shore.
Alcatraz was basking in sunshine as we sailed past it and a couple of fishing boats southeast of the island.
The city was enjoying somewhat hazy sunshine as we continued on toward home port.
As we approached pier 39, this lovely small Tartan blasted past, looking good.
A small flock of pelicans flew past just a few feet above the surface of the sea.
The pier 39 flags were fluttering in a breeze of about 15 knots as we passed.
Dredging equipment on the east side of pier 35 prevented us from ducking behind there to douse sail, so we sailed toward the marina entrance where p39 lee effects occur and readying ANTICIPATION for docking there, happy that there wasn't any inbound or outbound traffic to worry about.
Winds were moderate as we left port, followed by Paul Coe on his neighboring boat.
As we entered the central bay, this small catamaran passed in front of us.
We headed west against a quite strong flood current that initially put us on a northeasterly vector over the bottom until we increased sail and made headway to the WNW along with this small but fully-canvassed Beneteau.
Our old buddy, Adventure Cat was heading out for an afternoon sail as well.
PRIVATEER, a charter ketch out of pier 39 was blasting toward home port.
We sailed past the lee side of Alcatraz in gradually increasing wind velocities.
As we continued westward, easing out sails a bit as the wind intensified, an Ericson sistership passed behind us.
A lovely sailboat was crossing the bay in between us and the gate, and behind her was a gaff-rigged schooner that we later saw heading for Tiburon.
This well-reefed dark-hulled large sailboat was blasting down the weather shore of Angel Island, now rendered brown by the summer head and dryness.
This Beneteau came out into the central bay and, as they approached us, they tacked to head west again.
We had noticed a couple of sailboats chasing us, but suddenly realized that a large sailboat, the YUKON JACK, a Santa Cruz 50 was overtaking us to port,
sailing beautifully with double-reefed main and full high-clew jib.
The crew must have been enjoying her speedy upwind course as she passed us easily...
...soon leaving us in her wake.
A bit later, we watched this small sailboat with full canvas, blasting across the bay on a parallel course to ours with the GGB behind looking its usual spectacular self.
We did a couple of tacks to the south and then west to make our return trip as nice as possible and then headed for home port on starboard tack, being chased and eventually passed by the charter sloop RUBY.
Here's a short video of RUBY as she blasts toward her home port south of the Bay Bridge.
We eventually spotted a lone windsurfer behind us, and far from shore.
Alcatraz was basking in sunshine as we sailed past it and a couple of fishing boats southeast of the island.
The city was enjoying somewhat hazy sunshine as we continued on toward home port.
As we approached pier 39, this lovely small Tartan blasted past, looking good.
A small flock of pelicans flew past just a few feet above the surface of the sea.
The pier 39 flags were fluttering in a breeze of about 15 knots as we passed.
Dredging equipment on the east side of pier 35 prevented us from ducking behind there to douse sail, so we sailed toward the marina entrance where p39 lee effects occur and readying ANTICIPATION for docking there, happy that there wasn't any inbound or outbound traffic to worry about.
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 4:13 PM 
