Thursday, August 02, 2007
TUESDAY 31 JULY 07-- TO SAUSALITO AND THE GATE AND BACK
On Tuesday, we were joined for a late morning-early afternoon outing by Michael and Bob, who are regulars, and by two new mates: Dave, a friend of Bob's and Rebecca, who hails from London, England, and is the co-principal cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Rebecca is on holiday in the US and contacted me via the sfsailing.com web site [thanks again, Jaime!]
It was overcast and chilly as we headed westward on a southwest breeze and the flags on the end of pier39 were already fluttering strongly in a breeze of about 10 knots.
With a good breeze, we were able to make good westward progress against the declining, but still somewhat strong, flood current, and soon were sailing past the weather side of Alcatraz, where this well-reefed J100 sailboat named EGRET passed astern.
She then tacked and started chasing us, eventually falling off the wind a bit and heading for Sausalito.
The wind continued to freshen as we sailed toward the Marin Headlands, so we eventually fell off and headed up the Sausalito shore as well, enjoying views of the fog bank pouring over the hill.
In Richardson Bay ahead of us, four sailing dingys were being towed back toward the shore.
We shortened sail in a quiet area and then headed back toward the gate, eventually sailing across the gate with the flood current pushing us away until we were a bit past the south tower, mostly visible despite the mist.
We tacked and headed for the gate, fighting the flood current that pushed us northward toward the north tower, also mostly visible in the overlying mist.
We ducked out the gate between midspan and the north tower, and then came about and headed back inside as our old pal ADVENTURE CAT2 was heading for the gate in front of Horseshoe Cove.
Dave and Rebecca were enjoying the downwind sail toward home port with Bob at the helm.
Eventually, BLACKHAWK, a J105 race boat, crossed in front of us, probably practicing for the Aldo Alessio regatta starting on Friday.
A bit later, we saw this Ericson sistership heading for the gate.
The pier 39 flags were fluttering in a stronger breeze as we passed, but the winds were still not as strong as they would become later in the afternoon.
As we headed for the lee of pier 35 to douse sail, PRIVATEER, a charter ketch, was heading out for an afternoon outing.
We doused sail in the lee of pier 35 and readied for landing before motoring into the marina, pleased with an outing of several hours filled with good conversation among old and new sailing mates, and the shared pleasure of sailing through some different microclimes on our wonderful bay!
On Tuesday, we were joined for a late morning-early afternoon outing by Michael and Bob, who are regulars, and by two new mates: Dave, a friend of Bob's and Rebecca, who hails from London, England, and is the co-principal cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Rebecca is on holiday in the US and contacted me via the sfsailing.com web site [thanks again, Jaime!]
It was overcast and chilly as we headed westward on a southwest breeze and the flags on the end of pier39 were already fluttering strongly in a breeze of about 10 knots.
With a good breeze, we were able to make good westward progress against the declining, but still somewhat strong, flood current, and soon were sailing past the weather side of Alcatraz, where this well-reefed J100 sailboat named EGRET passed astern.
She then tacked and started chasing us, eventually falling off the wind a bit and heading for Sausalito.
The wind continued to freshen as we sailed toward the Marin Headlands, so we eventually fell off and headed up the Sausalito shore as well, enjoying views of the fog bank pouring over the hill.
In Richardson Bay ahead of us, four sailing dingys were being towed back toward the shore.
We shortened sail in a quiet area and then headed back toward the gate, eventually sailing across the gate with the flood current pushing us away until we were a bit past the south tower, mostly visible despite the mist.
We tacked and headed for the gate, fighting the flood current that pushed us northward toward the north tower, also mostly visible in the overlying mist.
We ducked out the gate between midspan and the north tower, and then came about and headed back inside as our old pal ADVENTURE CAT2 was heading for the gate in front of Horseshoe Cove.
Dave and Rebecca were enjoying the downwind sail toward home port with Bob at the helm.
Eventually, BLACKHAWK, a J105 race boat, crossed in front of us, probably practicing for the Aldo Alessio regatta starting on Friday.
A bit later, we saw this Ericson sistership heading for the gate.
The pier 39 flags were fluttering in a stronger breeze as we passed, but the winds were still not as strong as they would become later in the afternoon.
As we headed for the lee of pier 35 to douse sail, PRIVATEER, a charter ketch, was heading out for an afternoon outing.
We doused sail in the lee of pier 35 and readied for landing before motoring into the marina, pleased with an outing of several hours filled with good conversation among old and new sailing mates, and the shared pleasure of sailing through some different microclimes on our wonderful bay!
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 10:28 PM 
