Friday, October 26, 2007
THURSDAY, 25 OCT O7-- SPECTACULAR SUNSET AND FULL MOONRISE-- AND GOOD SAILING!
Bob Hickey joined us for our afternoon outing and we headed out of port around 3 pm.
A moderate westerly was blowing over the land, and we hoped for some freshening of the breeze.
We entered the central bay and headed downwind toward the Bay Bridge, following this sailboat ahead of us.
Behind us, ADVENTURE CAT was heading out for one of her afternoon outings and another sailboat was sailing downwind to the east
FORTUNE HUNTER was heading toward the Bay Bridge as well, going against the waxing ebb current.
This Catalina passed, sailing with the current and looking good.
A bit later, we saw that FORTUNE HUNTER has reversed course and was heading north with the current.
As we sailed toward the Bay Bridge D tower, experienceing variable wind velocities and thus making variable degrees of headway against the current, we were watching isolated pelicans flying overhead and looking for food.
Sailboats going with the current were making great headway over the bottom, like this Catalina, named CLASS ACT, that passed to port.
Closer to the shore of Treasure Island, a large sailboat with franctional rig and double reef in main, was blasting northward with the current.
We watched as this tall ship motored down the cityfront, headed for the A-B span of the Bay Bridge, perhaps to tie up at South Beach. Maybe we'll see her out sailing on the bay this weekend sometime.
We managed to make it to about a half mile from the Bay Bridge, but then the breeze was too irregular to make significant further progress, so we gybed and headed northward to position ourselves to watch the sundown and full moonrise.
We made good progress sailing with the current and we soon in the lee of Angel Island with the city behing us ghosted out by the thick smaze.
We eventually turned around and headed back to watch the sundown through the gate and await the full moonrise. Clouds in the west partnered with the setting sun to create a spectacular sunset!
Winds on the central bay had freshened to 15-20 knots and we were blasting along on a southeasaterly course as this tug boat steamed past, heading north, as the sun set through the gate.
Soon the rising full moon was visible through the smaze over the east bay hills, and the beauty of the full moon was then competing with that of the sunset-- where to look and for how long became an issue as we sailed along.
Eventually we could see that a thick layer of cloud would prevent us from watching the sundown into the ocean through the gate, but colorful sunset patterns persistred in the west-- on our starboard side.
On our port side, the full moon cast her dusky orange and yellow glow, taking our gaze frequently as she rose in the sky.
Alcatraz was silhouetted against the colorful sunset as we continued on our southeasterly course.
Eventually the sunset began to fade, though some pinkish color illuminated some of the clouds more directly overhead.
Since we needed to stay out until about 7:30 pm to avoid dragging ANTICIPATION's keel in the mud during the negative tide portion of the tidy cycle, we eventually tacked to sail to the wast, watching the last of the sunset color.
We sailed westward until we were well past Alcatraz and then tacked to head for home port, sailing past the weather side of the island on close reach before falling off to head for home port on the still strong westerly winds, all the time watching the rising full moon creating a broader and strong path of moonlight on the bay waters.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sail and then readied for landing as we motored toward home port, landing fine with the tide now turning to quite strong flood. Two separate and very different outings on one day leaving us filled with peak sailing pleasure!
Bob Hickey joined us for our afternoon outing and we headed out of port around 3 pm.
A moderate westerly was blowing over the land, and we hoped for some freshening of the breeze.
We entered the central bay and headed downwind toward the Bay Bridge, following this sailboat ahead of us.
Behind us, ADVENTURE CAT was heading out for one of her afternoon outings and another sailboat was sailing downwind to the east
FORTUNE HUNTER was heading toward the Bay Bridge as well, going against the waxing ebb current.
This Catalina passed, sailing with the current and looking good.
A bit later, we saw that FORTUNE HUNTER has reversed course and was heading north with the current.
As we sailed toward the Bay Bridge D tower, experienceing variable wind velocities and thus making variable degrees of headway against the current, we were watching isolated pelicans flying overhead and looking for food.
Sailboats going with the current were making great headway over the bottom, like this Catalina, named CLASS ACT, that passed to port.
Closer to the shore of Treasure Island, a large sailboat with franctional rig and double reef in main, was blasting northward with the current.
We watched as this tall ship motored down the cityfront, headed for the A-B span of the Bay Bridge, perhaps to tie up at South Beach. Maybe we'll see her out sailing on the bay this weekend sometime.
We managed to make it to about a half mile from the Bay Bridge, but then the breeze was too irregular to make significant further progress, so we gybed and headed northward to position ourselves to watch the sundown and full moonrise.
We made good progress sailing with the current and we soon in the lee of Angel Island with the city behing us ghosted out by the thick smaze.
We eventually turned around and headed back to watch the sundown through the gate and await the full moonrise. Clouds in the west partnered with the setting sun to create a spectacular sunset!
Winds on the central bay had freshened to 15-20 knots and we were blasting along on a southeasaterly course as this tug boat steamed past, heading north, as the sun set through the gate.
Soon the rising full moon was visible through the smaze over the east bay hills, and the beauty of the full moon was then competing with that of the sunset-- where to look and for how long became an issue as we sailed along.
Eventually we could see that a thick layer of cloud would prevent us from watching the sundown into the ocean through the gate, but colorful sunset patterns persistred in the west-- on our starboard side.
On our port side, the full moon cast her dusky orange and yellow glow, taking our gaze frequently as she rose in the sky.
Alcatraz was silhouetted against the colorful sunset as we continued on our southeasterly course.
Eventually the sunset began to fade, though some pinkish color illuminated some of the clouds more directly overhead.
Since we needed to stay out until about 7:30 pm to avoid dragging ANTICIPATION's keel in the mud during the negative tide portion of the tidy cycle, we eventually tacked to sail to the wast, watching the last of the sunset color.
We sailed westward until we were well past Alcatraz and then tacked to head for home port, sailing past the weather side of the island on close reach before falling off to head for home port on the still strong westerly winds, all the time watching the rising full moon creating a broader and strong path of moonlight on the bay waters.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sail and then readied for landing as we motored toward home port, landing fine with the tide now turning to quite strong flood. Two separate and very different outings on one day leaving us filled with peak sailing pleasure!
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 3:09 PM 
