Saturday, November 17, 2007
THURSDAY, 15 NOV. 07-- AFTERNOON SAIL WITH DRAMATIC CLOUDS, FOG, AND SUNSET
After being stuck in port over the weekend because of the closing of the marina due to the oil spill, and several following days with insufficient breeze, a good strong breeze of about 15 knots was blowing in the early afternoon yesterday.
However, by the time that we left port about 2:30 pm, the breeze had alreay started to soften to below 10 knots.
As we left port, we saw this nice sailboat headed west. [That's Red Rock and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in the background, but this boat was just a few hundred yards off the shore of San Francisco-- this is a telephoto optical effect, but shows how clear the air was that day.]
We headed out into the central bay and headed west on the southwest breeze, sailing past the end of pier 39 where the flags were now fluttering in a breeze of only about 7 knots.
Off in the north east, a tanker that had steamed out of the south bay had slowed down-- no tug escort visible here-- but a tug was headed toward the ship.
The city was enjoying the brilliant sunshine and clear air.
A couple of pelicans flew overhead-- we are seeing fewer and fewer around as the weather changes. I hope not too many were caught in the bunker oil spill of last week.
Off in the west, the scow schooner ALMA, was sailing back toward her home port, but had already turned into the wind.....
....to begin dousing her sails before motoring into port at the Maritime Museum dock.
As we continued sailing westward, this coast guard patrol boat steamed past to starboard.
Beautiful high cloud patterns extended over the sky in the north, as Alcatraz was enjoying the brilliant sunshine.
In the west, a finger of fog was spreading in from the south on the breeze, as the high clouds overhead started to thicken.
Beautiful cloud patterns also extended over the city.
Off in the northeast, that tanker was now attached to an escort tug in preparation for head into the north bay which she now commenced to do.
Also in the northeast, this sailboat was headed for the east side of Treasure Island.
The breeze continued to decline and an ebb current was soon to replace the flood current, so we gave up on sailing to the gate as too risky of the wind dying out and forcing us to motor against the current, which we hate to do. So we came about and headed east.
Behind us, the fog finger was beginning to infiltrate the bay, hiding part of the south tower of the bridge.
The air was so clear that the U.C. Berkekely campus was quite clearly visible,
A bit later, the fog had backed away from the Golden Gate Bridge a bit, but was still threatening.
This sailboat was heading west in the moderate breeze, hardly heeled over at all.
We sailed eastward toward the D-E span of the Bay Bridge and behind us the sun began to go behind the thickening clouds, creating an interesting light and shadow pattern.
Now the fog finger was seriously invading the bay and hiding the tops of the bridge towers.
Eventually the sun dropped into a thick cloud layer as sunset neared.
Off in the east, a cutter-rigged sailboat was heading for the east side of Treasure Island.
A dual engine private plane flew fairly low overhead, heading west initially, but then changing course to head back to the south so as not to fly into the thickening clouds and fog invading the bay, though it looked as if it had a radar dome in its nose.
Some patches of blue sky were still visible in the south beyond the Bay Bridge.
As the sun started to go down further, it partially peeked through a gap in the clouds, creating a brightening of the top of the fog bank scudding over the city.
We sailed under the D-E span of the Bay Bridge, taking this video of the damage to the wooden pilings surrounding the concrete base of the Delta tower by the Cosco Busan as she sideswiped the base.
The financial district was grayed out as we looked at her through the gaps in the Bay Bridge.
Here's a photo showing the damage that the Cosco Busan did to the southeast corner of the piling structure.
A more close up view shows that ship also apparently made contact with the edge of the concrete base, as well as the wooden pilings that it sheared off, and also seems to have left behind some oily residue where the collision occurred. It was probably the contact with the concrete corner of the base that tore the gash in the side of the ship, rupturing the fuel tank located there and causing the thousands of gallons of bunker fuel to spill into the bay.
We headed up to the southwest, hoping to sail parallel to the bridge to the A-B span, and watching some sunset color develop in the south.
We were approaching the south side of the center anchorage of the Bay Bridge and enjoying views of the financial district through the bridge spans, but we didn't have enough wind and the waxing ebb current was dragging us northward, so we tacked and headed through the Charlie-Delta span of the Bay Bridge. [Incidentally, the COSCO BUSAN could have safely traversed this span rather than attempting to get back to the Delta-Echo span with insufficient turning space to avoid hitting the base of the Delta tower. Sure wish the pilor or captain of the vessel had made this non-risky maneuver and avoided the collision and the major oil spill.]
After sailing to the north through the Charlie-Delta span, we tacked back to the west again, heading toward the shore of the financial district, enjoying the lights of the city coming on in the dusk, like HILLS BROS COFFEE sign.
As we traversed the area north of the center anchorage of the Bridge, we watched as ebb current eddies flattened the surface of the sea into a shimmering mirror.
We could see that there was no breeze in the area near the shore of the financial district, so we tacked to the north again to stay in the breeze and watched as some brilliant pink sunset color developed on the underside of clouds in the west and north.
The fog bank was already beginning to invade the financial district as we continued northward in a freshening breeze that soon was blowing 10-15 knots.
The deep pink sunset color intesified as we sailed toward the cityfront shore after tacking to the southwest toward the city.
Eventually the financial district was framed by pink on the underside of the high cloud layer on both sides, with the low fog bank continuing to invade the city.
Eventually, much of the Transamerica Pyramid was obscured as was most of the Bank of America tower. Along with brightening city lights, the fog and sunset color lent a magical aura to the bay and surroundings.
It was almost completely dark as we reached the cityfront and tacked to the west again, and building lights were bright against the dark sky.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sail, and enjoyed the view of lighted Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill against the night sky.
We prepared for landing and then motored into port, happy to have spent a few delightful hours on the bay after a week's layoff from being out there.
After being stuck in port over the weekend because of the closing of the marina due to the oil spill, and several following days with insufficient breeze, a good strong breeze of about 15 knots was blowing in the early afternoon yesterday.
However, by the time that we left port about 2:30 pm, the breeze had alreay started to soften to below 10 knots.
As we left port, we saw this nice sailboat headed west. [That's Red Rock and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in the background, but this boat was just a few hundred yards off the shore of San Francisco-- this is a telephoto optical effect, but shows how clear the air was that day.]
We headed out into the central bay and headed west on the southwest breeze, sailing past the end of pier 39 where the flags were now fluttering in a breeze of only about 7 knots.
Off in the north east, a tanker that had steamed out of the south bay had slowed down-- no tug escort visible here-- but a tug was headed toward the ship.
The city was enjoying the brilliant sunshine and clear air.
A couple of pelicans flew overhead-- we are seeing fewer and fewer around as the weather changes. I hope not too many were caught in the bunker oil spill of last week.
Off in the west, the scow schooner ALMA, was sailing back toward her home port, but had already turned into the wind.....
....to begin dousing her sails before motoring into port at the Maritime Museum dock.
As we continued sailing westward, this coast guard patrol boat steamed past to starboard.
Beautiful high cloud patterns extended over the sky in the north, as Alcatraz was enjoying the brilliant sunshine.
In the west, a finger of fog was spreading in from the south on the breeze, as the high clouds overhead started to thicken.
Beautiful cloud patterns also extended over the city.
Off in the northeast, that tanker was now attached to an escort tug in preparation for head into the north bay which she now commenced to do.
Also in the northeast, this sailboat was headed for the east side of Treasure Island.
The breeze continued to decline and an ebb current was soon to replace the flood current, so we gave up on sailing to the gate as too risky of the wind dying out and forcing us to motor against the current, which we hate to do. So we came about and headed east.
Behind us, the fog finger was beginning to infiltrate the bay, hiding part of the south tower of the bridge.
The air was so clear that the U.C. Berkekely campus was quite clearly visible,
A bit later, the fog had backed away from the Golden Gate Bridge a bit, but was still threatening.
This sailboat was heading west in the moderate breeze, hardly heeled over at all.
We sailed eastward toward the D-E span of the Bay Bridge and behind us the sun began to go behind the thickening clouds, creating an interesting light and shadow pattern.
Now the fog finger was seriously invading the bay and hiding the tops of the bridge towers.
Eventually the sun dropped into a thick cloud layer as sunset neared.
Off in the east, a cutter-rigged sailboat was heading for the east side of Treasure Island.
A dual engine private plane flew fairly low overhead, heading west initially, but then changing course to head back to the south so as not to fly into the thickening clouds and fog invading the bay, though it looked as if it had a radar dome in its nose.
Some patches of blue sky were still visible in the south beyond the Bay Bridge.
As the sun started to go down further, it partially peeked through a gap in the clouds, creating a brightening of the top of the fog bank scudding over the city.
We sailed under the D-E span of the Bay Bridge, taking this video of the damage to the wooden pilings surrounding the concrete base of the Delta tower by the Cosco Busan as she sideswiped the base.
The financial district was grayed out as we looked at her through the gaps in the Bay Bridge.
Here's a photo showing the damage that the Cosco Busan did to the southeast corner of the piling structure.
A more close up view shows that ship also apparently made contact with the edge of the concrete base, as well as the wooden pilings that it sheared off, and also seems to have left behind some oily residue where the collision occurred. It was probably the contact with the concrete corner of the base that tore the gash in the side of the ship, rupturing the fuel tank located there and causing the thousands of gallons of bunker fuel to spill into the bay.
We headed up to the southwest, hoping to sail parallel to the bridge to the A-B span, and watching some sunset color develop in the south.
We were approaching the south side of the center anchorage of the Bay Bridge and enjoying views of the financial district through the bridge spans, but we didn't have enough wind and the waxing ebb current was dragging us northward, so we tacked and headed through the Charlie-Delta span of the Bay Bridge. [Incidentally, the COSCO BUSAN could have safely traversed this span rather than attempting to get back to the Delta-Echo span with insufficient turning space to avoid hitting the base of the Delta tower. Sure wish the pilor or captain of the vessel had made this non-risky maneuver and avoided the collision and the major oil spill.]
After sailing to the north through the Charlie-Delta span, we tacked back to the west again, heading toward the shore of the financial district, enjoying the lights of the city coming on in the dusk, like HILLS BROS COFFEE sign.
As we traversed the area north of the center anchorage of the Bridge, we watched as ebb current eddies flattened the surface of the sea into a shimmering mirror.
We could see that there was no breeze in the area near the shore of the financial district, so we tacked to the north again to stay in the breeze and watched as some brilliant pink sunset color developed on the underside of clouds in the west and north.
The fog bank was already beginning to invade the financial district as we continued northward in a freshening breeze that soon was blowing 10-15 knots.
The deep pink sunset color intesified as we sailed toward the cityfront shore after tacking to the southwest toward the city.
Eventually the financial district was framed by pink on the underside of the high cloud layer on both sides, with the low fog bank continuing to invade the city.
Eventually, much of the Transamerica Pyramid was obscured as was most of the Bank of America tower. Along with brightening city lights, the fog and sunset color lent a magical aura to the bay and surroundings.
It was almost completely dark as we reached the cityfront and tacked to the west again, and building lights were bright against the dark sky.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sail, and enjoyed the view of lighted Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill against the night sky.
We prepared for landing and then motored into port, happy to have spent a few delightful hours on the bay after a week's layoff from being out there.
# posted by charlie bergstedt @ 12:44 AM 
