SAILING ON S.F. BAY

SUNDAY, 9 DEC. 07-- SAILING TOWARD THE BAY BRIDGE IN LIGHT WINDS


Sunday morning started with a light northeasterly breeze that eventually died out, but fortunately, around noontime, a light westerly started to blow. Michael joined us and we headed out for a few hours of sailing.





Only a few knots of breeze were ruffling the flags on shore as we left the marina, hoping that we would eventually see some freshening of the wind.












We headed out into the central bay and began sailing to the east, direct downwind on the light westerly, enjoying the beautiful cloud patterns radiating over the city and Telegraph Hill.












Way over by Yerba Buena Island, a nice looking sailboat was heading north, sailing with the waxing ebb current and making good headway despite light winds.












Near the Bay Bridge, this Hunter sailboat, named PERSEVERANCE, was also headed north, sailing with the current while we were ghosting along, sailing against the current.











A short time later, that sailboat that we saw heading north was retreating back to the south along the shore of Yerba Buena.












Behind us, this large C&C sailboat, named SHENANIGANS, was motorsailing along the cityfront.















A small sailboat was sailing down the cityfront, having just passed the pier 39 marina.













SHENANIGANS was continuing to motorsail along the cityfront ....














....with its crew enjoying the afternoon sunshine.













This catboat that earlier was sailing against the current was now heading back west, sailing with the current....












...followed a short time later by SHENANIGANS.















The breeze freshened up to 7 or 8 knots and we began to make some good headway toward the Bay Bridge, gybing back and forth between an east heading and and south heading, while in the meanwhile this sailboat over by Yerba Buena was struggling against the strong ebb and making very little headway.







Along the cityfront, this small sailboat was now motorsailing against the current.













Another small sailboat was motorsailing toward the Bay Bridge against the current.














The breeze started to decline and we gave up on reaching the Bay Bridge, and began ghosting toward the cityfront with the ebb current dragging us northward, and then we tacked to the north, passing this large sailboat motorsailing down the cityfront.



We sailed out into the central bay, with the current, making good headway and then tacking into the lee of pier 35 to douse sail and then motor into port, happy to have spent a few hours on our beautiful bay.




After having a snack, I headed out for a walk along the waterfront to catch the sunset. While passing Aquatic Park, I spotted SIERRA II sailing down the cityfront, the homes of Tiburon wearing sunset color in the background.










Two other sailboats were headed west across the bay.















The buildings on Alcatraz were wearing sunset color also.














From the top of the hill at Fort Mason, the sun setting into the clouds over Presidio Heights was beautiful....












....and spread color over the southwestern sky.











Eventually, the ribbon of clouds in the west took on some brilliant sunset colors.













Brilliant golden sunset color near the horizon combined with grayish purples in the clouds above after sundown, as viewed through the trees near the St. Francis Yacht Club.













Sunset color near the horizon and twilight sky above greeted our eyes as we looked over the boats in the San Francisco Marina. It's more fun to watch all of this while out on the sea, but seeing it from the shore is nice also.












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