We left port about 9:30 am with the flags indicating a breeze of about 5-7 knots.
We put out sails just outside the marina and headed out into the central bay, sailing northward at first and then coming about and heading down the cityfront toward the A-B span of the Bay Bridge, while behind us, Mt. Tam was towering over Alcatraz.
In the lee of the city, winds were light and we were mostly ghosting along against the light ebb current, enjoying views of the city's features, like Coit Tower here, basking in the mid-morning sunshine...
...and the financial district towers.
It was 10:45 am as we ghosted past the Ferry Building.
We watched as a small sailboat motored out of the south bay, and then headed into the wind and raised her main sail.
Off to starboard, a motorsailor sailboat motored past.
A Coast Guard helicopter flew quite low overhead.
As we approached the Bay Bridge, we were, as usual, disgusted about the Tour de Merde built next to the west end of the Bay Bridge.
After passing under the A-B span, we headed up and sailed toward the shore of the city, then tacked to the north, passing the new restaurant near the water's edge....
....and the bow and arrow sculpture.
A tug pushing a huge crane-carrying barge steamed past to starboard.
We sailed past the California Hornblower and San Francisco Belle tied up at their docks....
...and the pedestrian pier with a few people on the end of the pier...
..and the San Francisco Spirit and Pilot boats tied up at their piers.
When we entered the central bay, we discovered that the breeze had built
to about 15 knots so we were now blasting along on close reach port tack toward the lee side of Alcatraz, planning to sail past the island and then head back to home port.
Way in the distance, we saw a sailboat heading west, but initially couldn't tell who it was, and then as we started catching up, we saw that she was PRIVATEER, a charter ketch out of pier 39, and we continued chasing her, while this Coast Guard fast boat, blasted past to starboard, heading east.
We were at the mouth of Richardson Bay between Belvedere and Sausalito when we finally caught up to PRIVATEER, having closed a gap of a mile or more from the time we first spotted her.
here is a brief video of the final chase:
Eventually, we both tacked and headed toward home port, and Eric-- the skipper on PRIVATEER-- started raising her mizzen sail to try to match ANTICIPATION's speed.
Her increased canvas did give her greater speed, and Eric kept her on a course closer to the wind as a stronger point of sail, and we ended up a quarter of a mile apart, as we headed home on beam reach starboard tack.
As we headed home, this J105 race boat was headed toward the gate on close reach starboard tack.
This C&C sailboat approached from the north and passed astern, also heading toward the gate and looking good.
A Beneteau passed to port, heading for Sausalito.
As we crossed the bay, sailing just to the west of Alcatraz, the breeze continued to soften down to about 5 knots, perhaps due to the approaching weather system, so 007 was not heavily heeled over as she sailed westward on close reach port tack.
We turned on the engine as we approached pier 39, pulled in the jib after passing the marina and then turned into the wind to douse the main, tie it up and then prepare to land while motoring toward the marina entrance.
It was a great morning sail-- we went further than we planned
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