SUNDAY, 23 MARCH 08-- NICE TRIP AROUND ANGEL ISLAND

Olivier was planning to head home in the early afternoon, but changed his mind and decided to go out for an afternoon outing.


We headed out about 3 pm with a moderate westerly wind blowing.



Out on the bay, we headed north toward the lee side of Angel Island, planning to sail way to the east of the island to stay out of the waxing ebb current, and stay away from the lee shore effect as much as possible, eventually watching this blue-hulled sailboat heading our way.



Out on the bay, we headed north toward the lee side of Angel Island, planning to sail way to the east of the island to stay out of the waxing ebb current, and stay away from the lee shore effect as much as possible, eventually watching this blue-hulled sailboat heading our way.




She was looking great as she passed astern of us.




The crew was enjoying the nice sunshine and good breeze.




A lovely large sailboat passed to port as we continued northward, with a number of sailboats in the distance.




Crossing in front of us, BRICK HOUSE was looking good as she headed west.




Way in the east, a sailboat with a dramatic, colorful main sail decoration was heading toward the lee side of Treasure Island.




A tractor tugboat steamed past to port, fortunately not going high speed and thus not sending a big wake our way.





PHOENIX, under main only, was headed east with a crew enjoying the lovely sunshine east of Angel Island where winds were light.




This lovely Islander sailboat was headed toward Raccoon Straits with the petrol storage tanks in Richmond in the background.




A lovely ketch, flying genoa and mizzen sails only was also heading for Raccoon Straits, with Mt. Tam towering in the background.




We had to motor for a while to get back into the breeze and then continued sailing on toward the east mouth of Raccoon Straits, then tacked into the straits as the race boat RACER X motored past the shore of Angel Island.




Tree lined Angel Island looked so fantastic in the clear air and brilliant afternoon sunshine, contrasting green with the blue of the sea and the while of RACER X.




The breeze died in the east end of the straits, so we motored westward through the straits for a while, passing the beautiful Ayala Cove containing a few remaining boats at the buoys and the docks of the marina.




About half way through the straits we picked up a nice westerly breeze and began sailing again, watching as this lovely ketch motored through the straits.




As we exited the straits, we were accompanied by that same ketch we had seen earlier way east of Angel Island-- the city looks close, but is way in the distance.




We had great winds out of the southwest all the way across the bay from the weather side of Angel to Alcatraz and then fell off a bit to head for home port as our old buddy, ADVENTURE CAT 2, headed out for her sunset sail.




The city was enjoying the late sun and clear air.




A small sailboat crossed in front of us, sailing downwind seemingly doing wing and wing with her jib poled out.


We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sail and prepare for landing and then motored around the pier and into the marina, happy to have spent several hours on our lovely bay in the company of a good friend.