Sunday, April 20, 2008

SATURDAY, 19 APRIL 08-- NASTY WINDS ON THE BAY-- SURVIVAL MODE SAILING.

The winds just kept increasing in strength all morning and afternoon.




When we left port about 2 pm, the winds were blowing about 20 knots, mostly westerly.




We put up single reef main and headed out, eventually heading for the bay bridge, sailing main only, and watched as the SF Fire Boat passed us at one point.




The Bay Bridge was enjoying the mid-afternoon sunshine as we approached, hvaing sailed through some gusty wind conditions along the cityfront.





We ducked under the A-B span and then headed closer to shore, pulled out a small jib and tacked to the north to sail along the cityfront shore again, the financial district being in shadow from the east side at this time of day.



By the time we reached the central bay, the winds had increased to 25-30 knots with much stronger gusts and had shifted into the northwest, but we headed toward the east side of Angel Island, sailing off the wind between close hauled and beam reach.



This small sailboat was sailing off the wind and you can see tha tthe sea state was knarly-- we were banging through nasty wind waves and regularly taking big blasts of spray over the boat.




At one point we tacked to the south to try to get closer to Angel Island for some lee shore effect and then headed north again, but the wind and sea conditions continued to build, This boat was headed southeast, sailing off the wind with quite a lot of canvas up.



We eventually gave up trying to reach Raccoon Straits and headed back to home port, pulling in the jib and sailing main only. We sailed into the lee of pier 27 to find a quiet spot for dousing the main and getting the boat ready for landing, then motored around that pier into the teeth of the wind and wave toward home port, making slow progress and finally making it past pier 35 and heading for the marina entrance in quieter seas. It was a relief to land and be away from the nasty conditions on the bay once again, wishing we had stayed in port rather than venturing out.

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