Winds on shore were about 10 knots from the fluttering of the flags, but we anticipated stronger winds on the bay, so raised single reefed main and put out postage stamp jib before heading out into the bay.
As we headed out to the northwest, toward the lee side of Alcatraz, charter ketch PRIVATEER was heading home.
ADVENTURE CAT 2 was heading out for a mid-afternoon sail with her passengers and the Blue and Gold Ferry was steaming toward the gate with her passengers.
Winds of about 15 knots were fluttering the flags on the end of pier 39.
This slightly reefed sailboat passed to port, heading east on a broad reach.
A small Santana passed, heading south on a close reach-- looking good.
GO DOG GO, a pier 39 neighbor and also a Santana 22 passed but we didn't manage to get a shot of her.
A couple of military helicopters circled around Alcatraz and here is one of them.
The lovely sailboat named ANDRE was heading east on starboard tack beam reach and looking good...
...followed by this Catalina sailboot flying full canvas.
A lovely dark-hulled sailboat was blasting westward along the shore of Angel Island.
This well-reefed sailboat was heading west on a parallel course to ours.
We tacked back to the south and noticed our boat neighbor MACONDO
strugging with her symmetrical spinnaker after gybing from port tack onto starboard tack. She initially got a wrap of the spinnaker around the forestay, and threatened to broach, but recovered with spinnaker flying free and spinnaker pole not attached to the clew of the kite on the starboard side as usual after a gybe.
Apparently the starboard spinnaker sheet was caught on the anchor on the bow and a crewmember was trying to free it.
Eventually, they headed into the wind and doused the spinnaker before continuing on toward home port.
This nice sailboat passed in front of us, heading toward Sausalito, flying full canvas and sailing off the wind and looking good.
We wondered whether we would see sail and kiteboarders out on the bay and as we approached the cityfront we began to see the sailboarders like this one and the kiteboarder in the background.
This sailboarder was blasting across the sunsparkled bay waters near the gate.
This lovely sailboat named ACABAR was returning to the bay, having done the SPINNAKER CUP race that started on Friday.
This sailboatder blasted past our stern as we continued southward.
ACABAR's crew seemed relaxed as she sailed downwind under full canvas.
Kiteboarders were blasting their way across the bay waters, like these two....
... and this one.
We tacked as we approached the shore of the city and hoped to sail out the gate on port tack, but a shift in the wind toward the west and the flood current pushed us northward toward Horseshoe Cove, so we did some quick short tacks in the light flood current near the north tower of the bridge to finally shoot the gate as this large tanker was steaming into the bay with two tug escorts.
The GGB and the Marin Headlands were spectacular as always.
We tacked to the south for a while after shooting the gate, and then came about and headed back inside, sailing northward before gybing and then pulling out the jib to full for downwind power and blasting toward home port.
This nicely reefed Catalina crossed in front of us, heading south.
Behind us, the fog was closing in on the Golden Gate Bridge and the headlands.
The winds of 20-25 knots were blasting the flags on the end of pier 39 as we passed.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sails and then motored around the pier while readying the boat for landing. Winds were strong all the way into the marina entrance and didn't calm until we approached our slip in the lee of the pier, making it easier to slide into our slip, playing the now ebbing current accurately and landing nicely. It felt great as always to spend several hours on our wonderful bay.
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