We headed out a bit after 6 pm for an evening sail, and as we were leaving port, we spotted Tim on CHEWINK headed out ahead of us.
We put up a single-reefed main, pulled out a small jib and headed out into the central bay, watching as this Catalina passed, heading downwind under main only.
We headed west in the moderate breeze, but the strong flood current resisting us actually put us mostly on a northerly course effectively, and the city retreating behind us was enjoying quite clear air despite it being a 'spare the air day'.
Winds were moderate initially and I was tempted to pull out more jib, but then the wind started freshening-- up another 10 knots-- after 6 pm-- what's up with that?- and we were happy with the canvas that we had ou tthere.
As we sailed past Alcatraz, quite to the east of it, this cutter-rigged sailboat was passing the island closer to the shore.
ADVENTURE CAT, our old pal on the bay, also sailed past the island on her sunset sail.
After passing Alcatraz, we began to make more westerly headway with a shift in the wind to more southwesterly, and we spotted this sailboat heading across the bay toward the cityfront where a number of sailboats were participating in a a beer can race.
Angel Island was looking beautiful in the late sunshine and shadow produced by the late sun.
As we entereed the area between the headlands and Angel Island, winds softened and we pulled the jib out to full for more power and began beating westward in shifting winds, enjoying as we did this lovely yawl crossing in front of us.
Closer to the headlands, this Catalina was heading for the gate.
In the distance, ADVENTURE CAT was heading out the gate and that Catalina was heading past Horseshoe Cove.
A sailboat in Richardson Bay was in flat water with little or no wind.
The sun went down behind the hills of Sausalito and it was time to head for home.
We spotted that lovely yawl heading back toward us-- and I love this shot with Alcatraz out of focus in sunshine and the Bay Bridge is ghostly in the background.
The yawl passed us, looking great and well-maintained, and the sunset colored shore of Angel Island provided a beautiful backdrop. We tacked to follow them for a while and took this video clip of the yawl ghosting along at sundown.
That Catalina spotted earlier heading toward the gate was now headed back toward Sausalito.
The CALIFORNIA HORNBLOWER was heading our way on her dinner cruise with sun reflections on the Berkeley hills in the distance.
The Golden Gate Bridge was looking beautiful against the dusk sky.
We kept the full jib out as we headed across the bay toward home port, sailing on close reach until the freshening wind required us to ease off the wind a bit, and we enjoyed the views of the city with the tall buildings seeing the last of the setting sun. The sailing was great-- moving fast on flat water-- very exciting!
Here's a video clip that gives some sense of what it felt like.
We managed to sail well to the west of Alcatraz and then could fall off the wind some more as we headed toward home port, enjoying the marmalade sunset sky in the west as we sailed along.
City lights were brightening as we approached home port-- always a magical time on the bay!
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sails, ready for landing and then motored into port-- happy to have been out on the bay at evening for the first time in quite a while and under really nice conditions!
1 comment:
super blog keep it up
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