SATURDAY, 16 AUGUST 08 -- MOSTLY FOG ON THE BAY WITH MORE SKIFF RACING IN HEAVY WINDS

Devin, a young man from the U. of Michigan working on his Ph.D. in cancer research and doing a short term project at UCSF, joined us for our afternoon outing-- another sfsailing.com contact.



We left port about 1:30 pm, headed out into the central bay with single-reefed main and small jib, and soon began encountering some fellow sailors out there as we headed west, like this FREEMONT BANK sailboat here. The fog and mist do not provide good lighting for photography.




This sailboat was charging toward the Bay Bridge as we continued westward.




Way into the north, the charter sloop RUBY was heading toward the Bay Bridge and home port at pier 40.




This lovely sailboat with dodger and bimini shading the cockpit was heading east and looking good.




LOLA was passing the south shore of Alcatraz, heading back to home port.




We eventually tacked toward the cityfront to head for the leeward mark of the skiff race course and soon spotted the leaders of the skiff race blasting downwind toward the leeward mark.




Here the SLAM skiff crew was dousing her spinnaker as she approached the leeward mark....




....followed by the HARKEN skiff doing the same thing.





YANDOO was charging toward the leeward mark under spinnaker.




Eventually, it appeared that the HARKEN skiff was in the lead approaching the mark.




A bit later, the KINDER CARE skiff was approaching the leeward mark and starting to douse her spinnaker.




This nameless skiff was also dousing spinnaker while heading for the mark....




....and seemed to be struggling to pull in the kite.




WHOOPS... the KINDER CARE boat is flipping and throwing her crew into the water.




The CABOT CHEESE skiff is looking good as she douses the kite while approaching the mark.




The KINDER CARE skiff went turtle and the crew here is pulling on the centerboard in an attempt to right her again, without much success.




Another skiff also flipped at the leeward mark, but we didn't spot which one and they were righted in a hurry and off racing again, while the KINDER CARE skiff took many minutes before she was righted and ready to get underway again with the crew climbing aboard.




Here they are underway again.




Here the HARKEN skiff is again blasting downwind toward the leeward mark, seemingly in the lead.



The 7 skiff seemed to be in second place at this point as they begin dousing the kite while approaching the mark.




YANDOO followed still blasting downwind under spinnaker.




Here the 7 skiff is heading back upwind on port tack....




...and soon tacking onto starboard tack.





Here the ACTIVE AIR skiff is beating upwind on starboard tack.




We peeled off from watching the skiff racing and headed for the gate on main only, sailing out near mid-span, Devin enjoying the thrill of shooting the gate for the first time.




We just sailed out a short ways, observing the fog over the headlands and the gate, and then headed back inside, heading toward Raccoon Straits.




Just outside the gate, this small boat flying full canvas had rail-in-the-water as she sailed across the gate on starboard tack.




This sailboat was luffing up the main in strong winds as she sailed toward the gate.





A few sailboarders were out in the strong winds on the bay, like this one....




...and this one was trying to raise the sail again after going down.




This small yellow-hulled sailboat was sailing toward Yellow Bluff with starboard rail almost in the water and taking spray....




....before falling off the wind a bit....




... and then tacked to sail across the gate, port-rail-in-the-water. You have to be a good sailor-- or a reckless one-- to take a small boat like this out in these extreme conditions on the bay.




The fog over the gate and over the headlands was thick and pervasive....




....and it was invading Sausalito and completely obscuring Mt. Tam.




These two sailboats were sailing just past the point of Belvedere as we approached the western mouth of Raccoon Straits.




Off the shore of Belvedere, a flotilla of dingys was playing around on the water.




This small sailboat was heading up the weather shore of Angel Island as we entered the straits.




This small sailboat was sailing across the straits toward Tiburon.




A lovely Tartan sailboat was charging upwind past the shore of Angel Island.




ADAGIO, a Santana 22 was heading upwind and would have been looking good if she weren't dragging her fenders.




The buoy field in Ayala Cove was in sunshine and was full of boats-- many rafted up with each other. The docks of the small marina were full as well



We had pulled out the jib to full while sailing down the straits in light winds, but now fell off to dead downwind and reefed it again for the return trip up the straits. A few tacks took us out of the straits with some ebb current assist and soon we were headed across the bay toward home port in thickening fog. The central bay was all fogged in, but above the waterline, fortunately, so we blasted home with good visibility, sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sails and then couldn't get the engine started. We were able to get a push into port from the small marina outboard workboat since conditions were favorable to do that without requiring a lot of power.

So, we landed okay, and were full of the pleasure of about 5 hours of sailing in varying conditions on the bay and watching some exciting skiff racing.