Saturday, November 22, 2008

FRIDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 08 -- A GREAT SAIL TO THE GATE AND BACK IN BRILLIANT SUNSHINE!!!!

Brilliant sunshine with a moderate breeze of six or seven knots made it irresistible to go out for an afternoon sail. We left port around 1 pm and raised full main just outside the marina exit before heading out toward the central bay.




We had to pass this dredging crane and barge that had blocked about 2/3 of the fairway between pier 35 and the marina seawall. The crew was lunching at the time and the crane was at rest.




We continued westward, enjoying the great full canvas breeze, and eventually tacked toward the lee of pier 45, sailing to about 20 yards from the Jeremiah Obrien before tacking to the west again and watching as this Beneteau sailed downwind under main only approached us.




The Beneteau was skippered by a white-haired gentleman.





Behind the Beneteau was a cruising catamaran flying main and jib with the jib mainly backwinded and luffing.
















The city was basking in the brilliant sunshine as the Beneteau continued eastward.





The catamaran was overttaking the Beneteau as we continued westward.





Way behind us in the northeast, this nice sailboat was sailing westward on a close reach.




As we sailed past Aquatic Park, we noticed that a couple of small sailboats were playing around in the lagoon there.




We eventually tacked toward the Fort Mason piers, and then tacked away toward the west again, tacking again toward the St. Francis YC. Now we watched as this sailboat named 'neener' with the superscript 3 motored out of the San Francisco Marina and raised the main sail before motorsailing past us toward the gate.




We again tacked toward the west again, heading for the gate, as another lovely Beneteau passed us, sailing downwind to the east with a large crew aboard the boat named Sijambo.




As we continue toward the gate, we see that the 'neener' is retreating northward after just approaching the gate but not going out, perhaps scared by the swells at the gate, or perhaps they were just doing a motorsailing tour of the bay with guests aboard.




We tacked again toward the shore and sailed to near the pier just inside the south tower which is gleaming in the afternoon sun.




After approaching the pier, we tacked toward the gate again and watched as this sailboat named AURORA was also heading for the gate.





From time to time we would see the ocean swells turn into surf as it approaches the shore at Fort Point.





The Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands were as beautiful as usual in the brilliant fall sunshine. Never get tired of looking at these scenes!





We sailed out the gate between the south tower and midspan as a sailboat further north sailing back inside the bay. It was now 2:15 pm, so it had taken us about 75 minutes to beat out the gate.




Out on the ocean we saw a few sailboats, like this one.




That sailboat off to starboard was shooting the gate and a catboat was heading inside as we continued westward for a while.




We soon fell off and headed back inside while that other sailboat that shot the gate after us continued on toward the headlands.




That catboat named Daisy was now inside the gate and heading northward on port tack. We sailed back inside the gate about midspan, heading north also.




The bridge and the headlands look so fantastic in the more slanted fall sunshine.




After sailing northward for a while, we gybed and headed toward home port, watching as this Beneteau with one of those highly reflective blue-painted hulls headed westward.
It was definitely a Beneteau day on the bay.

The tide was slack, turning toward flood, and the breeze was steady at about 7 knots so we were making decent headway toward home port.


We eventually spotted the charter ketch PRIVATEER heading out for an afternoon sail.




As we approached home port the city was still basking in the afternoon sunshine at around 3 pm in the afternoon. So it had taken us about 45 minutes to sail back from the gate on a single tack.


We pulled in the jib as we were approaching the end of pier 39, and then sailed to near the end of pier 35 before heading into the wind to douse the main sail. As we are dousing the main, this large tugboat is heading our way and calls out on a loudspeaker that they were soon going to drag the barge with dredgings out of there. I motored closer to the marina seawall to flake and tie up the main sail, but was pushed eastward by the now flooding current. The crane was still dumping dredgings in the barge so there was no need for the tug to try to push us to get out of the way and it eventually back up toward the end of pier 35 while we finished tying up the main and then motored into the marina.

Ahhhhhh... sigh.... compared to last week, we had some breeze on both Thursday and Friday this week and enjoyed some sailing. Hope this breeziness continues for our weekend outings.

1 comment:

glowleaf said...

I loved the pictures!
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