SUNDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 08 -- BRIEF LATE AFTERNOON OUTING-- VERY LITTLE BREEZE AND STRONG CURRENT

Thursday-- unseasonable warm and no wind for sailing.
Friday-- same conditions
Saturday -- same conditions.
Each day a nice northerly breeze of about 8-10 knots would come up in the early morning
for an hour or so and then die away completely. Very frustrating for this sailing addict!!!

Today, after a shopping trip to West Marine in SSF, my daughter and I returned to ANTICIPATION and had lunch then headed over to Safeway for a few items. When I returned to my boat, there was a very light westerly wind blowing, so i decided to hurry out for some sailing, hoping to have enough wind to fight the ebb current that was now starting and would grow strong very fast. As I was getting ready to head out, my neighbor Scott came by and I invited him to go out with me and he decided to come, went into his boat to get some warmer clothes just in case and I started taking dock lines in preparation for departure.



We raised full main just outside the marina and then motored out into the central bay while the AIRSHIP VENTURES blimp flew overhead. I'm told they operate out of Moffett Field and charge 500 dollars for an hour of flying around the bay. Perhaps there are enough people for whom 500 dollars is pocket change to be a recession proof business with the uniqueness of the flight experience.




We motored out past the dredging barge and crane that was dredging a few hundred yards off the end of pier 35, then turned downwind, pulled out the jib to full and began sailing eastward against the current. With only a few knots of breeze, we made little progress against the current, while others were motorsailing.




This sailboat was motorsailing down the cityfront-- you can see the coolant water coming out of the transom.

\\The ebb current drove us backwards to the west, and I decided to motor east for a while just in case the breeze would freshen a bit, so we motored until we were past the Canadian navy ships tied up at pier 27-- one of the Canadian sailors shouted from the pier, saying "nice Ericson!" which I acknowledged with a 'thanks'.



We then started gybing back and forth downwind, but the current was still driving us westward and this lovely ketch motorsailed past.




We eventually gave up and sailed toward the marina entrance, then turned on the engine and motored to the west side of pier 35, doused jib and then main and then motored into the marina as the sun was setting behind pier 39.


It felt good to be out on the bay, even though the sailing was minimal.