Thursday morning, I was hiking along the shore of Alameda's Bayfarm Island and the air was so clear that a telephoto image of the S.F. financial district was almost as clear as a photo from a few hundred yards offshore.
Friday morning started out sunny, but hazy, with a nice northerly wind that was blowing at around 15 knots initially, so I decided to head our for a morning sail around 10 am. I raised full main while motoring northward into the wind outside the marina, then pulled out the jib to full and headed for the D-E span of the Bay Bridge on a beam reach port tack. The wind had died back to around 8-10 knots.
The financial district was locked in haze as we headed east.
The stinkpot Patricia Marie blasted past, heading west.
South of the Bay Bridge a sailboat was sailing parallel to the bridge on a close reach port tack, barely visible in the haze. This photo showed me later that this sailboat had a rainbow jib.
We sailed through the D-E span of the bridge and behind us the bridge was basking in hazy sunshine and the city behind was still hazy, but not as much as earlier.
The lighthouse on Yerba Buena Island was also hazy in the morning sunshine.
This small power boat steamed toward the Delta Tower of the bridge and stayed there for a while before steaming back to the west again.
We came about and headed back through the D-E span of the bridge, now sailing on a close reach starboard tack and making good headway to the west. When we neared the cityfront, this tractor tug was steaming westward.
A light haze still hung over the city and Telegraph Hill and Coit tower were still not in clear air.
As we approached the end of Pier 39, the flags were fluttering in a breeze that had declined here to less than 5 knots and seemed to be gradually softening further. It had taken about 30 minutes to return from the D-E span of the Bay Bridge against a waxing flood current.
Behind us, the two Alcatraz ferries were passing each other...
Alcatraz was basking in hazy sunshine and I noticed a white cover on a building on the west side of the island that hadn't been there the last time we passed the island. I wondered what was happening with that.
We managed to sail almost to the north of pier 45 when the wind died and we were now at the mercy of the flood current which slowly dragged us eastward. The flags on the end of pier 39 were now limp. This is what often happens these days. A strong morning northerly dies out in the late morning and that's the wind for the daylight hours.
I repeatedly asked Mother Nature to bring back the breeze as we drifted eastward with the current, passing piers 35, 33, 31, 29, and watching these two sailboats motoring westward.
I was about to give up and head home when a light breeze came up out of the west and we were able to beat at a crawl back to the west as that boat with the rainbow jib was sailing norhtward.
As we approached the cityfront piers, this catamaran steamed past.
As we crawled back toward home port in a very light breeze, the 'rainbow boat was now heading west on starboard tack and seemed ot have a much better breeze further out on the bay. I wonder why she had a partly furled jib when the breeze was so light.
Behind us, this race boat was heading toward the Bay Bridge behind a nicely flying kite.
It was almost 1 pm before we managed to crawl our way back to the end of pier 39 where the flags were now fluttering again in a breeze of a few knots.
The breeze freshened to 8-10 knots and we were soon making real good headway to the west on close reach starboard tack. Ahead of us, this smaller red sailboat was heading for the city on a broad reach starboard tack.
A sailboat was passing Alcatraz which was less hazy than before.
That rainbow boat had been way ahead of us in the west, but then we spotted here heading back to the east again, looking good.
A bit later, we spotted neighbor boat, the Becky J, heading for home part.
As we continued westward, this sailboat passed to port, also looking good.
The CARITA crew was enjoying the sunshine and nice breeze.
As we approached the Golden Gate Breeze, the morning haze was almost gone and now the wind was more northerly again. It was now a little past 1:30 pm so it had taken us about 40 minutes to reach the gate on a single starboard tack, against the moderate flood current.
I was contemplating attempting a three bridge kiss, but decided first to try to make it out to Pt. Bonita, so continued westward, enjoying views of the Marin Headlands, its hills and rocky cliffs.
Eventually, I enjoyed one of my favorite views of the city through the frame of the GGB between the south tower and the shore.
We were about half way from the gate to Pt. Bonita when this sailboat crossed in front of us, heading for the shore of the headlands on close reach starboard tack.
The GGB was now far behind us as we sailed westward.
The wind now softened and so I gave up on Pt. Bonita and headed back toward the gate, noticing that the airship was taking her passengers over the gate.
Pt. Bonita was enjoying sunshine, but we were only going to see her from afar.
Off to starboard, another sailboat was also heading toward the gate and seemed to have more favorable winds and soon was far ahead of us.
As we approached closer to the gate, the sailboat Chance approached. We were now on a southwesterly breeze, and Chance was on a close reach starboard tack.
Ahead of us, an Ericson sistership was heading southwesterly on the the light breeze.
We tried to sail toward the south tower, but then headed north again to stay out of the way of this large container ship steaming into the bay.
Breezes inside the bay were a little stronger but we were still just ghosting toward home port. Behind us our beautiful bridge and the Marin Headlands and that sailboat Chance was heading back inside the bay....
... looking good!
In front of us, a trimaran named Tatiana was sailing northward.
She eventually gybed onto starboard tack but, with the light breeze her large jib got hung up on the forestay. This is a difficulty of a cutter rig.
One of the crew had to go forward to push the jib around the forestay after furling it partially.
Off to starboard, a rower was heading toward the gate.
We were sailing toward the cityfront shore on broad reach starboard tack while this large beautiful sailboat was heading toward the shore on a close reach starboard tack- a faster point of sail in light winds.
She was looking good as she passed astern of us.
Behind us, this lovely J boat was heading east on starboard tack while we had gybed onto port tack.
She doused jib and headed for the entry to the San Francisco marina.
That airship was now heading for the gate on a second flight.
As we approached Alcatraz, we gybed back onto starboard tack. Now I could see that there was a hydraulic lift next to that building that was partially covered with a white something, and it looked like all of the windows had been removed from the building and were sitting on the ground. My couriosity is now peaked and I'll have to try to find out what is happening out there.
As we continued on toward home port on starboard tack broad reach, this race boat approached on starboard tack close reach nad was surprisingly heeled over.
Along the shore, this Coast Guard fastboat was blasting westward.
The city was enjoying late sunshine and the haze had quite disappeared.
The Catalina sailboat name CAT NIP was also heading eastward, but on port tack.
The flags on the end of pier 39 were fluttering moderately in a breeze of just a few knots. It had taken us over 2 hours to sail back from the gate.
I furled the jib while sailing past the end of pier 39 and then came into the wind after passing the marina to douse the main. We then motored into port and landed fine. We had been out on the bay for 7 hours in a great variety of conditions. The outing filled us with pleasure-- a great feeling that is very hard to describe.
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