As we crosssed the bay, this Santana 22 was crossing the bay in the opposite direction.
A Pacific Seacraft sailboat crossed in front of us, heading west on close reach port tack. She appears to have a life raft canister mounted in front of her dodger.
A sailboat was sailing along the shore of Yerba Buena, looking less than good with fenders hanging over the side.
This large sailboat was heading north initially but tacked to the south and passed us to port. Look at all the equipment that she has: radar, GPS, wind generator, solar panels on the lifelines, The center cockpit seems to be fully enclosed-- the owner must be fresh-air-phobic.
As we continued toward Berkeley Circle, SANCTUARY passed to starboar, looking good, flying full canvas and well-heeled-over.
Finally we arrived at the race course where most of the boats seemed to be milling around, waiting for the start of the next race.
I milled around with the boats and eventually the next race started.
Here three large race boats are heading for the windward mark in close proximity. All of them are getting the full wind because they are on the windward side of each other.
This race boat passed us to port looking good.
Eventually, I spotted some race boats that had started earlier now heading for the leeward mark under spinnaker, like TNT here with a very relaxed-looking crew.
Here, Quiver passes us with a pretty relaxed looking crew.
Soon some of the starting boats that we saw were heading back downwind under spinnaker and looking good!
TIBURON here seems to be in the process of gybing from port tack to starboard tack. This is the first time I've seen this race boat on the bay.
Bufflehead's crew looked very relaxed as they blasted downwind toward the leeward mark.
After rounding the leeward mark, the boats head back upwind again.
Ay Caliente was approaching the leeward mark from a different direction than the other race boats.
A 1D35 with a goose on the kite was headed for the leeward mark.
Soon we begin to see boats blasting downwind under spinnaker while others are beating upwind toward the windward mark.
Here four J105s are heading for the leeward mark, some on port tack and some on starboard... they are all gybing back and forth toward the leeward mark.
These J105s are approaching the leeward mark and one has already doused her spinnaker early.
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313687106057615682" />The J120 Desdemona is leading one of the fleets downwind....
.....followed by Phantom Mist.
At one point, I saw that one of the race boats named Quiver was taking a different course and was creeping up on us so I tacked to get out of their way so they wouldn't have to alter course to avoid us.
I kept beating upwind while watching the racing, making sure to stay out of the way of the race boats like this one that is blasting downwind under spinnaker...
... and this one that was sending up some spray from her bow.
MISS DEMEANOR was quite heeled over as she blasted downwind ... almost looking like she might broach.
Look at the bow wake that Desdemona is creating as she blasts downwind again. She has a spinnaker pole that extends straight out from her bow that is an integral part of the boat as built. She flies an assummetrical spinnaker attached to the end of the retractable spinnaker pole. She gybes by pulling the spinnaker around the forstay. The spinnaker pole extending out from the bow makes it easier to accomplish this task.
Phantom Mist followed Desdemona with a rather relaxed looking crew. She flies a symmetrical spinnaker which is attached to the end of the spinnaker pole. She gybes by detaching the end of the spinnaker pole from one side of the spinnaker and reattaches it to the other side of kite after the gybe is completed, the kite flying free in the meanwhile.
This smaller race boat is blasting toward us and sending up spray from her bow. Her spinnaker pole is mounted in a canister on teh foredeck and extends out toward the starboard side of the bow. I wonder if this affects the downwind performance on different tacks. She is also flying her jib along with the spinnaker.
This small race boat is blasting downwind on starboard tack and also flying her jib. These small race boats often plane while blasting downwind in strong winds, i.e. the bow is pulled upward by the action of the kite and the boat goes faster.
Here that same boat is in the process of gybing from starboard tack to port tack.
Here the foot of the kite seems to be dragging in the water as the gybe progresses toward completion.
Here the gybe is complete, the kite is trimmed and the boat is planing again in the strong winds-- a textbook gybe!
Here come some of the J105 fleet behind their colorful kites!
Here, MISS DEMEANOR is struggline with a bad twist in her kite after a gybe.
She eventually untwisted it and here is blasting toward the leeward mark on port tack.
I broke off from watching the racing which seemed to be almost over anyway and headed north towark the lee side of Angel Island, pulling out a small bit of jib initially, but pulling it out to full after entering the lighter winds in the lee of the island. We passed this smaller sailboat, a Catalina 27, and soon left her far behind.
It looked as if there were good winds all the way to the Richmond Bridge so I decided to continue northward with the possiblility of completing another 3 bridge kiss. With steady winds we soon passed Raccoon Straits and looked through it to see the Golden Gate Bridge.
We were initially heading toward the western sea lane span of the Richmond Bridge, but the wind shifted so we headed for the eastern span, passing to the east of Red Rcok.
Three tankers of radically different sizes were tied up at the Richmond long wharf.
North of the Richmond Bridge is the bed and breakfast in on one of the islands of The Brothers. I wonder how their business is doing in the ecomomic downturn.
We sailed under the Richmord Bridge and then came about and headed back to the southeast.
The J105 race boat MISS DEMEANOR was sailing toward the Richmond Bridge under main only. I wonder where she was headed.... perhaps to a marina in San Rafael.
We made fast headway back to the lee of Angel Island where this Hunter sailboat passed us, heading toward Raccoon Straits.
This Ranger sailboat had passed in front of us and was headed east toward Berkeley.
We blasted across the central bay toward the Bay Bridge under the overcast skies extending over the city and most of the bay.
The sun was heading down into a thick cloud bank above the horizon.
We sailed along the shore of Treasure Island and eventually sailed under the D-E span of the Bay Bridge.
That Chinese freighter carrying the barge and crane on deck was still anchored out south of the bridge. By comparying this photo with the one I took on Thursday as she steamed past us, it seems like they are flooding the interior of the freighter to lower it in the water until the barge is floating free.
I took a peak at the lighthouse on Yerba Buena before coming about and heading back north to sail under the D-E span again.
We sailed north into substantial wind waves, taking spray as we blasted through them. With full jib we were somewhat overpowered, putting the starboard rail in the water at times, so i came about and reefed the jib again. I was hoping the wind would be westerly enough that we could sail directly toward the gate after sailing far enough north, but it wasn't, so I decided to give up on completing a three bridge kiss because it would take too long to beat against the wind to the gate. So we sailed toward home port, noticiing a bit of sunset color developing outside the gate.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sails, get ready for landing and then motor into port. Another 5 hours on the bay had filled us with combined feelings of tiredness and elation.
No comments:
Post a Comment