Behind us the city was overcast and grayed out.
A center-cockpit sloop named Sea Banshee passed us to port.
Off in the distant east, we spotted the Lady Washington heading north along the shore of Yerba Buena Island...
... and also spotted the Hawaiian Chieftain behind the Lady Wachington by an eighth of a mile or so.
A Hunter sailboat heading west passed astern of us flying main sail only and probably motorsailing.
Eventually, we saw that the Chieftain had put out all of her canvas and was sailing southeasterly on a course parallel to the Bay Bridge.
On the other hand, the Lady Washington was headed our way so we fell off to rendevous with her and soon spotted her firing her canon at the Chieftain even though she was far away. Perhaps the crew was test firing.
The Lady has a beautiful paint job and is obviously a well-cared-for vessel.
A bit later, the Lady was heading back toward Treasure Island and again fired her canon in the general direction of the Chieftain.
The Chieftain sailed over to where we were and the two vessels began circling each other and we stayed around and stayed out of their way.
Here the Lady has just fired her canon at the Chieftain and you can see the smoke off her port side.
Here the Chieftain fires back.
Neither vessel had as many passengers as I would have expected for a weekend voyage. Clayton told me that he sees the two vessels going out at noon with huge crowds aboard and they just motor around, perhaps serving lunch.
Here's another canon shot with the two vessels quite close to each other.
Eventually, the Lady put out her large main sail....
... but a short time later she furled it again.
Here is a video of the two vessels circling each other and firing canon blasts.
We watched the mock sea battle for about a half hour and then headed away toward the north side of Treasure Island in a northerly breeze that had freshened to about 8 knots or so-- great sailing. Mariposa Dos was off our port side and looking good!
We eventually fell off the wind to head for the east side of Treasure Island, eventually doing wing and wing and this Cal29 sailboat passed in front of us...
... her crew enjoying the gentle breezes.
We sailed toward the Bay Bridge, but the breeze softened so we headed back north again, beating against the wind and passing this smaller sailboat heading for the Bay Bridge.
Once past the island, we sailed westward on starboard tack beam reach, sailing on a parallel course to SLEEPER as she sailed along with a much bigger jib than we--- looking good!
Clayton was at the helm as we sailed westward toward the gate, hoping the fresh breeze would hold, but it started to decline seriously in the lee of Angel Island.
So we tacked and headed north to get back in a better breeze and watching as this beautiful sailboat passed in front of us, flying a colorful spinnaker.
She is at least a 45 footer, I think, and her crew was enjoying the outing. Note that they have her asymetrical spinnaker poled out in front of the bow pulpit. She was truly looking good!
Olivier had called me on the cellphone to let me know where they were and on what course, so we were heading toward them as they sailed southward under spinnaker and looking good...
...with Brooke at the helm of Corto Maltese.
They eventually gybed and headed away from us.
We tried to find some decent wind but didn't so headed toward home port as the sun was beginning to go down in the southwest and some interesting cloud patterns were developing.
Corto Maltese had doused her spinnaker and was now heading toward the grayed-out city.
A bit of sunset color developed in a small break in the clouds in the southwest as we ghosted toward home port.
Eventually a bit of sunshine created a sun path on the water for a while.
The San Francisco Belle steamed out of port on a dinner [and dancing?] sail-- haven't seen her out on the bay for quite a while and don't miss her garish appearance.
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