Grant and Alex joined me at 1:30 pm and we headed out a short time later, putting up reefed main and pulling out small jib and initially heading west on the southwest breeze, but soon falling off toward the lee of Alcatraz to avoid blasting through very large wind waves stirred up by the 20-25 knot winds along the cityfront despite the flood current that had persisted for several hours.
We sailed northward past the lee side of Alcatraz and watched as this C&C sailboat blasted westward with full canvas flying. Must be a heavy displacement vessel since she was handling the strong winds with full canvas quite nicely, and looking good!
Ahead of us, TILLIGO was also blasting westward with full main and reefed jib and also handling the winds quite well.
This small blue-hulled sailboat blasted past us heading toward the Bay Bridge and looing good!
Quite a ways ahead of us, a strange looking sailboat was motoring northward.
Winds were lighter north of Alcatraz, so we headed up and began beating westward, finding some windholes along the way, but this lovely boat had plenty of wind as she passed astern of us.
This dark-hulled sailboat was enjoying the lighter wind conditions as she sailed northward toward Pt. Blount.
Two wind systems were blowing on the bay, one westerly and the other southwesterly. We were sailing to the northwest on the westerly when this small sailboat passed us in moderate winds with the two person crew enjoying the sunshine.
We pulled the jib out to full for more power in the lighter winds and soon spotted a fleet of race boats headed for a leeward mark just west of Alcatraz, and here one of the racers is approaching the leeward mark.
Some of the racers were flying spinnakers and some not. Here TIBURON is flying her kite as she blasts downwind.
On the other hand, Ariadne was racing with main and jib only.
Here a couple of racers were flying their symmetrical kites
Here two racers were flying kites, but one was a symmetrical and the other asymmetrical, while another racer was using main and jib only.
One of the racers went shrimping with her kite as she approached the leeward mark-- not what the owner wants to have happen, for sure.
This Cal race boat was looking good with her patriotic kite flying.
The crew of this Cal 40 looked very focused as she blasted upwind toward the windward mark.
Closer to the shore of the headlands, part of the racing fleet was beating toward the windward mark as we beat toward the gate.
A catamaran crossed in front of us, sailing southward across the bay on the sparkling bay waters.
We arrived in stronger breezes as the afternoon wore on, so we fell off to DDW and reefed the jib again so we would avoid being overpowered as we approached the gate. After we again resumed beating toward the gate, this lovely race boat passed to port, gybing back and forth downwind, probably practicing their racing skills.
This boat, passing astern of us, seemed to have a husband and wife crew with the wife at the helm.
As we sailed toward Horseshoe Cove, our old pal, ADVENTURE CAT 2 crossed in front of us, heading for the gate.
Alex was at the helm as we approached the gate near midspan of the bridge in building ocean swells and stronger southwesterly winds...
.. and he was smiling as we sailed out the gate, but soon encountered radically and rapidly building seas that forced me to grab the helm quickly and come abour to head back inside on port tack broad reach. The swells outside the south tower of the GGB were 8+ feet high and sharp with wind waves on top-- not to be messed with on a close reach course even in a boat of our size.
As we headed back inside, we enjoyed watching windsurfers playing around near and outside the gate, like this sailboarder here.
This one went down....
.... but soon got underway again, looking good.
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As we sailed northward, this lovely traditional wooden yacht passed to starboard, heaindg for the gate and bouncing through the ocean swells inside the gate as we had done earlier.
Here is a video clip of her sailing past and looking good!
We arrived in some lighter beeze near the mouth of Horseshoe Cove, so gybed and headed for home port, pulling the jib out to full for more downwind power.
As we sailed eastward, this sailboarder was struggling to get up after falling...
.... and fell again.
Here, twin sailboard rigs wee heading for the shore on starboard tack-- the sails seemed to be quite large for the rather blustery conditions.
The winds strengthened as we passed Fort Mason and Aquatic Park and a couple of Folkboats like this one were beating upwind in the strong breezes, but lookign good as they did so.
A Coast Guard fast boat came blasting past with her lights flashing, usually signalling that she is on an emergency call so perhaps there was a boat or a windsurfer in trouble somewhere west of us.
The city was enjoying slightly hazy sunshine as we approached home port, having pulled in the jib so we could sail direct downwind and avoid gybing back and forth to get home.
Flags on the end of pier 39 were pegged out as we sailed past so the breeze was at least 20 knots, perhaps more.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse the main and then motored around the pier to the west side where the GLOBAL SENTINAL is tied up.
She is an undersea cable laying ship and has put down thousands of miles of fiber optic cables all over the oceans of the earth and part of her cable laying equipment is mounted on her aft deck.
Buoys of different sizes are carred on her foredeck.
We motored past that ship and into the marina and landed fine in the moderate ebb current flowing through the marina. It was a fun outing and I was happy to have some crew with me instead of being out there solo as I had anticipated earlier in the day. Being out there with enthusiastic sailors adds to my own enjoyment.
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