This Hunter sailboat motorsailed eastward and crossed in front of us as we were ghosting northward and being pulled westward by the waning ebb current.
This Catalina named Felicity II was attempting to sail westward but her sails were flogging.
Flags on the end of pier 39 were essentially limp, and the flat seas were, unfortunately, an invitation to motorized race boats to go blasting around the bay and polluting it with their noise.
Further north of us, the lovely schooner Seaward was motorsailing toward the southwest.
The SF fireboat was steaming west on the flat seas.
This small sailboat passed to port, motorsailing toward the city.
A light breeze finally started to blow, so we began sailing toward the city on starboard tack, passing this Catalina named Sallne.
This impatient catboat named WREN was motorsailing eastward and crossed in front of us.
The city was drenched in sunshine.
We tacked to the west again to get closer to a couple of sailboats that were flying spinnakers downwind, like this one....
... and this one. Perhaps they were informally racing each other.
The crew of the lead boat was enjoying the warm sunshine.
This catboat named BLUEBERRY was ghosting eastward on the west wind.
Dog Days was also sailing east behind her colorful kite.
This large sailboat was ghosting downwind relying almost completely on her jib with her main trimmed to the centerline of the boat.
We were beating toward the gate in a consistent breeze of 3-5 knots, and at one point we were sailing westward and this small sailboat that had been becalmed in a wind hole was motorsailing back into the wind where we were sailing.
Her crew of two couples were much enjoying the sunshine and unusually warm temperatures on the bay. We were soon well ahead of her as she trailed behind us.
Off to the east of us, this lovely J120 named VALKYRIE was sailing across the bay, sailing off the wind a bit. I wonder if she will be an addition to the J120 one design racing fleet. Her sails are definitely racing sails.
A bit later, this Coast Guard fast boat blasted past us, heading east.
We were heading west and keeping an eye on this lovely sailboat heading our way on starboard tack and having right of way...
... but we easily passed in front of her and her two-person crew.
Ahead of us, this Islander named ALBERTA L was also heading west toward the gate.
A lovely Express race boat named FREQUENT FLYER passed to port.
This older Ericson sailboat passed astern of us.
We would have liked to sail out the gate, but we could see that there was no wind out there, so we headed back toward home port. This Jeanneau sailboat was still trying to head toward the gate.
A couple of noisy military helicopters like this one flew low over the bay, also creating noise pollution.
We spotted this lone sailboarder near the shore and wondered why he was out there, but as he got closer, we could see that he was creating his own wind by repeatedly pumping the sail.
Here's a brief video of him doing this sail pumping.
Closer to shore, a man was swimming while resting on a surfboard.
We were now viertually becamlmed, making at most a half knot of headway, but behind us, this small sailboat flying a kite was making some decent headway for a while.
We waited patiently for a new breeze to come up, but after mostly drifting for a half hour or so, we were about to begin motoring, when a light breeze freshened out of the west and we began making decent headway toward home port, gybing back and forth downwind with some waxing flood current assist.
As we approached home port, I spotted boat neighbor Tim on Chewink further out on the bay and trying to sail toward the southwest against the flood current.
The city was still enjoying brilliant sunshine as we sailed past the end of pier 39 where the flags were fluttering moderately in a breeze of 3 or 4 knots at most.
We doused sails after passing the marina and then motored into the marina, landing very nicely in the quite strong flood current flowing through the marina.
It was nice to be out on the bay for a few hours in such warm weather, but the sailing left a bit to be desired. It would have been nicer to have at least 10 knots of breeze, and we will probably have much more than that most of the rest of the spring and summer.
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