SATURDAY, 2 MAY 09 -- RAIN FOR THE VALLEJO RACE START, GROUNDING OFF BELVEDERE, TO THE GGB AND DINGY RACING ON RETURN

Friday it rained almost all day, and Saturday morning began with drizzly conditions, but we wanted to try to get some photos of the start of the Vallejo race, so we headed out around 10:30 am, raised full main just outside the marina against the south wind, pulled out a full jib and headed north on broad reach starboard tack.



As we sailed to the east of Alcatraz, this Hunter sailboat was heading west.




A small Cal sailboat was sailing past the east marina of pier 39.





We eventually arrived near the start line of the Vallejo race with the drizzly conditions continuing, and took a few photos of the large boats heading north with kites flying.




A catamaran passed flying her kite.





A very large race boat with a big crew complement passed well to the east of us.





Boat neighbor Stan on ZSA ZSA passed to starboard flying her symmetrical kite flying and in the background, other boats were tacking around, waiting for their start.




Here a couple of race boats of different sizes are heading north after their start.





I kept asking Mother Nature to stop the rain for a while and give us dry conditions for photo shooting, but instead she gave us heavier rain and darker conditions, so I gave up and headed for Raccoon Straits. As we approached the east mouth of the straits, I spotted a lone sailboat anchored in the cove on the northeast side of the island.




The mist was flowing over the hills on Angel Island...






... and a lone sailboat was tied up in the small marina in Ayala Cove.




As we continued up the straits, this sailboat was motoring toward Ayala Cove, or so it seemed likely.




Behind us, this sailboat named DREAM CATCHER was sailing across the east mouth of the straits toward the shore of Angel Island.




Her skipper seemed to be singlehanding as no other people seemed to be in the cockpit.




We sailed into the lee of Belvedere and reefed the jib which we had earlier pulled out to full for downwind power and then tried to tack out toward the southeast, but YIKES, we weren't moving even when we got a quite strong puff of wind. So I finally figured out after many tries to get moving, that we had run aground. So I turned on the engine and just managed to crawl off the mud and begin sailing toward the central bay with the Golden Gate Bridge locked in mist in the distance.




This lovely traditional schooner had motored past us as we sailed toward Raccoon Straits with the rain falling, but now the rain had stopped so we caught this shot of her as she motored toward the straits from the south.




As we sailed toward the central bay with the ebb current pulling us toward the gate, this sailboat well behind us was sailing along the shore of Angel Island, sailing more off the wind.




I watched as this large tanker steamed toward us from the gate, and pulled the jib out to full for more power to make sure we crossed well in front of that ship and we were well out of her way as she approached.




With the breeze out of the south, we soon tacked toward the west as our old pal ADVENTURE CAT was heading toward home port from the gate.





With the wind shifting more into the southwest, we ended up sailing into Horseshoe Cove where we have one of our favorite views of our fantastic bridge.






We tacked to sail parallel to the gate and sailed through the ocean swells propagating inside the gate and into stronger winds that forced us to fall off to dead downwind and reef the jib again before coming about and heading out the gate between midspan and the north tower.




We just ducked out the gate a short ways and then came about and headed back inside, sailing toward home port on starboard tack and eventually encountering the fleet of Lasers beating toward the cityfront on the southwest breeze.




We were careful to stay well out of the way of the racers, but the ALMA sailed right through the course.




As the Lasers were beating toward their windward mark, some of the other dingy fleet boats were heading toward their leeward mark with spinnakers flying.





A bit later, we were in the middle of the 29ers beating upwind like this mixed gender team here...




...that tacked after they passed us.




One of the 29ers passed us close to our starboard side, while others were closer to the shore of the city.




Here there was a mix of a Laser, a 29er and a 505 in the same area of the bay.





This 505 was looking good as she headed for the shore on starboard tack....





... as did this 505 passing us on port tack.




We eventually left the racers behind and sailed past this pelican resting on the water of the bay and looking beautiful!




The city was overcast as we sailed between pier 45 and pier 39.




The flags on the end of pier 39 were in the lee of the pier with the wind out of the south so just barely fluttering.


I fell off to dead downwind to roll in the jib all the way and then headed toward the end of pier 35 to douse the main in the lee area there. It was flooding now so we had to motor against the flood while tying up the main, and then motored into port and landed fine by playing the flood current appropriately-- going in high and letting ANTICIPATION drift down into the slip with the current. I was happy that the weather turned dry for most of our sail and that we managed to catch a bit of the race action on the bay.