THURSDAY, 18 JUNE 09 -- 30-40 KNOT WINDS ON THE BAY FORCED A RETREAT FROM BEATING TO THE GATE-- SO JUST A 1 BRIDGE KISS

Marcellin, the young french guy, joined us again and brought with him one of his fellow GMAT students, Gianmarco, who hails from Lima, Peru. We headed out about 2:15, raised single-reefed main just outside the marina, and pulled out reefed jib as we headed out into the bay. We beat toward the gate for a while, but eventually fell off to DDW to reef the jib down to a postage stamp and then sailed off the SSW wind toward Sausalito. We took several blasts of spray into the cockpit, giving all of us good cold shower of seawater.



As we sailed past Alcatraz, we spotted the GASLIGHT sailing northward toward the lee of Angel Island. We haven't seen her out on the bay much this year so far-- in fact, I can't remember seeing her at all for the past many months. As you can see, the bay wates are stirred up and whitecapped.




This smaller sailboat was heading out toward the main part of the bay, and quickly beat a retreat when she hit the stronger winds there-- blowing at least 25-30 knots at that time.




Behind us, a Catalina flying full canvas, was sailing down the shore of Angel Island and you can see that her main is luffing up quite a bit.




Ahead of us, this small sailboat was headed for the shore of Sausalito.




That retreating sailboat was still retreating back toward Sausalito...




....with her crew enjoying the sunshine and sparkling bay waters.




That sailboat that was heading toward the shore, eventually tacked and headed southward toward the gate.




Now, we spotted several sailboat heading out of Richardson Bay, like this Hanse sailboat with main only flying.




Her crew was enjoying the sunshine and she was not too heeled over, at least not here.




Fansea, a nice Catalina, was sailing a bit off the wind and blasting along with quite a bit of canvas out.




This Valiant yacht coming out of Richardson Bay was probably flying too much canvas for the state of the winds that she was encountering, or soon would.




This Islander 36 was also coming out of Richardson Bay and flying full main only. That may have been too much canvas also, unless she was planning to sail off the wind quite a bit.




We beat toward the shore of the Marin Headlands and then headed down the shore, with the GGB as our goal, but as we started to sail across the gate, the wind velocity increased further-- 40+ knots it seemed, so we gave up on shooting the gate and eased out the main and headed downwind to the east.




We blasted downwind and within about 20 minutes we were approaching the Ferry Building where the clock on the tower showed a time of 4:10 pm.




As we sailed toward the A-B span of the Bay Bridge in light to moderate winds in the lee of the city, CATNIP, another Catalina, was heading west along the shore of Yerba Buena, flying a lot of canvas.




We sailed under the A-B span of the Bay Bridge as she basked in the mid-afternoon sunshine and continued on to the southeast, eventually encountering much stronger winds.




PRIVATEER, the charter ketch out of pier 39, was heading in the opposite direction ...




...with quite a load of passengers aboard. She usually takes a route across the central bay, but obviously didn't for this outing-- perhaps scared southward by the strong winds.




We continued southward until we were opposite the ballpark and South Beach marina and then came about and headed back northward.




As we sailed back under the A-B span, CATNIP was retreating to quieter waters in the other direction.




Ahead of us, the Rocket Boat paused along the shore in front of the Ferry Building for a short time and then blasted away to the east.




Quite a few fishermen were dangling their lures in the water off the pedestrian pier that is south of the Ferry Building.




A Coast Guard cutter was heading back east toward home port-- perhaps the same one that we earlier saw heading for the gate.




She seemed to have quite a few passengers aboard, and all seemed to be wearing hardhats. So, it seemed likely that this was a pleasure cruise for some dignitaries or VIPs.




As we continued northward, in much stronger breezes now in the lee of the city than when we were going the other way earlier, a small flock of pelicans flew past, swooping low over the water. I adore these birds and their graceful flight!




As we sailed past pier 31, PRIVATEER was dousing sails there.




A bit later, Mach Schnell [German for Go Fast] was sailing downwind-- and going fast in the strong winds-- looking good!




Her crew was enjoying the warm sunshine.




We eventually tacked into the lee of pier 35 to douse sail and ready for landing, and then motored around the pier, spotting Chris on Lola, heading out on a charter sail.

We motored into the marina, and landed fine by correctly playing the now quite strong flood current flowing through the marina. It was quite an exciting outing, lasting about 4 hours.