Jaime was enjoying being at the helm as we blasted along in a good breeze and the city receded behind us.
Way behind us, the ALMA was sailing a bit off the shore of the city.
In front of us, this Cal 25 was heading south with double-reefed main and full jib....
...her crew enjoying the hazy sun and chilly conditions.
We sailed down the lee shore of Treasure Island, and passed under the bridge span, checking out the progress on assembling the suspension span bridge decks. The south deck has had a few sections added since last we passed this way, as has the north deck, with one section placed directly on one of the temporary support towers.
After passing the bridge, we began beating against the wind toward the Bay Bridge, passing my favorite lighthouse as she basked in hazy sunshine.
On the shore of the island, just west of the lighhouse, a huge colony of sea lions were laying around on the rocky beach-- at least they seemed much too large to be the harbor seals that we usually spot at that location. Would be in interesting development if the local sea lions decided they liked that location better than the floats at Pier 39.
We eventually beat our way past this vessel that was yanking on something on the floor of the bay. I turned on the VHF to see if CG traffic would announce something about what this ship was doing, and they did, but I couldn't quite understand the reference to what they were tugging on-- sounded like some kind of anchor or something, but not sure.
As we approached the D-E span of the bridge, we could enjoy the hazy view of the city in the background.
This nice Catalina was approaching the bridge from the north side.
This small sailboat was heading east along the shore of Yerba Buena...
...her crew enjoying the nice sunshine and light breeze at this spot.
I had shortened the jib before sailing under the D-E span, figuring that we'd encounter much stronger breezes on the central bay,and indeed we did and I was happy to have just a small handkerchief jib out there as we blasted westward, past Alcatraz, and heading toward Sausalito.
Eventually, this ketch named NIANTIC passed on front of us, sailing downwind and looking good. Her crew seemed to be inside the cabin.
I shortened the jib down to a postage stamp size for the rest of our trip to the gate, and we began beating our way toward the gate as ADVENTURE CAT 2 passed to starboard, heading for the same target.
French Kiss had been behind us the whole way across the bay, and with full canvas flying, she was overpowered and getting pulled to weather a lot of times with jib flapping helplessly in the process. Though she had more canvas flying, we were still going faster than she was-- her excess canvas just made her hard to control with no increase in speed.
Her crew looked experienced, but didn't have the right sail plan for the outing, in my opinion.
The fog had retreated from the bay, but the bank of fog was hanging over the hills of Sausalito, though not yet spilling down the hillside.
ADVENTURE CAT 2 was way ahead of us as she headed for the gate.
As we beat toward the gate, this sailboarder passed us.
We tacked eventually into Horseshoe Cove and then tacked a few more times to finally beat out the gate with Jaime at the helm, and now well-bundled-up against the evening chill.
Seas outside the gate were a bit rough, so we soon came about and headed back inside, enjoying our view of the Marin Headlands and the GGB as we were returning. The fog horns on the bridge were blaring the whole time, but there was no fog at the gate at all, and none closing in. That did add an additional touch of ambiance to shooting the gate for Jaime.
The saiboarders were blasting past us as we returned to the bay, like this one...
.... and this one.
This kiteboarder was heading downwind....
.... while this one was heading upwind. We later spotted a whole flock of kiteboarders heading downwind, rounding a leeward mark and then heading back upwind again. They seemed to be racing, so perhaps a kiteboard championship is being held here on the bay again.
We were sailing main only eventually with plenty of wind to blast toward home port as the city enjoying sunny conditions that were a bit more clear than earlier-- less haze, that is.
PRIVATEER was heading out for an outing and raising her main in quite strong winds in front of pier 39.
The flags were fluttering in a breeze of 20+ knots.
As we sailed past the pier and marina, I was happy to see the cruise ship tied up on the east side of Pier 35 departing so we had that lee spot for dousing the main sail. For the first time in ages, there was a security presence around the cruise ship-- a SF Police patrol boat and a CG patrol boat. The cruise ship was of the smaller variety and seemed to lack bow and stern thrusters. As a result her stern wsa pulled westard by the current as she backed out slowy, and she eneded up having to steam around to port and turn around to head for the gate.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35, doused the main and tied her up and then headed around the pier and into the mainra, landing fine in the light ebb current flowing through the mainra at that time. We were out there for 4.5 hours of fun sailing-- more of the great life on yours truly on 'permanent vacation'!
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