One tack out to the west and a second back toward the shore took us past the end of pier 39 where the flags were fluttering in a breeze of 10-15 knots.
We continued beating westward, tacking away from the wake of this inbound container ship, one of several that were inbound, one after the other.
As we continued beating westward, it looked as if a finger of fog was forming and extending through the gate, but the fog didn't actually form.
This inbound contianer ship was going very slow and not creating much of a wake.
The wind intensified dramatically, and we had to come about and fall off to dead downwind to reef the jib down to a postage stamp size before coming about and heading west again. We ended up in Horseshoe Cove, but the 30+ knots of wind were blasting us with spray on the way there and one almost completely soaked me in the cockpit. I decided not to risk shooting the gate, but, instead, I came about and headed back east toward home port.
The flags on the end of pier 39 were still blowing in a breeze of about 10-15 knots-- much less than the winds in the western half of the bay.
PRIVATEER was heading for the A-B span of the Bay Bridge after crossing the bay.
WIND SONG had also crossed the bay and was now heading for the A-B span of the Bay Bridge.
Financial District towers were enjoying the brilliant early evening sunshine as we continued toward the A-B span.
A three masted tall ship was tied up at pier 27. The name on her stern suggests to me that she is from eastern Europe.
She is a beauty and I'd love to see her under sail.
As we continued toward the Bay Bridge, we started to catch up with WIND SONG with the beautiful financial district buildings in the background.
A large tanker was outbound after passing under the D-E span of the Bay Bridge.
It was about 6:30 pm on the Ferry Building clock as we continued on toward the Bay Bridge.
We were just about caught up with WIND SONG after taking advantage of some slightly stronger breezes in the lee of the city.
Her crew was enjoying the soft wind and warm sunshine in the lee of the city.
PRIVATEER was dousing sails south of the Bay Bridge and a bit later was motorsailing back toward her home port.
We lost the breeze as we approached within about 20 yards of the bridge and then we were dragged backwards by the waxing ebb current as the Bay Bridge basked in the early evening sunshine.
We finally found some breeze again and sailed back toward home port, noticing that there was a large event tent over on Treasure Island.
The Pyramid building was also enjoying the early evening sunshine as we beat our way toward the lee of pier 35 where we doused sail and then motored into the marina.and landed fine in the moderate ebb current flowing through the marina.
The tall ship at Pier 27 is Cuauhtémoc from Mexico. It got into town over the weekend. It's open for tours from 10am to 10pm until the 17th.
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