As we headed southeast toward the bridge, this nice sailboat was heading west from the D-E span of the bridge.
We experienced variable winds as we sailed down the cityfront, and this Ranger sailboat passed to starboard while we were in soft winds....
.... and then she encountered a gust of wind and pulled to weather, heeling over to put her rail in the water. Her full canvas may have been too much for the central bay when she arrived there.
As we continued toward the A-B span of the bridge, Osprey was heading north after passing under the A-B span.
She was followed by In Lieu Of, also heading north with full canvas flying.
We sailed under the A-B span of the bridge, fell off to dead downwind to reef the jib and then sailed toward the shore for a while before tacking to head north again and sail back under the A-B span as Orion sailed toward the bridge.
The Bay Bridge was gleaming in the mid-afternoon sun.
As we sailed northward, a sequence of Catalina sailboats were heading southward along the cityfront, like this one...
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... and this one, named 'barca a vela' ....
... and this one with a cutter rig.
Off in the east a tug was standing by in front of the D-E span of the bridge, as a sailboat sailed along the shore of Yerba Buena.
As expected, the tug was waiting for this inbound container ship that was steaming toward the D-E span along with the sailboat IL VENTO.
As we entered the central bay, another Catalina passed well to the west of us, closer to the shore of the city. Her name was Main Obsession.
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We began beating westward along the shore of the city, eventually passing the end of pier 39 where the flags were fluttering moderately in a breeze of 10-15 knots.
I was delighted that the winds were softer than they have been lately, but we were sailing off the wind a bit to avoid crashing through the wind waves churned up by the wind and ebb current. Meanwhile, a sailboat named TRUE COLORS was sailing downwind to the east...
... as was the cutter-rigged sailboat named BIG BIRD.
We eventually sailed a single port tack across the bay, passing to the west of Harding Rock as this lovely large ketch started crossing the bay behind us.
In lighter winds in the lee of the headlands, we hardened in the sails and sailed closer to the wind while enjoying views of our beautiful Golden Gate Bridge.
We soon tacked to sail across the bay, and watched as this Moore 24 sailboat sailed back inside the bay.
A gaff-rigged schooner, that I thought was the GASLIGHT, was sailing on a parallel course but closer to the shore.
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As we sailed parallel to the gate, this kiteboarder eventually blasted past us in the stronger winds that we eventually encountered.
With stronger winds, the schooner eventually caught up with us. She was sailing more off the wind than we and forced us to bear away a bit as well.
Her passengers included some young kids who were intermittently screaming with delight.
Here is a brief video clip of the schooner sailing parallel to us.
Another kiteboarder came blasting past us as we were in the middle of the bay in strong winds.
He was sailing mostly downwind with his kite low over the water in front of him.
After the schooner passed us, we headed up and sailed closer to the wind, eventually passing just east of the Blackaller buoy and then we tacked toward the gate, as did the schooner. From this photo, I could see the boat name on the side of the bow: KAIULANI. Notice she has a small red ball hanging from her bowsprit. Anyone know why?
The SF Police fastboat steamed past us as we sailed toward the gate.
We watched this kiteboarder outside the gate do some aerials from time to time.
We were approaching the gate about midspan as another sailboat was approaching from the north.
We sailed out the gate and then tacked to the south, the crew all smiles as we sailed out on the ocean-- that's Anna, Danny and Esther from left to right.
A kiteboarder blasted past us, sailing parallel to the gate.
We came about and headed back inside the bay, watching as this small Cal sailboat was tacking toward the shore of the headlands.
As we sailed back inside about midspan, that schooner was finally shooting the gate between midspan and the north tower.
She was looking good as she sailed out the gate.
As we sailed northward, these two sailboats were heading toward the gate side by side.
We eventually encountered this kiteboarder who was planing on his board-- something I've never seen before.
We eventually gybed toward home port and I pulled out the jib to full for more downwind power. Soon we were approaching home port with the city still enjoying brilliant sunshine.
I pulled in the jib early so I could sail more downwind to let a freighter pass to starboard before heading up toward the shore, passing the end of pier 39 where the flags were still fluttering moderately.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 and doused the main, then motored around the pier and into the marina, landing fine with flood current then flowing through the marina. The outing was exhilarating-- 4 great hours on the bay with some fun new crewmates.
Later that evening, the fog rolled in, but stayed high enough to allow the fireworks display to be seen. Here's a video clip of the finale of the display.
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