On a second tack, we were sailing past the end of pier 39 where flags were blown by a breeze of about 10 knots.
As we tacked away from the lee of pier 45, the city behind us was enjoying hazy sunshine.
A couple more tacks and we were heading toward Fort Mason piers, the wind had kicked up and I reefed the main and the jib before continuing to beat toward the gate. The heavy winds had capsized this small sailboat to the west of us.
Earlier, while we were reefing the sails, this sailboat passed us going downwind, and now was heading back upwind and astern of us.
As we tacked to the west again to sail past the capsized sailboat, the crew and a safety boat managed to right the boat and, even with no control lines working, the boat was sailing away from the crewmember that was still in the water and that crewmember was trying hard to swim to the bay, but couldn't.
The boat was sailing away....
....and the safety boat had to rescue the other crewmember.
Meanwhile, that blue-hulled sailboat was pursuiing us and heading for us on the same tack as we, while that little sailboat was being escorted back into the San Francisco marina.
Soon that sailboat was catching up with us...
..passing us with full canvas flying...
....and KIM was looking good as she sailed away from us.
We continued sailing westward toward Horseshoe Cove, but noticed a tug and barge approaching the gate, so I called CG traffic on ch 14 and asked its intended course, and tacked away to the south to stay out of the way as she entered the bay.
We sailed to near the shore of the city just west of the pier extending into the bay, and then tacked to head out the gate, passing this small boat sitting just inside the south tower.
We sailed out near midspan and into some ocean swells and lighter winds.
The bridge and the cliffs of the Marin Headlands were looking spectacular as always, especially in the brilliant early afternoon sunshine.
We just sailed out a short ways, then came about and headed back inside, pulling out the jib to full for downwind power. After we returned to the bay, we watched as this tourist helicopter ducked under the bridge to give passengers a thrill.
Way off to the north of us, that large power yacht, ATESSA, was still at anchor off Sausalito.
As we sailed eastward, this smaller sailboat was crossing the bay from the shore of the city....
.... and later we spotted this larger sailboat crossing the bay from the north, flying main only.
Further off in the north, ADVENTURE CAT was headed toward the gate on one of her sailing outings. Her main was reefed and more wrinkled at the luff than usual.
As we sailed past Aquatic Park, a Coast Guard patrol boat was blasting westward at high speed.
The city was still hazed out as we continued eastward, planning to head for the Bay Bridge.
Pier 39 flags were fluttering in a breeze of about 10 knots-- far less wind than we experienced further west on our return from the gate.
The J105 race boat named FRISKY passed us as we sailed toward the Bay Bridge.
That three masted tall ship was still tied up at pier 27 and looking very festive.
It was 1:35 pm as we sailed past the Ferry Building.
We continued on to the east, gybing back and forth to sail through the D-E span of the bridge, now heading for the mouth of the Oakland Estuary, hoping to rendezvous with Michael on his Santa Cruz 27 after he managed to tack out of the estuary. Coast Guard fastboats like this one were blasting around back and forth.
We sailed around south of the Bay Bridge waiting for Michael and this sailboat approached, heading east....
...with a happy crew enjoying the sunshine and light winds.
At one point we were sailing toward the east span of the Bay Bridge and passed this J-24 sailboat ghosting along in the same direction ...
...with four teenagers sunning themselves on the deck and obviously enjoying the warm sunshine.
Later this race boat was spotted, also heading north
We sailed around near the mouth of the estuary where this freighter was either being loaded or unloaded.
Michael was getting close to the mouth of the estuary, and this small sailboat named SECOND WIND was motorsailing into the estuary.
We eventually gave up on the rendezvous as freighter traffic in the estuary forced Michael to head back toward his home port. We had to motor into the breeze as a big wind hole was present at the mouth of the estuary. We began beating our way back toward the Bay Bridge in winds from different directions and differnet velocities.
The lighthouse on Yerba Buena was enjoying hazy sunshine as we finally approached the D-E span of the bridge again.
The Bay Bridge was enjoying the late afternoon sunshine as we sailed westward on a breeze out of the WNW.
This Catalina sailboat was heading east as we continued westward.
We eventually got into an area of the bay where winds were totally erratic, so i gave up on sailing and turned on the engine to motor the rest of the way home.
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