An Ericson 34-2, named GREAT ESCAPE, crossed in front of us, sailing downwind with full canvas flying....
...her crew enjoying the sunshine and cool sea breeze.
We began beating westward, making slow progress against the flood current, but finally sailing past the end of pier 39 where flags were blowing in a breeze of about 10 knots, though the breeze out on the bay was very unsteady, sometimes blowing 15+ and sometimes less than 5. Some breeze velocity variation is not uncommon, but the breeze was much more unsteady than usual.
I kept putting out more jib to gain some speed to help with our upwind beats, as this large container ship steamed slowly down the bay toward the Bay Bridge. She seemed full of containers, but still had a lot of bottom showing.
On one of our beats away from the shore, our old pal ADVENTURE CAT passed us, heading home with no passengers on deck, but probably a few inside the cabin.
The city was enjoying hazy sunshine after the morning fog had cleared out over at least the eastern part of the city.
A short time later, ADVENTURE CAT 2 passed us and she had quite a few people on deck-- perhaps a hardier lot.
On one of our beats back toward the shore of the city, we passed in front of this san dreedge and tug that were now steaming eastward toward home port for them.
Another container ship with a huge amount of bottom showing eventually passed us as she steamed eastward at low speed-- happily so for us, since that prevented her creating a huge wake. As you can see, she had no containers on her aft deck-- can't remember seeing a ship come in like that before-- hope she didn't lose a bunch of containers overboard during a storm.
Way to the west of us, a small catamaran was blasting across the bay toward the city.
We were on a westward beat when this smaller sailboat crossed in front of us...
...followed closely by this sailboat flying jib only. She soon came about and headed back north again.
the crew of that first sailboat was seated in a small cockpit.and a quite odd name was painted on the transom: Saw Alineeah.
the crew of that first sailboat was seated in a small cockpit.and a quite odd name was painted on the transom: Saw Alineeah.
Way off in the mists of the north, a gaff-rigged sailboat was heading for Sausalito.
A Coast Guard patrol boat steamed past us, heaidng toward Sausalito.
I eventually pulled out quite a bit more jib because we were making almost no progress against the flood current and the wind had not freshened like it usually does in the late afternoon. Then we finally started making some real headway in out beats to the west, and this J105 passed astern of us on one of our beats.
While we were sailing under a marine layer, parts of Angel Island were enjoying hazy sunshine.
We were beating toward Yellow Bluff when this cutter rigged sailboat named Tehani passed astern of us.
We eventually beat our way into Horseshoe Cove just inside the GGB...
.... and finally, after a few more tacks, managed to sail out the gate between midspan and the north tower of the bridge. The bridge and the headlands were grayed out by the high marine layer.
We just ducked out a short ways and then headed back inside, sailing northward first and then gybing to the east to sail toward home port. Russian Hill and areas west were under the marine layer, while Telegraph Hill and the financial district buildings were enjoying sunshine-- two different worlds.
I pulled the jib out to full for more downwind power, and most of the time we were still seeing winds less than 20 knots, easy for this J133 to handle with full canvas, though she was sailing off the wind somewhat.
As we passed pier 45, the financial district and Telegraph Hill were still enjoying sunshine, though it was a bit on the hazy side.
As we started to pass Pier 39, we spotted ADVENTURE CAT raising her main sail....
... and then heading out toward Alcatraz on her sunset cruise with a few hardy souls on deck.
Flags on the end of pier 39 were still fluttering moderately as we sailed past.
We continued on, planning to head for the Bay Bridge to complete a two bridge kiss, and saw that PRIVATEER was also heading for the Bay Bridge with a few passengers aboard.
The financial district buildings were still basking in sunshine, but some blobs of fog were scudding eastward.
A small sailboat was heading northward and passed us well off our port side.
The California Hornblower was steaming westward on her dinner cruise.
The Ferry Building clock read 7:20 pm as we approached, now being intermittently hit by wind gusts that seemed to be in the 20-25 knot range.
With quite strong winds and some big gusts, we were making great headway toward the Bay Bridge and closed the gap between us and the PRIVATEER ahead of us and the small Islander ahead of her.
We saw quite a few pelicans, and caught this one as it was preparing to dive, but then changed its mind and flew on.
We sailed under the A-B span of the Bay Bridge, then fell off to dead downwind to reef the jib down to a small postage stamp for our return trip, and then headed back north again. We left behind the Bay Bridge still gleaming in the evening sunshine.
Financial district towers were now beginning to lose the sunshine they enjoyed earlier as the fog bank moved eastward.
Eventually, the sun fell into the fog bank invading the bay.
As we entered the central bay, now blowing with stronger winds than before, we spotted Chris on his Laser, sailing with Tommy, another boat neighbor at pier 39.
They were looking good as they sailed southward toward the Bay Bridge.
Telegraph Hill was now blanketed by the fog bank and only the tops of the Pyramid and the Bank of America tower were still in sunshine.
The fog was gradually blotting out the sun from hitting all of the financial district buildings.
We sailed westward until we were in position to tack into the lee of pier 35, then did so and doused sails there before motoring around and into the marina. Chris and Tommy were now heading toward Alcatraz. I saw Chris later and he said they were having a great time until they flipped the Laser around 8:20 pm and almost lost the centerboard.
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