JOYOUS crossed in front of us, heading into the marina.
As we sailed toward the southeast, this Coast Guard fastboat blasted past us, heading east.
Off to port, this lovely wooden Folkboat was heading eastward, doing wing on wing direct downwind....
...with a solo skipper aboard.
As we sailed toward the A-B span of the Bay Bridge, CLOUD NINE, an Ericson 35+3, approached ....
...with a smiley lone skipper aboard.
She was looking good as she passed astern of us...
... and headed away toward the shore of the city. We have been seeing Ericson sailboats a lot more frequently these past couple of weeks.
We sailed under the A-B span of the bridge and saw this Coast Guard patrol boat steaming around on the bay, heading for the bridge but then turning away. While reviewing the photo, I noticed that a broadcast type video camera operator was on the aft deck, perhpas doing a news report or documentary film.
I reefed the jib down to a small hankie size and then came about and headed back north, eventually watching the nuisance boat blast across the water in front of us.
We soon left behind the Bay Bridge, gleaming in the midafternoon sun.
A lovely Beneteau was heading in the opposite direction closer to the shore of the city.
As we headed into the central bay, the wind picked up and soon we decided to fall off to head for the lee side of Angel Island, rather than trying to beat westward, and this lovely sailboat passed to port, heading southeastward.
Her two person crew was enjoying the brilliant sunshine.
We blasted across the bay in winds of around 25 knots, taking spray over the bow and one big splash of water into the cockpit that pretty much soaked me from the waist down. Winds softened a bit in the northern part of the lee of Angel Island, so we headed up toward Raccoon Straits and sailed past the east mouth of the straits in a freshening westerly breeze. I was remembering what conditions were like 10 years ago when we would often have to turn on the engine in the lee of Angel Island to motor into the straits. Not these days as long as you are a modest distance from the east shore of the island.
We tacked into the straits in a breeze of 15-20 knots westerly and headed straight down the straits for about 1/3 of the way, checking out the boats tied up in Ayala Cove.
Gradually the breeze shifted into the southwest and softened, requiring us to begin beating back and forth upwind as this small Beneteau found enough breeze to sail past the west mouth of the straits.
Diana pointed out this slide area just northeast of Pt. Stuart, a feature that I can't recall noticing before, so perhaps it is newly formed.
We initially sailed out of the straits and could see the city in the haze past Pt. Stuart, but then the wind died away more and we were pushed back by the now flooding current.
I eventually pulled the jib out to full for more power and, with a few more tacks we were back out of the straits again and heading southeast down the weather shore of Angel Island, watching as this lovely sailboat ghosted toward the straits...
....her solo skipper enjoying the light breeze and the late afternoon sunshine.
We ghosted down the shore of the island, past the pre-civil way brick building on shore that was perfectly illuminated by the late afternoon sunshine.
Anticipating strong winds in the central bay, I reefed the jib down to a small hankie size again and, sure enough, we were soon blasted by strong winds in the 20-30 knot range, and from a SSW direction that forced us to sail close hauled in order to maintain a course that would, despite the wasing flood current pushing us eastward, take us safely past the weather side of Alcatraz and away from the buoy guarding the rocks there. We managed to achieve that with some room to spare and then eased out the sails and fell off toward home port.
Wind on the south half of the bay were the strongest, and flags on the end of pier 39 were being blasted by 25+ knots of breeze.
As we approached the marina, we watched as a small sailboat headed out and then gybed toward the Bay Bridge. I guess that she was Tim's Golden Gate named CHEWINK, and I was correct as this telephoto shot shows.
We sailed into the lee of pier 35 to douse sails and then motored around the pier and into the marina, managing to land fine in spite of the strong flood current flowing through the marina. Another great-fun four hours on the bay!
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