Sailing on San Francisco Bay

Nice sailing toward San Francisco and the Bay Bridge, Yerba Buena and back to the estuary on Sunday. Just the regular “short trip” with fun conversation and tasty snacks. Guests Cathy and Carol.

I’ve never liked to be out on the bay for fireworks on July 4th. I figure it’s one of those days when lots of people who rarely go boating decide to take their boats out, and some of them will be drinking too much. Plus they may not know how to run the proper lights after dark, or how to navigate back safely at night.

The police must figure something similar; when we were heading back to the dock before sundown, all the police boats were gassing up and heading out. They all waved at us, smiling as they got ready for what has to be one of their busiest nights on the water. The little sailboat heading in wasn’t going to cause any problems.

We had left the dock around 3:30pm after an oil change. We motored out past Jack London Square, then raised the sails, with a reef in the main, and short-tacked the rest of the way out the estuary. Good practice and folks quickly got the hang of tacking. The wind was picking up and we got some vigorous sailing outside the estuary. A big ship was coming in, so we tacked south of the channel and headed toward a Coast Guard vessel that was slowly patrolling the area. Back and forth, up wind, until we crossed back over the channel to Yerba Buena and the Oakland side of the bridge. Then we turned around, and went from vigorous sailing close-hauled to a fast and level beam reach. Perfect for a short sail out and about, then back into the estuary, past the houseboats and back home. Kate, Constantine, Eddie, V.

We had a pleasant sail across the bay toward Hunter’s Point, then up to the Bay Bridge, along the West side of Treasure Island, and back toward Alameda passing the new bridge span. The winds were nice, but not crazy, and the boat performed well. Rachel, Eric and V.

A guest post by V:

If you stand inside Amelia and look out toward the sunset, it almost feels as if you are underwater looking upward. Something about the way sunlight is interrupted by flocks of other masts mimics the effect of light streaming through a mid-summer pool, as you sit at the bottom, holding your breath.

We stayed overnight in her bow, plenty of room for two people. Even with too few blankets and pillows, she was welcoming and comfortable. In the morning I woke early, a fairly rare occurrence, and wanted to start our day. I was outranked by the skipper’s desires.

When we began getting her ready to sail, I scrubbed her hull clean with a brush while the skipper checked the engine, batteries, and whatever those lights at the front and back are called. I think they should be called “the back light and the front light.” Finally, with a clean hull and a fit vessel we motored toward open water. Before Sunday, I’d never driven a boat or seen the bay bridge from below. As we aimed our sails for Angel Island the wind picked up and tipped the boat harshly. The skipper had repeatedly warned me that this was normal. The preparation made me no less worried that Amelia might want to go snorkeling rather than sailing. By the time we entered the cove at Angel Island (and negotiated with a power-boat who tried to steal our slip) we had gone from summer to winter and back again.

Although little water had gotten into the bilge, the transmission had begun leaking a bit of oil. Amazingly, boat engines look quite a lot like the diesel engine of my step-father’s truck. While parked we discussed the basics of the engine, had a snack on the island and then began motoring back out to sea.

We were disappointedly stuck in doldrums for a few minutes on our way out. But as is the way with weather, we weren’t disappointed for long. A few gusts hit us and then we were ripped into an hour of waves and 20 knot wind. Amelia kept us safe with the kind but stern direction of her skipper. He also reminded me, repeatedly, that she wouldn’t flip over. Merely crossing back under the bridge ended that adventure and we sailed softly back to berth.

“Let me live by the sea and be a friend to man.”

I did some cleanup today, actually quite a bit; I removed a bunch of old parts and miscellany that has collected over the boat since the last big spring cleaning, taking out a couple bags of stuff. I also went through all the cabinets, checked on the PDFs (life jackets) and made sure the fire extinguishers have not expired (I just realized I need to check the expiration dates on the flares too). I checked the batteries and engine oil and ran the engine for a good while (this is something I do regularly, of course, to keep things in good working order).

It was a nice day of boat work at the dock, which I find rather meditative. I had the radio on 14 and the Coast Guard was checking in with all of the active ships, getting wind speed reports as it headed toward 30 knots out there. Maybe just a few knots higher than a regular summer day here on the bay!

So the sailing today ended up not actually being sailing. We motored all the way to the Cityfront before we found wind, then when we went to raise the main the halyard got stuck, hard. We tried for a while to loosen it up, but it wouldn’t budge. We motored through South Beach Harbor and McCovery Cove, then motored back across the bay. It was still a nice time, and the engine performed flawlessly. Eddie, Kameela, Jameel, Mary.

Left Alameda at 1pm yesterday afternoon, motored to TI until we found wind. We reefed the main and headed into the slot; it was wild, windy, aggressive and fun. We sailed towards AI until everyone was soaked, then turned around and headed back to calmer waters and lots of big ship traffic in the estuary. Most of our sails don’t involve spray lashing over the boat, but once in awhile it sure is fun. Amelia felt balanced sailing close-hauled with a reefed main. Eddie, John V, Doug and me as salty sailing men.

Today’s sail was from Alameda, southward for a bit, up past the San Francisco Ferry Building and around Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island, with Lisa, John, Eric and Eddie. The weather was overcast but bright and the winds were moderate instead of howling. Our sailing in the slot was actually pretty smooth and comfortable. Fantastic conversation and lots of things to see including a close look at the new bay bridge structure.

We sailed about 26 nautical miles yesterday (about 30 statue miles), from Alameda to Angel Island and back. It was a blustery windy afternoon; we came across the slot reefed and close hauled and then eased off to duck behind AI as the winds picked up a bit. We stopped at the dock at Ayala Cove at Angel Island for awhile; Cindy, Steve, Lieva and Solon went to get an iced coffee and look around the island; I took some pictures and napped in the cabin. The sail back across the slot and down the Cityfront was equally vigorous and we even had enough wind leftover in Alameda to sail down the estuary at a good speed. A stop for diesel at Jack London and then back to the slip around 7pm.

It was just a gorgeous day with fun conversation, singing bad songs and fairly epic sailing.

Sailing today was with regular crew member John, and three women visiting from Poland: Ela, Justina and Evelynka.

I arrived a bit early in order to change the headsail on the furler and change the engine oil. It was the usual multitasking of those things, hosing down the boat, cleaning the hull some and finding small odds and ends that needed attention. I had come by a week or so beforehand to make sure the fire extinguishers were fully charged. I also made sure the insurance and towing policies are in effect. I haven’t needed to use the towing service since the first year I was sailing, but I think it’s great to have in case of an emergency.

We motored out, as usual, and enjoyed lunch (including John’s famous rice dish) before we reached the main bay. Once we got out of the estuary we found lots of wind. We sailed — with a reefed main, as usual for this time of year — toward SF, under the bridge, up the Cityfront and back toward Alameda. It wasn’t a super long sail but the visitors declared it their “best day in California.” Nice!

We actually had some decent wind in the estuary and sailed all the way back, which is a treat on the calm waters of the channel. We passed a ginormous container ship being turned around in the basin; I’ve seen so many of them yet I’m still impressed of the sheer size of such vessels. Lots of pictures were taken throughout the day.

Upon return we did the usual housecleaning and maintenance and hosed Amelia down again. She looked lovely glistening in the evening sun.

I’m a bit sore now; hopefully getting back into practice will take care of that!