So the sail to Sausalito yesterday was okay. On the way out, two Foss tugs did one of their classic “mess with a sailboat” routines — the two of them passed me on either side at the same time.
The winds were relatively strong, and, of course, it was upwind the whole way. I put up the jib alone, and set the self-sterring. It worked okay, but it was tedious. After passing Angel Island, I motored into Sausalito. I hit some big chop off Tiburon.
My berth in Sausalito was an end-tie at Schoonmaker. The guy on the next boat over was pleasant enough; he helped me dock, and chatted awhile about how he and his wife had sailed down from Canada. They had a big Kelly-Peterson 44. We discussed steering systems.
The great thing about the end-tie was not having anything on the other side. My view to starboard was the anchorage and the lights of Tiburon. Nice.
It was a chilly evening. Had Thai food. Came back to the boat, but only managed a few hours sleep since I had some weird dreams and kept waking up thinking I had heard a noise. Argh.
In the morning I rode my bike over to the ferry dock and watched the boats come and go for a little while. I went back to the boat and took apart my thermostat. Reinstalled it. Fired up the engine. Put up the mainsail, and motored out to the end of the Sausalito channel. Oops. forgot to top off the tank at the Chevron dock, which means I’ll have to stop by Channel Marina and buy diesel there on the way back.
Turned off the engine. Started sailing. Set the self-steering. The boat went charging along on its own once I got it adjusted properly. Gybed three or four times heading back to Richmond. Overall a well executed sailing trip. Somehow I lost the pin in the shackle on the jib, though. No big deal to fix, but weird nonetheless.
Tue, Aug. 20th, 2002, 07:45 pm
