Sailing on San Francisco Bay

I decided to spend most of the week in Alameda. Alameda is sort of a home to me. It’s where the boat was purchased, it’s the place I chose to register as her “homeport” — and sailing on the “estuary” is about as good as it gets.

I departed Richmond around 1pm on Tuesday. It had been a slow morning of email and going through my full pre-sailing checklist and getting things ready. Sailing with crew makes things easy to manage. Singlehanding is a whole different adventure. I’ve found the difference between successfully singlehanding and having a scary or dangerous sail is preparation. Get everything ready beforehand and think about various situations that can happen out there, before heading out.

I raised the main as I left the marina, and started sailing upon reaching the Richmond Harbor Channel. I was close hauled, but with room to spare. Once outside the channel, I came about and pointed the boat at Treasure Island. Set the self steering and off we (the boat and I) went. The winds were moderate, increasing a bit at the Slot. In fact, the rail was in the water for a little while, but the wind seemed steady and I knew it would lessen behind the TI, so I didn’t reef the main.

Coming across was relatively uneventful (a good indication of a successful trip). I like to sit on the foredeck when it’s not too rough and watch the boat sail itself. It was hot all day, and I remained in shorts and a tee-shirt the whole time. A tug and barge passed just before the East span of the Bay Bridge.

The wind cut out as I neared the entrance to the Oakland Inner Harbor Channel (aka the “estuary”) so I brought the sails down and motored in. Ah, to be back in Alameda. I don’t think I can really describe it. The town itself is nice, but for me it’s about all the time I’ve spent here, and the boat-related adventures that go with it.

There were three big ships crammed up end-to-end at the APL dock. Rather unusual (next morning, two were gone, out to sea). A big dredge barge was moored right in the middle of the channel off Jack London square. I squeezed through the narrow side, relieved there were no unseen cables in my way under the water.

Marina Village, OYC, Wind River, Fortmann, Grand slipped past my starboard side. Finally, back at the funky old Alameda Marina, the boat’s home for so many years. Old wooden docks and attitude. Checked in, secured Amelia in her guest slip, hosed her down, had dinner.

Mon, Sep. 30th, 2002, 09:24 pm

I practiced bringing the boat in to the slip backwards. I did pretty well too, despite a group of about 10 people watching. It’s weird to be flipped around. I felt a little confused berthed this way, since the expected view out each window is different!

Sat, Sep. 28th, 2002, 12:03 pm

I’m pretty sure there’s a piece of rope wrapped around the prop shaft. Which means no sailing tonight. And no sailing tomorrow unless I can get a diver down there to pull it off. Sigh.

The epoxy work is going well. I have all of the fiberglass tape pieces installed. Might even be ready to paint tomorrow (though I doubt it).

Fri, Sep. 27th, 2002, 12:32 pm

According to my old journals, my original sailing website went up around September 23, 2002. That site, of course, eventually evolved in to this site.

Mon, Sep. 23rd, 2002, 08:11 pm

We departed Marina Bay at noon. Bruce and Judy, along with new crew Yvette. Yvette recently completed the keelboat class at Modern Sailing, and knew what she was doing, despite limited experience. It’s nice to have crew that understand what’s going on.

Motored out, got the sails up and left the channel. Since I wanted to see if we could meet up with Ellen’s boat at China Camp later in the afternoon, we headed toward San Pablo Bay. We had enough wind to get into the bay, but then things died down. We were sort of bobbing next to the big ship channel near another sailboat, when an oil tanker came under the bridge and blasted the danger signal at us. Yeah, yeah… we weren’t even in the channel. I guess the bar pilots get a little nervous on busy weekends.

So we’re out there just barely moving and somehow we decide to try flying the chute. I’ve never done it before, since I’ve never had the right conditions with a competent crew. So we yanked down the jib, and got the spinnaker up. Wow. Looked great. And we were able to move along at a decent pace in light air.

Passed the Richmond Bridge and sailed up beyond the Brothers. Wind picked up just a bit, so I decided to get the chute down and put up the genoa instead. It was a bitch to get the spinnaker down, but also good practice. I think we’ll be a lot better at it next time.

As we approached the anchorage we snacked on pizza, BBQ pork, chips/salsa, nuts and fruit.

At China Camp I spent some time deciding on a spot to drop the hook. I noticed another boat with their anchor line wrapped underneath the hull against the current. They were slowly wrestling it up preparing to depart.

I guess I should have taken their plight as a warning, instead of chuckling at their misfortune — when we dropped our hook I didn’t get the main down fast enough and we did the same thing. So much for trying to be a hotshot and anchor without using the engine.

We put out the rest of the food. Judy took a nap in the cabin. I had a snack and napped in the cockpit. Bruce and Yvette chatted on the foredeck about motorcycles and traveling. I love it when everyone feels comfortable to just relax and do their own thing.

After about an hour, the radio squawked. “The Jeremy, this is …” Ellen was hailing, but had forgotten the name of my boat, pretending instead that it was called “The Jeremy.” That cracked me up. Shortly thereafter she arrived with Joe and Roberta.

Joe rowed over in their dinghy. We had to decide whether to row everyone over to Ellen’s boat, have them row over to Amelia, or free Amelia from the wrapped up anchor line and raft the two boats together. I decided we should go for the raft-up option. So the 5 of us spent the next 20 minutes pulling up the anchor with the winch. Bruce had let out about 120 feet of anchor rode and we had to pull it in inches at a time until we got it untwisted. Ugh.

Finally it pulled free and we motored over to Ellen’s boat and secured the boats together. Out came the wine and food, as Ellen hosted dinner for us all. Including truffles for dessert. Yum.

I was happy to see everyone getting to know each other, as various folks from both crews circulated and conversed with each other. The moon rose over the East Bay hills. Just an excellent evening.

Finally around 2200 we both turned on our running lights, fired up our engines, released the boats and headed home.

The trip home in the dark was great for me. I got to pull out my charts and practice navigating via the buoys, lighthouses and other ATONs. As we cleared the Sisters, Ellen turned toward San Rafael and we headed toward the Brothers. Then sighted off two of the red channel buoys, under the East Span of the bridge and finally into the Richmond channel. We had great teamwork as Bruce kept a lookout ahead and Yvette steered when I went down to the Nav station to check our position and find our next mark.

By the time we got back into the slip it was 0030 and we were all exhausted.

Sun, Sep. 22nd, 2002, 05:06 pm

Met up with Jan at the dock this morning. The sailing was just about perfect. Wind was great. Boat handled perfectly. Self-steering worked well. Did the full on tour — Richmond, around Angel Island, down the SF cityfront, into Aquatic Park to look at the museum ships, down to Pier 39, over to Alcatraz and easy reach back to Richmond. Conversation was pleasant, had good food and beverages.

Wed, Sep. 18th, 2002, 06:54 pm

Originally posted Sat, Sep. 14th, 2002, 07:43 pm

Good work today: cleaned out Ellen’s primary filter (what a mess), moved said filter to a more accessible location, replaced secondary filter and modified/shortened fuel lines. Engine started on third crank. Going to let it sit overnight and test again tomorrow. Should be all good.