Sailing on San Francisco Bay

Good grief, I have finally replaced the starter switch for the engine. I was out there the other day and, after an unexpected drive to San Rafael for parts (why do I always forget that nothing is ever standard on this old Volvo MD7A engine?) everything is back up and running. I ran the engine for a good long while, including under load, charging up the batteries in the process.

So the problem with a sailing blog is that it’s easy to see when I haven’t been sailing in awhile! The last five or so months have been so busy; I am unhappy to admit that I have not taken Amelia out sailing at all this year. I’ve simply stopped by a few times to check on things, hose her down and tidy things up. I’m planning some sailing trips for July and will be sending out email announcements soon. If you’re not on the email list, check out jeremyrandall.org/sailing/ and add yourself.

I’ve emailed LiveJournal to get the syndication link to this blog fixed. Hopefully this post will show up on LiveJournal once that is done.

I may start posting more general sailing information (as opposed to just my own sailing trips) to make this place a little more interesting and to keep my mind more involved with what’s going on in the sailing community.

Nice sailing today in light winds with Cindy and Ed. We motored out and put up the sails… and bobbed along without much doing. So we had lunch and then swapped out the 100% jib for the 150% genoa. We found a little wind and the big headsail got us moving for awhile. Then it died out again and we found ourselves sailing but not moving much against the ebb. So we headed in under power. It was a relatively short sailing day, buy very pleasant. Winter time is definitely around the corner as the wind is moderating and starting to change direction. I left the 150% ready for use next time, since I expect more of the same.

New jib sheets, replacement batten for the main, oil change. Thanks to the folks who helped with these items.

Sailing today with Bruce, Judy, Ed and John.

Today’s sailing was quite a bit more boisterious than that last few trips. Once we were outside the estuary we kept motoring toward the Bay Bridge, fighting the current and dodging lots of big ship traffic. Once we got past the bridge and toward The Slot, the wind picked up a lot, so we reefed and headed into the swells. What fun. I, of course, took a full wave to the face a couple times. We sailed close to Angel Island and then “chicken gybed” over and headed back via the “behind Treasure Island” route. Once we got back there where the water was calmer, things became much more relaxed!

We had a pleasant sail out toward Alcatraz and back via the cityfront. Today’s crew was Reid, Ed, Cindy and Cynthia. Winds were moderate, with a little excitement out around “The Slot.”

I like having the boat in Alameda, but it’s been making for sailing in the same areas as of late. It takes about an hour to motor out to the open bay, and an hour from the bay back in to the estuary, so a lot of time is used up “getting too and from.”

I like sailing out of Richmond, but it’s not as convenient to get to.

I joined Ellen and her crew for the Bay View Boat Club Plastic Classic race on Saturday. It ws great fun sailing with Robertta, Space, Rambo and Ellen, even though we missed our start again and DNF’d after making it through about half of the course. Oh well.

The weather was fine and the wind picked up in the afternoon, so we did have some fine boat handling. The current was wicked fast when the race started, which was the main reason we didn’t start in time. It was damn near impossible for us to get across the line since we were being pulled away so fast.

Lorriane, Tim, Cindy and I had a nice sail today since we all had the day off. We sailed a little Southward from Alameda, ultimately heading toward Ballena Bay and the old NAS before heading back. Then we stopped at the “local chain Mexican place” for dinner.

I’d like to plan some longer trips, but blocking out longer timeframes has been challenging lately!

We had a very pleasant, albeit short sailing trip today. I had to be back in The City for a birthday party in the evening, so we were only out from about 12:30pm to 4:30pm. Before sailing we stopped at the engine place for replacement screws for the water pump since one fell into the blige and got lost when we replaced the impeller. They happened to be out of the exact correct ones, so we got the screw’s size and fasioned a temporary fix by adding a bunch of washers to one that was longer than we needed. No leaks, worked great.

It was sort of the “usual” short day out of Alameda: motored out the estuary, sailed toward Hunter’s Point, then toward SF, then alongside the Bay Bridge and back toward Alemeda. There was a lot of traffic in all directions; big ships, barges, dredges, etc. On the way back in we passed close to the “Commander’s House” on Yerba Buena Island.

The group today was Linhy, Peggy, Steve and Mark (aka Steve’s Dad). They did most of the driving while I relaxed on the cabin top (and kept an eye out for any oncoming craft, of course). Oh yeah, the Vietnamese sandwiches are always a good choice; today they were extra fresh. Thanks guys!

The winds were mild so we had decent sailing without straining anything too hard or having to reef. It was really warm and sunny on the water; we could see the fog rolling over the pink triangle on Twin Peaks above San Francisco.

The sailing today with Karen, Kathleen and John was great! We left the estuary and sailed around Alcatraz, toward Sausalito and toward the Gate, then down the Cityfront and back.

Awhile back I had re-rigged the second reef line, so today we tested it out by double reefing for our sailing in The Slot. The boat was well balanced, as expected; it was so manageable that it wasn’t until we were tacking near Harding Rock and the jib whipped around furiously, that I got some perspective about how much mainsail area was reduced. My only real complaint is it takes some work to get that reef put in well, so it’s hard to set it up once we are already underway.

I was obviously pleased with the sails and boat behavior, and the camraderie and conversation with this group seemed especially great too.

I think I need a thesaurus so I can come up with better adjectives than “great.”