I’ve never liked taking the boat out on the night of July 4th. I figure it’s one of those days when lots of people who rarely go boating decide to take their boats out so people will be making mistakes out there and it’s all just kind of mayhem.

By The Sea Sailing Blog

The police must figure something similar; when we were heading back to the dock before sundown a bunch police boats were gassing up and heading out, no doubt excited to chase boats around and be… uh… the way the police like to be. Anyway…

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.


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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.


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A guest post:

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.

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.


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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!


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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.


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