So the sailing today was a perfect day… until about 3:30pm, when the wind picked up to 25 knots, with gusts up to 31 knots, according to the weather radio. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Early on, there was a little breeze, but the wind wasn’t picking up yet. We motored toward TI, then under the bay bridge on the Oakland side. Kept motoring past a big container ship coming in to Oakland, and toward the bay bridge on the San Francisco side. The breeze started to fill, so we put up the sails and slowly started sailing, eventually passing under the bridge and tacking toward the SF cityfront. The company was great. Cindy, Cathy, Ilyse, Nicole and I laughed and talked and had a great time.
By now we were getting some moderate wind, and tacking up toward the back side of Alcatraz. Some unprepared fools crossed in front of us when we had the right of way, so we all yelled to get their attention and they turned and passed within mere feet us! Whew!
The Alma went by under full sail, an ipressive sight, so we tacked back and sailed alongside them for awhile. We tacked back toward Alcatraz and tailed a boat called Resolution. We were catching up and were close to passing them when a huge wind shift threw us off. Resolution found their way through it much better than we did, so we lost our chance to catch up (their slip is just down the dock from mine, so I stopped by to say hello after we got back).
That was the point we turned back toward Emeryvile. What normally would be an easy downhill broad reach turned in to an uphill climb as the wind clocked around and stared blowing like mad from the Northeast. We sailed past the north tip of Treasure Island, then let the sails loose to haul them in. The jib rolled up with help from the winch. The main was much more difficult; by now we were fighting wind and waves under engine power. I tethered myself to the boat and hauled the main in while Nicole did her best to keep Amelia head to wind. The Coast Gaurd motored past us, but must have figured we were under control since they just kept going.
I kind of hate it when conditions get crazy like that, but at least it’s good practice. We got everything put away. The trip back to Emeryville was somewhat tortuous, since we were still fighting wind, waves, and a bit of current, mostly under power. The radio was squaking with other boats calling Vessel Assist or the Coast Guard for assistance.
We finally got back in, put the boat away, cleaned up and headed to Trader Vic’s for some appetizers. Cindy gave me a ride back to SF. I am, suffice to say, exhausted.
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