steen arrived at my apartment today at around 11:30 a.m. we were planning on immediately heading to the marina and onto the boate and out the golden gate. instead, we ended up playing ToCA racing until 3 p.m., then going to the marina, getting on the boate, and sailing to angel island, then hiking to the top of it to enjoy the 360º panoramic view of the s.f. bay. this must have been a pretty cool place to live back in the day.
we pushed off angel island at sunset, the wind was very light and warm, and there were twenty or thirty seals feeding where the tides were meeting in raccoon strait, along with innumerable sea birds.
ok we're behind on our posting here at the boate. steen and i took jackie von treskow out on saturday, for an excellently amusing day on the bay. jackie at one point declared steen the "thomas kinkade of sailing". (this after steen drew several corny metaphysical parallels between himself and the wind).
the perfect day concluded with steen sailing the boate into the slip, and captain eric hoisting the jib halyard halfway up the mast before realizing it was going to be difficult to get it back without a downhaul. photos here
We were under heavy pressure during the week leading up to the 4th to fit up to 9 passengers on The Boate for front row seating under the fireworks. As per usual the drop off starts the day or so beforehand as the impending committment gets closer and the excitement of being on the water at night wanes and the nervousness heightens. So come the day we were happily left with Rogelio, Miyon, Alberto, C.Eric and myself.
After sitting in the slip the day before watching the weather sour we took precautions by reefing the main thereby making the sailing a little less harrowing in the 30 knot gusts. I have to say she handled beautifully, exceeding my expectations. We lost a little speed and handling ability but so much better to know we can take on the rougher weather and a possible circumnavigation is now still an impossibility!.....maybe a trip to the Farallons though....in the calmer seas of winter though.
Anyway.....after getting out of the Marina and making a few passes back and forth along the coast to kill time before the clock ticked over to detonation of thousand of dollars of powders and chemicals Miyon fell sea sick! She went down below to try sleep/rest it away but an hour an a half later after a few more choppy jaunts down the bay and the sex pistols blaring away in the cabin it was decided that no captain worth his salt would allow the nausea to continue.
Rogelio and Miyon were dropped off at the diesel dock and we headed back out into the bay to disappearing daylight and a slew of pleasure craft rallying for position in front of the Berkeley Pier.
Up and down alonf the pier a few times under power and we realized that our onboard battery was losing power and so our navigation lights dimmed with the onset of night.....not a big problem when shortly thereafter the button was pushed and we were treated to what can only be described as Fireworks with a soft filter! The noises were there and every so often a gap in the fog would allow a glimpse of spectacular explosions in the sky, but for the most part it was large red and blue flashes behind the clouds. We got closer to the marina as the finale let loose, a volley of loud cracks cut across the water and bounced off the land and the sky was lit up once again to illuminate the way back to our slip. It was a marvelous trip out regardless of the lame fireworks display. I didn't get any shots of the show but here's a few before the sun disappeared.
July 4th
