The Boate

a little reading

regarding the boate's stability.

mom meets the boate

my mom came to town today and went out on the boate for the first time. phil was along and took some awesome photos. we docked at angel island for a while and watched the deer, then sailed out the golden gate to get a feel for the open water, before running with the wind between alcatraz and the city on the way back. all in all one of the more perfect days.

simply beautiful sunday

the mood-sapping clouds of the past few days parted today, leaving the way clear for a purely enjoyable passage on the boate. i owed min jung kim a day of sailing in exchange for the gmail account she hooked me with, and she finally took me up on the offer. the water was fairly calm, the wind steady, and the sun strong. there were many boats out, and seals' snouts were everywhere as the bay reawakened from one of its typical winter-within-summer spells with a giant collective contented sigh.

A couple of images added to your post Capt E

the fog of....well of fog.

a lesson in the bay area's microclimates and the sheer hallucinatory disorientation of fog at sea.
phil and i left the marina around three, ripped out of the marina with a good steady 20 knots of wind coming from the southwest and gusting to 30. we were just outside raccoon strait, when the first odd thing happened. there was a big oil tanker cruising up the bay, and by all rights it should have altered its course and passed behind us. instead, the coast guard scrambled one of its swift boats and instructed us to turn around and pass behind the tanker. another one of the coast guard's big gun boats was behind the tanker as escort. must be part of alert orange....the government spending tons of money on petrol to guard the petroleum industry's assets.
so it was a beautiful sunset, we're headed back to berkeley, and i go below and make a dark and stormy for phil. the beverage had a mysterious conjuring effect on the weather on this particular day, and a liquid fog started pouring over the hills. soon, we could not see further than 50 yards in any direction. without the gps, we would have been in serious trouble.
it was an experience that both sharpened the senses to the highest degree they can possibly be, and then constantly played tricks with them. shapes materialized out of the pea soup, then disappeared as quickly. birds sounded like they were sitting on the top of the mast, then got closer seemingly, and yet still went unseen. we were enveloped by a warm thick blanket of moisture, we could have been anywhere. it was surreal, caught in a dreamlike hallucinatory fog, while being completely and totally focussed in the moment out of sheer necessity of survival.
the sunset

the liquid fog

phil in the fog

Rosie,Chelsea,Leah on the Boate

It was Monday afternoon and a perfect way to start the week. The city was blanketed with a light fog and the sun was having a hard time warming anything from the avenues to downtown. What better way to get the full effect of summer than to head out into the middle of the bay where the fog doesn't quite reach until very late in the day. Rosie was picked up from BART and we met Chelsea and Leah at the dock.
Heading out, the wind was mighty and it was good to have some ballast on board. Chelsea 'necked' a dramamine to stay the rising nausea and spent a small portion of the trip under mild sedation.
Within a short time we reached what we have termed as the 'doldrums'of the bay, in the lee of Angel Island. Absolutely balmy!! Summer or winter sitting in behind Angel Island is a tropical experience. I do prefer the sunny winter days when the water is pure glass and you can just sit out there and lay back, no wind, no noise, no worries.
After a few tacks back and forth we set up the approach into Ayala Cove. Getting there quite late meant we had only a half hour before we jumped back aboard and set sail into the sunset. The trip back at sunset is spectacular as shown in the photos below.
One of the last trips out before we head to New Zealand and hopefully a bit of sailing on one of the historic Mullet Boats 'The Arawa' which belongs to some friends.

The Sunset

and another