San Francisco Bay day sail

End of March was a trip to San Francisco for wholesome family related reasons… specifically Brig and I attended “Grandparents and Special Friends Day” at our nephews’ elementary school. Very fun experience, they attend a great school, and it was a blast to see them truly in their element.

But… being degenerate (and recidivist) sailors, we saw an opportunity to catch a quick sail in a locale we’ve read a huge amount about but never experienced. Even before we bought into Boundary we were reading Latitude 38, a great irreverent sailing magazine out of the Bay Area. With their references to the constant heavy wind (at least in summer), wicked currents, and serious commercial traffic… well, why wouldn’t you want to sail there?

Bass’ brother sourced a great day rental through Boatsetter.com (there are plenty of other options for bareboat in the bay, but none that didn’t require a: checkout ½ day sail – not doable on short notice and a short weekend or b: ASA certificates – nothing wrong with them, but we don’t have ‘em, having come up through the good-decisions-come-from-experience/experience-comes-from-bad-decisions school of learn by doing) so we were set for a day sail out of Berkeley Marina (an ideal spot for a one day loop around the bay).

As usual, CruisersForum.com came through with lots of good suggestions and insight about where to go / what to avoid. We figured we’d play it by ear, being last day of March could be a quiet low wind “winter” type day or could be a bit more blower “summer” type day.

We ended up with the summer style wind, piping up to 20+ knots in “the slot” (the gap between Alcatraz and Angel Island, where the heaviest winds come rolling through the Golden Gate on their way to the rising heat in the central valley), so executed accordingly.

We left the Berkeley Marina, cut across the remnants of the Berkeley Pier (sketchy, but the boat owner swore this was a safe spot to cross, so off we went) and headed under the east span of the Bay Bridge. Stalled in the wind shadow behind Treasure Island, but saw parts of the Coast Guard station and a lighthouse that even the San Francisco natives had never seen (can only see from the water).

From Treasure Island we moved up to the city front, enjoying the view but also keeping an eye on the building wind and the increasingly busy traffic. With gusts hitting into the 20’s, and some non sailors on board, discretion prevailed and plans to nip under the Golden Gate bridge were back burnered for next time. For comfort, we dropped the main and trucked along under jib alone east of Alcatraz heading for Angel Island.

A brief word on the boat we chartered… this was a 1979 Pearson 32… based on some reviews seemed to be a great boat for the Bay, and it didn’t disappoint. Kept moving in the lighter winds behind Treasure and Angel Islands, but when the wind piped up it settled in nicely (does dip its rail but the secondary stability is good) and does impressively under headsail alone, even making OK progress to weather. It was an odd setup in the cockpit with the wheel way forward – almost under the dodger – but for keeping an eye on nephews at the wheel was actually a pretty nice setup.

With the wind doing its summer tricks through the slot we cruised through the lee of Alcatraz and ducked under Angel Island (along with quite a few other boats). This was, as we’d been lead to expect, a little oasis… the wind drops off in the lee, boats just drift and eat lunch or anchor in totally flat water, it’s a great respite from the honking bay winds. We ghosted along below Angel Island and then made our way a surprising distance upwind in Raccoon Strait with headsail alone.

Alas, time was approaching to get the boat back to its home. With a solid following breeze we ran downwind back to Berkeley Marina with tendrils of fog cruising overhead but otherwise enjoying the sunshine and solid sailing pace. Berkeley Marina entrance and exit can be, err, exciting for those of us used to a more sedate pace in the PNW, but easy enough to manage and all too soon we were tied up back at the dock and cleaning out our stuff as it was, sadly, just a day sail.

So we didn’t make two bridges, much less three (but hey, they call it the Three Bridge “Fiasco” for a reason) but we had a great day on the water, saw the city front and Alcatraz and Angel Island, and enjoyed ourselves hugely… certainly would love to take our big burly Gulf 32 into the bay sometime and really blast around!