Fall Cruising on the SF Bay

Now that the America's Cup has run its course, the Big Boat Series has swept up the last of the big westerly winds, and the StFYC Stag Cruise had drained the harbor of a quarter of its boats, it was time to take our little S'agapo out for some well deserved "cruising".

With the spinnakers all stowed ashore and a forecast of light winds and 80 degree temperatures, we headed up to the San Francisco Marina.  Utterly surprised to find that there was a Bridge to Bridge running event going on we struggled to sneak into the parking lot.  Eventually, we managed to get S'agapo stripped of her various covers, hang on her jib and back her out of her slip into a complete and utter calm.  Looking at each other, Stacey pointed out that we could just power up the channel to our yacht club and have lunch.  "Great idea!" I agreed, and off we went.  Having traveled about two hundred yards we successfully tied S'agapo to the dock and spent a lovely hour at lunch while watching the occasional cats paw of wind try to develop on the Bay.

Eventually, the wind decided it was going to avoid the afternoon westerly that had been forecast and locked into a lovely northerly breeze of about ten knots.  With the light #1 and a full mainsail, S'agapo sailed herself nicely towards Sausalito with the city of San Francisco in the background (Picture to the right).

Stacey and I found it amusing that some of the sailors who joined us on the bay were finding it difficult to trim to a breeze from this direction.  The westerly winds so dominate the days of sailing in the center of San Francisco Bay, that some folks were trimmed for a beat as they headed out west under the Golden Gate Bridge with the wind broad on their starboard quarter, while others were flummoxed as to why their sails kept back winding.  With the wind coming out of Richardson's Bay, S'agapo was greeted by flat water that let her fly along, pointing higher and sailing faster than our normally bumpy San Francisco Bay will allow.


Once we had the sails up and trimmed, the crew headed below to strip off the jackets and vests we were wearing and shift into warm weather gear for our Indian Summer sail.  With OttO driving, S'agapo were free to wander a bit and take some pictures.  It's always a somewhat new perspective to stand aft of the backstay and watch OttO drive, I so rarely trust him to do the job right now; he isn't aging gracefully and occasionally decides a ninety degree turn in called for.   Stacey emerged in warm weather cloths, ready to "cruise". (picture on the left)

Over the last year, with commitments to kids, granddaughter, racing and parents, we've only had a few days of cruising and this was a tremendous reminder of why we love it so.  S'agapo is such an easy boat to sail and she gobbles up the miles so effortlessly that we really should cruise her more.

Our promise to eachother is to allocate more time to just sail the boat.  We'll see how that goes, as the calendar is already filling up for 2014, but it's a good goal to aspire to.

As we beat towards Sausalito we spotted our old friends Ted and Jim aboard the old kiwi IOR battle wagon Inca.  The guys have kept INCA in perfect condition, and it's always great to see her parting the bay with her narrow bow and tumblehome.  Sadly, I only had my iPhone with us so the pictures aren't what we would have liked.  But we were able to email Jim and Ted the iconic shot of Inca framed by the Golden Gate Bridge, every boat owner needs on of these.

We swapped tacks with Inca as we worked our way up into Richardson's Bay and as the afternoon wore on it became clear that our northerly breeze was fading away.  Crossing tack once more we waved good bye to the guys on Inca and bore off for San Francisco.

As all of you know, sailing downwind in light air in "cruising mode" (no Spinnaker) is rather sedentary.  After a time both Stacey and I were yawning and lounging about in the cockpit.  The light wind, flat water and warm sun focusing us on why siestas are such a great idea.  Stacey did her best to keep us moving, but with the wind down to under five knots and the ebb tide pushing us westward at over two and half knots, we weren't going to go anywhere but out the Golden Gate.  Reluctantly we started up Yammi and began the slow process of going "pockety pockety pockety" home to the Marina.


With S'agapo washed and covered up, safe in her slip we joined the massive traffic jam that is 19th Avenue during the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concert.  The second major SF event that we'd forgotten about!  Despite the traffic of tie-dyed drivers weaving a little, our day of cruising San Francisco Bay had been well worth the effort.