We didn’t sail up to Tomales Bay after all. Somehow the play of light and shadow, fog and sunshine, just kept us anchored at Drake’s Bay. I made yummy pancakes in the morning (a treat since usually breakfast is a granola bar and a piece of fruit for me…add a dollop of peanut butter for David’s version) and we sat aboard Mahdee reading a stash of periodicals that we’d not gotten around to reading for several months. Between issues of Science and Wired, David also finished reading Michael Crichton’s novel about a bio-tech company, NeXt. I’ll have to now read it. David chuckled as he said Crichton, as usual, got all the intrigue right–even down to a power-hungry NIH scientist messing around with people’s research and copying ideas. How does Crichton do it across so many industries?
This trip has been a pretty easy one for us. I’m thankful of that since I don’t really think my hip flexors are up to the task of dealing with any thing more than benign activities while sailing. With me antsy to get going on some projects and professional activities, we sailed from Drakes to the San Francisco Bay on Thursday and anchored beneath the North end of the Golden Gate Bridge in Horseshoe Bay. That is a very tiny little cove which houses a small Coast Guard station as well as a tiny military marina.
There was very little wind throughout the day (outside of the Bay) so we meandered along over the Four Fathom Bank doing 3-1/2 to 4 knots on a run. The slow speed and fairly large, steep quartering seas over the bar made for a good little test of our autopilot. We were smacked about with the waves sometimes landing on deck and splashing over the cockpit combing–the autopilot did fine and we were very happy about that.
As our last entrance to the Bay was exciting with us flying past downtown exceeding hull speed, we knew what to expect this time. While winds outside the Bay were less than 10 knots, weather predictions for the afternoon showed 25 knots in the portion of the bay near the Golden Gate. So, it was no real surprise when we went from 4 knots to 9 knots as we passed under the bridge. We’d been slowly sailing along with the gaff foresail and staysail alone and David had stowed the staysail when we accelerated to 9 knots under foresail alone. Our plan was to turn up into the wind, drop the foresail, and motor back to the little Horseshoe Bay. That’s what we did but I must say that taking down a 500 sf gaff sail in more than 20 knots of wind is a little exciting. Its actually easier to bring down running but then the sail is not nicely captured in the lazy jacks as it is when we’re pointing closer to the wind. The gaff itself is amazingly well behaved going down or up, no matter the wind or point of sail, and I do always think how much nicer it is to bring down a gaff sail rather than a flopping-about flailing Bermuda sail. The only issue with Mahdee’s gaff foresail is that it has 4:1 purchase on both halyards and thus miles of peak and throat halyards must smoothly run out to bring the sail down.
I have an entire routine of coiling the halyard lines just right so that they can quickly feed out without tangle. Their cleats are along the outside of the starboard side of the cockpit combing and the coils sit ready against the starboard seatback. Since the halyards are tweaked here-and-there during our sailing, it’s a nice place for them to be; further the sail can be dropped in a manageable way from the cockpit if conditions warrant it. So far, we’ve alway had David go forward to the foremast for the lowering while I man the helm and feed out the lines and together we manage the lowering of the foresail including getting the fore boom into the clever little boom crutch attached to the mainmast. So, that was our routine on Thursday as well.
I’m always a bit anxious that the lines run smoothly and Mahdee isn’t harmed or damaged by thoughtless actions on our part. I don’t think David shares my concerns. Another difference between us–he assumes that we’ll do things correctly and with skill whereas I assume that we’ll bumble something and have to make a quick recovery. Even though he’s usually right on this, I just can’t shake my concerns.
Once in Horseshoe Bay, we found that the anchorage was small and we were glad not to have to share it with other boats. The depths were more shallow than indicated by the chart and we were glad it was simply that Bay jello mud since we calculated that we’d be aground with low tide. We bumped a bit about 2 hours (and two more feet of water drop to go) prior to low tide so we started the engine and re-positioned the boat (not the anchor) in hopes that we’d stay afloat the remainder of the night. By the time we were ready to leave the anchorage near noon Friday, we were well afloat again as expected. The anchor came up with a huge cube of mud and even huge-er slug of sea weed.
Our sail to Brisbane Marina (where we would leave Mahdee during our trek to pick up the cars in San Diego) was slow and uneventful on Friday. There was forecast of good winds in the teens mid-day mid-bay and in the 20’s South of Hunters Point later in the afternoon. We saw many boats heeled over in a mid-bay regatta while we ambled along at 1 to 3 knots and no wind. Turning the corner at the Financial District and passing under the Bay bridge, we logged 1 knot COG in reverse for 20 minute or so as the out-going tide was taking us backwards. Patience is key and we weren’t really in any hurry so we sailed on. As predicted, the winds picked up into the teens in the mid-afternoon and we swiftly made way to the marina channel. Since the dockmaster had already told us that we could choose either the port or starboard slip in a nice, wide, two slip finger, we had an easy docking pulling into the port one and letting the wind push us over to the starboard to tie up. By 3:30 pm we were checked into the marina and busy washing down Mahdee to get the crusty salt from her topsides and headsails. In the shelter of the marina, the winds were very slight so we were able to raise the headsails and rinse them down with lots of freshwater and then leave them up for an hour to dry before putting on the sail covers.
We picked up a one-way rental car on Saturday morning and drove to San Diego that day. With temperatures in the 90’s throughout central California, we were glad that we’d already planned to bring un-airconditioned Buttercup and Wesley North during the evening and night time hours. On Sunday, we visited with some friends in San Diego, loaded all the car-related sundries into the cars and then watched Forrest Gump on the hotel TV. Other than the fact that when we’re sleeping on land, I find the room rolls and pitches alarmingly (I think “get me back to my boat!”) we had a nice time in San Diego. We drove the cars North an hour and a half to Newport Beach where we briefly visited with Chris, the wonderful fellow who bought our Rawson 30, Stargazer, and we rummaged one last time through Minnie’s bins of used boat parts–just in case there was something that we’d need.
At Minnies, we bought a little chrome-over-bronze (with the chrome worn mostly off) Barient 10 to be used as a bowsprit-mounted snubber winch on the running bobstay and I negotiated a good price on a like-new Watts storm staysail that I’d had my eye on for quite some time. Finally, an impulse buy: I purchased an old 1.5 ounce ripstop nylon (strangely high-aspect) drifter for $95 that looks like something I can modify to be used as a light-air mainsail. Ever since reading an article in Good Old Boat about light-air mainsails, I’ve been wanting to play with one–but the sheer volume of materials needed (and the lack of availability of such light air mainsails in the used market) has kept me from getting one. This one is a bit small for such a sail on Mahdee, but it’s something to play with and I figure if it doesn’t do the job for our main and I can’t recut it as such, I can always use it out on the bowsprit in light airs with the gollywobbler set mid-ships. The new sail is white and our golly is bright red, so they are even complementary in color.
We waited for LA traffic to die down before setting off on our Northward drive at 7 pm. The traffic was light and we flew along averaging 70 mph for the trip. We arrived back at Mahdee at 2 am. Driving Buttercup with no cruise control and a marginal radio wasn’t fun but I am very happy that both cars are here in the Bay area with us now.
What’s next? We’re planning on settling in the Bay area for a bit, so, who knows.
