The day before my birthday was spent at the Chinese Heritage Festival with Mahdee anchored just off shore with a bunch of Master Mariner boats. The Master Mariners are the “old boat” group in San Francisco and the festival was a great excuse for a gathering. The next morning, we had an invitation to another wooden boat for breakfast, but we decided to get an early start back down the San Francisco Bay so that we would arrive around noon with a favorable tide at the marina where we planned to stay for a few days.
Things rarely go as planned when sailing.
We knew that there would be a flood tide running against us most of the way. The winds in the San Francisco Bay generally blow from the northwest making the trip south a beam or broad reach. In our experience, those winds would make the trip a fast one despite the tide. Virtually all of our sailing on the Bay has been with lots of reefs in the sails and no jib. With all of the recent rig improvements we had made while at anchor in the Sacramento Delta, Brenda and I needed to do a full sail check–especially since the Great San Francisco Schooner Race was less than a week away. That meant rigging the jib and testing its new downhaul/tricing line.
After weighing anchor, Brenda motored us gently in wide open waters of San Pablo Bay while I shook out reefs and hoisted sails. In addition to the jib and its new downhaul, we needed to set the new jackline in the foresail and see how the fore went to full height with the new Lazy Ian boom lifts. We had newly laced the tacks and clews of virtually all sails so that meant some time with every sails’ outhaul setting the foot tension.
Finally, it was time to shut down the Cummins and sail. It was a beautiful morning, but the winds were very, very light. What wind there was, was blowing from the South which was right on the nose to get through the narrows leaving San Pablo Bay. Slowly we approached the shallows on the western side of the bay and tacked. Our tack angle was just over 90 degrees, but the tide was flooding and the resultant side-slip took us on a course right back to where we had anchored. That tack was essentially a 180 degree course change. Once over to the anchorage, I short tacked a few times and made some ground putting us behind some rocks called The Sisters. Now, however, there was no place to go but out into the channel where the current was strong. As we entered the channel, the track on the gps showed that we were again paralleling our earlier tack and making no headway. So, we tried short tacking on the western side but there was very little room between the deep fast water and the shoals where the chart showed only 1/2 foot deep water. Back and forth we went.
Brenda and I have found the San Francisco Bay to be a fantastic place to be on a boat. One day, while sitting at anchor in Paradise Cove and watching the sail boats sail against the tide, I told Brenda that they were lucky. Sail boats move so slowly against the tide that the sailors can sit back and enjoy the ride for hours without having to change course or getting to the end of the Bay — well… or getting anywhere for that matter. So here we were in that same situation. I think Brenda expected me to start the engine to get us through the narrows, but this was my Birthday sail and I wanted to enjoy every bit of it. Besides, I knew eventually the tide would reverse and it would carry us through the narrows.
In the end, I think it was the slackening tide that enabled us to finally get through the narrows. Instead of a single tack trip down the bay, the southerly winds kept us tacking and close hauled for most of the day. South of the Richmond bridge, we met up with one of our new friends from the previous day when Morning Star came close and took some photos of us. We had told them that we had only one photo of us sailing Mahdee and that was hours after the first time ever that we hoisted the gaff fore sail, and the bolt rope was still shrunken too short from years in storage, and the various lines were not yet in the best order.
The wind was freshening and Mahdee felt good with all her sails up. This was the first time that Brenda and I, alone, had hoisted all of Mahdee’s four lower sails, and the first time since the day of our arrival that we were not reefed. We decided to pass well downwind of Angel Island to stay out of the lee, but despite our distance we were soon becalmed. Little tiny racing sail boats ghosted by with large spinnakers if they could keep them from going limp. We could see ahead in the “Slot” that boats were healed over so we knew we would get wind eventually. This was an enjoyable day on the water and I didn’t see any need to rush towards our destination any faster than the wind would take us.
As we emerged from the lee of Angel Island, Mahdee heeled over violently and the sound of items crashing to the floor down below could be heard. Normally, Brenda would be yelling at me to control the heel. This being my birthday, however, she was sweetly suggesting that I do something. I luffed up a little. Too much luffing and the sails would be damaged by the violent flogging, too little and Mahdee would heel and take water over the lee rail. In hind sight, we should have eased the fore peak halyard some. Instead, we noted that our course was taking us towards Alcatraz Island. There would be a little protection from the wind there and we would reef the main sail to its second reef. Reefing the main in those conditions almost requires the motor since the main has to luff in order to be dropped on its track and when luffed, the boat acquires a hefty lee helm which can cause Mahdee to fall off the wind and to keep falling off which prevents the reef from being set. The motor serves to keep us pointed to windward until we can reset the reefed main and reestablish a balanced sail configuration.
Once reefed, we were able to fall off and head towards the Oakland bridge. We had a few tense moments with very large container ships moving at 15 knots and no idea which way they would turn. Both went to Oakland thank goodness. As we approached the bridge we saw a large beautiful modern sleek boat there with slack sails. We came flying up behind them and then our sails went slack and there the two boats sat, side by side. I took out the main sail reefs. But, with no wind, the increased sail area did no good.
By now, our journey south had taken hours and hours longer than expected. The brief moments of near terror had moved us fast, but for only an instant relative to how far we needed to travel. The tide had changed probably twice and suddenly I realized that in our slack sail state, we were being sucked into an eddy at the base of one of the bridge abutments. I had gotten a little closer to the big cement structure so as not to hit the other big sail boat. I called to Brenda to start the motor. She said “huh?.” We powered past the bridge and then shut off the motor again. The winds finally caught the sail and we started moving again under wind power.
At this rate, we would miss our originally planned noon-ish arrival at the marina for something close to sunset. The adventure, however, was not yet over. Brenda was monitoring the winds forecast and said that the peak winds in the Bay were not in the Slot by Alcatraz, but over by our destination marina. She suggested that we take down the sails in the current relative calm and then motor the last bit. I said “lets sail while we can and take down the sails at the last minute–after all we are barely moving in the light winds, how bad can it be only a few miles ahead?” She frowned at me but didn’t say anything. This was my birthday, after all.
We rounded Candlestick Point and all hell broke loose. The wind was howling. We got the fore, main and staysail down while just avoiding the shoals. We fell off with the jib still up but the wind died down as it usually does once we drop lots of sails. That was just as well, however, because we needed to take the jib off the bowsprit in order to ship the bowsprit for our marina arrival. In the relative calm, Brenda and I could both work the foredeck while Mahdee tracked straight ahead. We discovered that the new braid downhaul/tricing line has the same binding problems as the old three-strand. That cinched a decision to separate the downhaul line from the tricing line. We will make that change before next week’s schooner event.
Once again, Brenda piloted us into the marina to a fantastic arrival in our visitors’ slip. It was too late to check in because the office was closed, so I was resigned to no hot shower and dinner from our meager remaining supplies on the boat. The owners of the boat berthed in the slip on the other side of the dock, however, were wonderfully kind and lent us a key so that we could take hot marina showers and go out for a birthday dinner.
The sail made the day for me, but the evening was icing on the cake. What a day! A perfect Birthday!
Our track as we motored out and put up sails and then tacked against the currents and winds:
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