We enjoyed two lovely nights in the Montezuma Slough. We anchored in a wide and fairly protected part of the slough–not an official anchorage at all, but a place where no other boats were passing through and where we felt our single anchor would have no problem holding with good scope and swing. When the winds weren’t howling away at us, it was wonderful, peaceful, everything was just beautiful. I’d look out and around and sign in contentment stating it was just wonderful. When the winds came up, at first it wouldn’t be noticeable but slowly both David and I would be a bit more and more tense until finally, I’d be saying “oh, this is horrible!” and thus the time passed between perfect and horrible in the Montezuma Slough! The bipolar experience was funny and we laughed about it.
Because David will be flying out to Florida for a week and I will be alone on the boat, we decided to move Mahdee into a marina. The friendly and inexpensive marina at Brisbane is very close to the San Francisco Airport, so we decided to go there. We figured we’d anchor Mahdee in the Mare Island Straight on Saturday afternoon and David would retrieve Buttercup (our car) from the giant parking lot for the Vallejo:San Francisco ferries and position the car in the Brisbane marina. So, yesterday he did that, riding his folding bike the 11 miles from Brisbane to downtown San Francisco and the ferries to return to us via ferry in the afternoon. He had a great ferry ride across and up through the Bay. Lots of big wind and waves and recreational boats doing crazy things. Just the sort of entertainment he likes.
We left out of the Mare Island Straight early this morning with the ebb tide helping us out. Big winds clashed with an outgoing tide so the Pinole Shoal was a bit choppy. Mahdee is a champ motoring and we motored along at 8 knots really only effected by the big waves as we just got to the beginning of the San Paublo Bay. We were followed by a trawler (about our size and matching our speed) which was constantly covered in crashing waves up to their second deck level. They looked to be a displacement hull, but the two boats, motoring, were experiencing the conditions quite differently. I certainly liked our situation better! Our plan was to set sail from the area of the San Paublo Straight on south. However, by the time we were closer to the San Paublo Straight, I’d convinced David for us to stop in the pretty setting of Paradise Cove so I could spend the afternoon cooking and baking on our wood burning stove rather than sail further down to anchor just outside the channel at Brisbane and do the same. It’s not pretty at Brisbane. It was a good idea; we spent our fine Sunday afternoon sitting in the charthouse with the binoculars looking at all the lovely sailboats being heeled over and rounding up in the wind gusting. I made chicken curry, crumb cake, and brownies and we drank hot cider as the surprisingly cold winds blew. We were circled by a cute Nordic Tug which seems to have come across the bay for the only reason of circling Mahdee and then going back home. They waved as they circled and went on their merry way.
