After BCC, we were required to go out sailing with our classmates with no instructor on board before skippering a boat on our own. Norbert, Noel, Gary, and I happily arranged an outing a couple of weeks later and had a great day out on the water.
It was a gorgeous day... bright sunshine without a cloud in the sky, about 80 degrees on the water, about 12-knot winds, and low slack conditions, making it an ideal day for sailing. We got out of the channel and all looked at each other and said "Where should we go?" Since no one had any particular destination in mind, I suggested that we go try to find the S marker out near the San Mateo Bridge. Did any of us have a chart indicating the locations of the markers? No. But we went off on our S marker hunt anyway.
I remembered in some of the races that people said to count 6 towers to the east of where the bridge hits land on the eastern span. We did that and headed for that sixth tower. We sailed and sailed and sailed and got very close to the bridge but never found that S marker. We found some other markers that we later identified as X and possibly Y, but no S. (I now have a chart of the bay that I keep in my sailing duffel and have it with me at all times!)
Since it was still early and we all wanted to stay out longer, we decided to be brave and go under the bridge. We followed the south side of the bridge west to the mid-span, since we were pretty far east by this time. I'd been at the helm most of the morning, so I handed the tiller off to Norbert to take us under the bridge. He did a spectacular job of lining us up and getting us through with only 4-5 tacks.
On the north side of the bridge, we decided to try to find markers 8 and 8a and maybe go to Coyote Point, which we'd heard was a fun destination in the south bay. What am I saying? It's the only destination in the south bay besides our home base! We sailed north for another hour or two, munching on the crackers and hummus and drinking the sodas that Noel brought. Nice touch, Noel! We were loving the unusually warm weather and mild conditions out on the bay.
We never did make it to Coyote Point, because I had plans later that afternoon and was already going to be an hour or two late. So we headed back under the bridge -- piece of cake going south -- and back to the Redwood City channel. We even rigged the sails wing-and-wing for a while on the way back.
The next day, I plotted our course on Google Earth. (Yes, this is where the geekiness comes into play.) If you'd like to see where we went, you can download my KML files below. Download them all, if you want to see all of the placemarks and our course. If you just want to see our course, only download the last one.
M7 at the dock (placemark)
Redwood City Channel (placemark)
Eastern South Bay (placemark)
San Mateo Bridge (placemark)
North of the Bridge (placemark)
Our Course (path)
After you download these files, double-click each one to launch Google Earth and play these files.
Note: You must have Google Earth installed on your computer to play these files. You can download Google Earth free!
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