Sailing Under the Dumbarton Bridge

Dave and I got to Spinnaker around noon on Saturday and took out M4. We weren't sure where we'd go and had no idea if we'd have enough wind to get out of the south bay. We had a flood tide until about 2pm, though, so we decided it was a good day to head south toward the Dumbarton Bridge. The flood on the way there and ebb on the way back would push us in the right direction if there wasn't enough wind.

It took us forever to get out of the channel. We must have tacked 20-30 times in extremely light wind... maybe 3 knots. By the time we got out of the channel, the wind was starting to pick up, and we headed southeast with the wind and tide.

We went under the bridge around 3pm—my fifth of the five major bridges on the bay! Yippee! We continued south to the old Dumbarton Railroad Bridge, which was really cool! The RR bridge was destroyed at the western end several years ago, but we saw people walking all the way out to the end from the eastern side.

The Dumbarton RR Bridge is a swing bridge, which means that the center of the bridge pivots around a huge pivot pier. It swings open for boats to go through and swings closed for trains to pass over it. Of course, there are no trains anymore, so it just stays open all the time now for boats to pass through. It makes a totally eerie creeking noise as you pass by. Watch this movie and listen to the creeking.

By the time we turned around to head home, the wind had come up, and the tide started to ebb, so there were lots of waves. If you've ever sailed with Dave, you know he almost never uses the engine, but he decided to motor through the swing bridge upwind, since the opening is only about 20 feet wide. Safety first! We killed the engine after clearing the RR bridge and started beating upwind all the way to the channel. With around 15-18 knots of wind, now we were sailing!

By the time we entered the channel, the wind was starting to die down again. But, not wanting to be stinkpots, we sailed on a beam reach all the way down the channel and into the slip. It was another wonderful, relaxing day of sailing!

More pictures are available on Picasa.