KFOG Kaboom!

Saturday was KFOG Kaboom!, the annual music festival and fireworks show put on by the San Francisco radio station KFOG (104.5 FM). I thought it would be fun to sail around the bay, listen to the KFOG concert on a boat's stereo, and watch the fireworks from the water. Knowing a lot of people would want to go, I chartered Late Harvest, a 39' J-120, from Modern Sailing Academy in Sausalito for the evening. What a sweet ride!

My crew was supposed to be 9 people (10 including me), but Sandi didn't make it. She ended up sitting on 101 with her engine off for two hours because of a horrible accident just south of San Jose. When the traffic started moving again, the rest of us were already in Sausalito and ready to take off, so she just turned around and went home. Poor Sandi missed a fun evening.

Eight of us converged on MSA around 4pm in various cars, and we were to pick up Ron at Pier 40 around 6pm. We got to Sausalito a little later than I'd planned, but the boat was late getting back from its class, so it all worked out. We got a tour of the boat from Stan, one of the instructors, and Jim, the actual boat owner. Everything looked hunky-dorey, so off we went around 4:30pm.

Leaving the dock was way easier than the usual tight squeeze at MSA. Late Harvest was on the end dock, so I backed out with plenty of space and had a wide open space to turn and head out of the marina.

The wind picked up when we were about 10 minutes out, so up went the sails, off went the motor, and on went the smiles on my crew's faces. It was a beautiful sunny day, warm enough for just a light sweater, and a really nice wind at about 14 knots. Jean took the helm so I could call Ron to let him know our ETA, and she looked so happy that I didn't have the heart to take back the helm.

As we sailed across the bay, Jean shared the helm with Norbert, and he took us under the Bay Bridge and around the corner into South Beach Harbor. We pulled right up to the pump out dock, tied up, called Ron to let him know we were there, picked him up, and off we went.

As soon as we were out of the harbor, we started looking for a place to anchor. The festival was right on the Embarcadero, and several boats were already anchored right outside the South Beach sea wall. It looked like a good place to hang out and wait for the fireworks. But there was still daylight and wind, and our main purpose was to sail, after all, so Florin took the helm and sailed us around for a bit.

As we sailed around, we tried to get KFOG on the stereo. We got the stereo to work, checked all of the settings, increased the volume, but there was nothing coming out of the speakers. Curt attached the extra speakers to the stern, as Jim had shown him, but no sound came out of those either. Bummer! We really wanted to listen to the concert!

Around 7pm, Norbert decided he was hungry and had to eat, so we headed back toward South Beach and anchored without too much ado. The boats were pretty close to each other, so we put out our fendors and watched for a while to make sure we were all swinging together.

Dinner was a feast! We started off with margaritas provided by the skipper, and wine was out for those who preferred it. Gina very quickly whipped up some very garlicky bruschetta and set out her yummy spinach and pasta salad. Jean's home-cooked chicken was tendor and delicious. Mihaela had made two homemade breads, which were incredible. I brought a spinach salad and a mixed green salad with about 20 types of veggies. Alice brought the most perfect strawberries I've ever eaten... red throughout, and every bite was delicious and sweet.

Next came the desserts... Alice's homemade brownies and Ron's scrumptious pastries of various types. Norbert had brought every kind of bar on a stick that Häagen Dazs makes! Seriously, there were about 8 or 9 different kinds! Ahhh... that was good.

At one point during dinner, Norbert look up through the hatch, noticed a very large yacht (80-100') right up close and personal. He shouted "Boat!" and bounded up the companionway stairs to see if we were about to hit it. We had swung around quite a bit, but it didn't look like we were going to hit. Ron pulled up about 10 feet of anchor just to make sure, and we returned to the cabin to finish dinner.

During dinner, there were a few close calls like that. At one point, a stinkpot pulled up our anchor while they were pulling up their own! Not just our rode... the whole anchor! Some guy in shorts and a t-shirt (seriously, the temp had dropped to about 50 degrees by then) was able to untangle it from their rode and release it. Once we thought it hit bottom (which was about 60'), we tugged on our rode a bit, and it seemed to have stuck, so we returned, once again, to our meal.

Just as we were finishing our feast, the music from the land got louder (so we did hear it after all) and the fireworks began. The fireworks were spectacular. Please check my Picasa web album for more pictures.

The fireworks ended around 9:30pm. We pulled up anchor and headed directly into South Beach Harbor to drop off Ron. The pump out dock was full, so we motored around for a few minutes, found an empty slip, and dropped him off. Getting out of that marina was a little hairy... darkness, several kayakers with a death wish crossing right in front of us, boats of all sizes coming in and out. I successfully maneuvered us out and we were on our way.

This was the first time I've ever sailed at night. It was different. I wasn't totally thrown by it, but I admit it was a little disconcerting. At some point, I handed off the helm to Norbert, and he navigated us back to Sausalito using his new GPS. Good thing we had the GPS to guide us, because the fog had rolled in around dusk, and although we weren't actually in the fog, we couldn't see many of the landmarks we would ordinarily use to guide us... like, uh, the Golden Gate Bridge. We couldn't see the top of it at all, and the fog had settled under it, so we couldn't see much of the supporting structure either. It just looked like a road across the water. Eerie...

Back in Sausalito, we overshot the marina because we were in the outer channel and couldn't make out what was what on the land. So we turned back around, headed in closer to the land, and I guided us in. Getting in that wide open slip was pretty easy. I do like that location in the marina for getting in and out!

We had the boat all emptied out, buttoned up, and showered off, and we were on our way home by about 12:30am. What a lovely evening! Thanks to all of my crew for making it possible to charter such a sweet boat, for bringing such a fantastic feast, and for being such great company! We'll do it again soon!

Special thanks to Florin for all the great daytime pictures!