and a number of other things in common and really got to be good friends. We're still close friends to this day.Bonnie's brother lives in Concord (east bay), so she's out here 2-3 times a year, and we always try to get together. This time, I decided that I wanted to give Bonnie and Ashley a sailboat ride, so I organized a sail and chartered Oxygen, a 39' Beneteau, with Bonnie, Ashley (11), and a few friends. Actually, my son and his new girlfriend were on the boat as well, so it was a real treat for me.
We started out from Sausalito,
as usual, with moderate winds and pretty strong currents... a flood, as I recall. Oxygen has a furling main, and as soon as we started hauling it out, the boom car detached, and the ball bearings started falling out of the boom all over the cockpit... shooting my crew! So back we went to MSA to have it fixed. They fixed it quickly while we ate lunch, and then we were on our way again.Almost as soon as we raised the sails, the wind freshened and the boat started to heel, which was a big surprise to the newbies on board... and there were several newbies on board.
As we headed out toward the gate into thicker fog, Ashley started to feel sick. Because of the wind out of the west and the flooding tide, it would have taken us a while to get out the gate... not a good idea with someone on board who wasn't feeling well. But I had a back-up plan.
We turned around and headed back toward the cityscape, where it wasn't quite as rough... and then someone put Ashley at the helm. That was cool.Once she got busy at the helm, Ashley felt better and was actually having some fun. It was entertaining for the rest of us (at least for me) to be on a boat with an 11-year-old steering. Norbert and Jerry stayed with her and took the wheel when necessary... and she was actually pretty good! We headed right over to Pier 1-1/2 (which I had scoped out earlier in case Bonnie or Ashley didn't want to stay on the boat all day—my back-up plan).
Pier 1-1/2 was just finished within the past few months, and not too many people knew about it yet. It was right in the middle of the huge ferry docks at the
Ferry Building on the Embarcadero at Market Street. What a great location! So we pulled right up to the empty dock and dropped off Bonnie and Ashley. They hung out there at the food courts and then walked a few blocks and got the BART train back to Concord. It worked out perfectly.Jerry took the helm on the way out of the pier area and clipped a tiny little light on the corner of the dock on his way out of there. There was a nice young couple having a
drink at a table on the pier above the dock who saw the whole thing, but I just said quietly "Let's get out of here!" and we left.After that, we headed across the bay, out behind Angel Island with Dan at the helm. The sail across the bay was windy and fun. Then we headed up to San Pablo Bay, where the wind died down. We actually turned on the motor at times, but we did have a few long, quiet drifts in between.
We decided to go up under the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge and on up to Brothers, the twin rocks off Point Richmond, and take a look at the Point Richmond Lighthouse B&B on East Brother. Guests at the
B&B drive to Point Richmond by land and get ferried over in a dingy, and then they're stuck there on the island until they get ferried back the next day. That might be fun to do sometime. Unfortunately, there are no public docks on the island, so we couldn't get off and look around.By the time we finished circling East Brother, it was time to head back. It was a nice, calm sail back to Sausalito. Some headed home, but six of us made our now traditional pilgrimage down the street to the Spinnaker Restaurant for dinner. A great time was had by all.
Thanks to Bonnie, Sandi, and Dan for the pictures!
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