All-Girl Crew on Bella Donna

I met my new friend, Pat, when I was "pledging" for the Sequoia Yacht Club. They don't actually call it pledging. That's my word. I was doing my first reading, and Pat was doing her second... and she got voted in that night. A bunch of us new female members (and almost members) had drinks and dinner together that night and started talking about upcoming club events.

One of the events in January is a cruise-out to Jack London Square with dinner and music at Yoshi's that evening. Pat invited Sandi and me to join her on her boat, Bella Donna, a 42' Catalina, for that cruise-out. Sandi's not sure she can make it, because she might be bringing her own boat that she just bought up from LA, but I gladly accepted! [leaving space here for a picture of Bella Donna]

Since Pat and I had never sailed before and she's in the process of filling in the skills she hasn't learned before, we thought it would be a good idea for us to sail together. So on Saturday, Pat, Sandi, and I headed out of West Point Harbor on Bella Donna, for a little practice.

First, Pat practiced back-and-fills and docking. Then we motored out the channel, had lunch on the way, and hoisted the main and unfurled the jib as we entered the bay. There was no wind to speak of. We floated around for a while and did a couple of tacks and gybes, but there wasn't much opportunity to practice.

Captain Ron was out single-handing Hazel Rose. He'd had some engine trouble and wanted to check out some things out there. So we got a few good pics of him sailing his home. There were almost no other boats out there that day in the light wind.

After a short time, we motored back to the marina, where Pat asked me to practice putting Bella Donna in her slip. I went in bow first just fine, but when she asked me to back her in, I did it, but it wasn't very pretty. Gotta get some more practice at that!

After putting everything away and cleaning her off, we headed over to SYC for some beverages and snacks. We ended up meeting up with some other friends there and had a delightful dinner together before heading home for the evening.

This was Pat's first all-girl sail, so it was very special all the way around. Thanks, Pat! It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to our cruise-out weekend with another all-girl crew!

Lisa's First "Big Boat" Charter

About a week ago, Lisa (who I'd met at beer can races last summer, sailed with once in the north bay, and took my cat class with) said she was going to charter a boat from MSA the day after Christmas and asked if I and a few others would like to join her. Finally, someone else was doing the organizing! I said absolutely!

Off we went—Lisa, Dave, and I—with no idea if it would be bitter cold, rainy, windy, no wind, or what. We knew there would be a strong ebb pretty much the whole time we'd be out, so we knew we couldn't go out the gate unless we had a pretty strong wind from the west... and that certainly didn't happen!

Lisa had chartered Zara, a 31' Beneteau, because she knew that was one of the few boats in MSA's charter fleet that I hadn't sailed and wanted me to have a new boat experience. This boat felt really small to both of us after being on the cat for the whole weekend two weeks before. The cockpit was fine for three of us, but any more than four people would have been crowded. What we liked least about Zara was that the boom is right at eye level for the person at the helm. Very disconcerting... not to mention that we were all bumping into it all day—even me at only 5'3"!

It turned out to be cold and sunny with not much wind at all. We basically motored around, stopping now and then in hopes of catching some wind. We tried the eastern side of Angel Island, because the wind web sites I watch were predicting more wind out that way, but it was not to be.

We probably sailed about 20 minutes the whole day, but the sun was out all day, and we were out on the water, so I was happy just drifting around. We stopped at the Spinnaker restaurant before heading home and had a wonderful dinner, as usual.


Not too many pictures... just a relaxing day and a great opportunity for Lisa to experience her first "big boat" charter in the north bay.

Multi-hull Cruising Catamaran Class

A couple of months ago, I started thinking about the withdrawal symptoms I'd felt last winter when there wasn't enough wind to sail for weeks on end. This year, I wanted to find a way to sail through the winter (so to speak). I'd heard that catamarans (the big cruising kind) were much faster in light wind than monohulls and thought it might be a good idea to get some training, so I could add the cat as another option for chartering in the winter. I also thought it would be fun to take a bunch of friends in such a big, spacious boat up the delta for a weekend or two in the summer.

So I looked into multihull cruising catamaran classes at the various sailing schools in the bay area and decided on MSA. I liked the instructors I'd met there so far, and they had the most reasonable chartering rates of all of the clubs, particularly since I'm already a member.

There were 5 of us in the class, Stan Lander was the instructor, and we were on a Seawind 1000 (33' long by 24' wide cruising catamaran) called Bluewater.

I knew one other person in the class from beer can racing in RWC... Lisa. Lisa had just completed her bareboat certification at MSA and knew one other guy from that class who was also taking this class... and they'd had Stan as their instructor for that class, too. Of the 5 of us students, 4 already had bareboat certification (a requirement to get certified at the end of this class). The fifth student was chartering a cat in the Caribbean in March and just wanted to get familiar with it. He didn't care about certification.

It was the worst weather of the season so far... really cold (I mean it... in the 40s during the day!) and raining all weekend. We actually had a few hours without rain on Saturday, but it was overcast all day, so it was bitter cold. And it poured all day Sunday.

Even with the bad weather, the class was excellent, and Stan was a great teacher! We practiced new techniques for tacking and gybing, and learned how to do back-and-fills and docking with twin engines. That was really cool!

We spent most of Sunday morning taking the written test at the "kitchen table" on Bluewater with Stan motoring us up to Paradise Cove. There we practiced anchoring with a bridle and then practiced crew overboard drills on the way back. Poof! In two days, I had yet another ASA certification and another option for chartering in the winter... or so I thought!

The other students and I got along great and decided that we wanted each other to be there the first time we take out our other sailing friends on our new toy. So we made a plan to charter Bluewater in January and all go sailing together... and take a few friends along to teach them the ropes.

I got on MSA's online reservation web site the next day and discovered that Bluewater was booked until March! Long story short... it turns out that Bluewater's owner took her over to the east bay for some maintenance and racing over the winter and wouldn't be bringing her back until the spring. Bummer! If I'd known that, I would have taken the course at another school where I could charter the cat right away or would have waited until the spring. Anyway, a couple of us complained, and MSA said they'd try to get us a couple of days on Bluewater over the winter. Failing that, they're going to give us a free refresher course in the spring when she returns to the fleet.

The best laid plans... so there probably won't be any cat sailing this winter. :(

And, no, I didn't take any pictures. It was too cold, too wet, and I was way too busy most of the time!

Leisurely Sail with Friends

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, I went sailing. This is terrible! I remember who was there (Sandi, Jean, and my new friend, Jack) and that I chartered a boat out of Sausalito. But I can't remember which boat (possibly Carita) or what the day was like.

I think we had a strong ebb, light winds, mild winter temps, and sun most of the day. I think we got about 10-12 kts intermittently throughout the day but ended up doing a lot of motoring. I didn't take any pictures either, so there's nothing to jog my memory. Ugh...

I do know that Jack wants to learn to sail, so we showed him how to do some things and, at times, got him totally confused. He took the wheel at some point, though (when we did have a little wind) and did really well. We didn't make our usual dinner stop in Sausalito, but my sense is that it was a really relaxing day and that a good time was had by all.

If any of my crew remembers things I've forgotten, please post a comment! I promise to write these blog postings more regularly in the new year, so I don't forget! And I promise to take more pictures while I'm out to help me remember the day.

Spending the Day Outside the Gate

Saturday was one of the most pleasant days I've had out on the water yet! My crew consisted of five experienced sailors but I'd never sailed with any of them... and most of them didn't know each other. I knew Rick and Nancy from the BVIs and our 2-day Santa Cruz-Monterey trip, but they'd been on different boats on both trips. I'd met Debbie and Charlie, friends of Jean's, out at a Devil's Canyon Brewery one night, listening to blues. I knew Lisa from beer can races, but we'd never been on the same boat. We had one broken toe and one sprained hand among the crew. But they turned out to be a great sailing companions, and there was lots of interesting conversation and lots of great sailing!

The sun was shining, and the temp was around 78 degrees. The wind was out of the east, for a change... very light in most of the bay but a steady 12-13 knots in the slot. We were just about at max slack when we left Sausalito with an ebb all afternoon. The current didn't pick up until late afternoon, so there were virtually no waves.

After quickly checking out the beautiful, almost brand new Hanse 35 (still with no name, still with that new boat smell), we were off. As we motored out of Richardson Bay, we talked about where to go. We all agreed that we'd just sail wherever we could find wind. Our best option seemed to be out the gate, since most of the wind seemed to be in the slot, and it was the calmest water I'd ever seen under the bridge.

Once we got outside the gate, I thought it would be fun to head out to Mile Rock and Point Bonita. I'd read about them the day before, when I finally read the section in the MSA contract that states that their boats are not allowed beyond that point! Good thing we never took the boats down the coast, as we'd often thought about doing!

In the light wind, it took us quite a while to get out that far (only a mile, presumably), but we were all very happy to just float along quietly. The Hanse 35 has a self-tacking jib. Before I sailed this boat the first time, I thought that was lame. I like working the jib sheets, so not having to do anything on a tack seemed just wrong to me. But once I experienced it, I was pretty happy with it. As they took turns at the helm, my crew was impressed that they could each single-hand the tacks with the rest of us just sitting around relaxing. We had plenty of time to eat our lunches and enjoy each other's company.

After visiting the two end points of the land that comprises the Golden Gate of San Francisco, we headed back in to explore the bay. Lisa had never sailed in the north bay, so I wanted to take her around Alcatraz and maybe Angel Island. As soon as we headed back in, we were up against the big afternoon rollers hitting a 3-knot ebb, and we realized we were going nowhere fast. In fact, even though we were on a close haul with about 13 knots of wind, I think we were going backwards!

So on went the iron sail, and we motored the rest of the way to Alcatraz... at a very slow 3-knot pace. By the time we reached the island, it was close to 4pm, and the sun had already gone behind the hills of Marin. We decided to head back to Sausalito.

Motoring in was uneventful, and we managed to put away most everything on the boat before we even docked. I went down the wrong fairway at first and had to back out. Quite honestly, that was a bit nerve-wracking. I thought about using back-and-fill to pivot, but the fairway wasn't wide enough to accommodate a 35' boat. I made it out ok, though, headed down the correct fairway, and made a perfect landing, if I do say so myself (albeit a bit closer to the port-side dock than the intended starboard side)! Muchas gracias to Nancy for working the throttle for me. Good thing I took that private docking lesson a couple of months ago! It really helped!

After closing up the boat, five of us went to the Spinnaker restaurant and had a great dinner with a spectacular view of the city lights under perfectly clear skies. Ah... another great day of sailing in the bay!

Check out my Picasa web album for more pictures!

First Fall 6-Pack Sail

I've gotten way behind on my blogging after a very busy fall. But now I'm determined to get it caught up (although it's almost new years as I write this).

This was the first and last 6-pack sail of the fall, and all 6 of us weren't even there! Jean got some dreadful flu that week and couldn't go. But the other 5 of us and our guests had a wonderful time.

Kerry brought his wife, Ann, and teenage son, Christian. Norbert brought Karen, I brought a new friend, Scott, and Sandi and Alice brought themselves. We chartered the J-120, which Kerry's been dying to sail, and it was wonderful, as usual.

As I recall, the wind was light at times but really nice most of the day (15-20 kts). There was a wall of fog from east to west, obscuring the Bay Bridge and the city. The wind was light, as usual, out behind Angel Island, points east, and San Pablo Bay. I think there was also a strong ebb in the mid to late afternoon. So we headed out the Golden Gate Bridge first thing and then just sailed across the bay from north to south up to the wall of fog and back north to the entrance of Richardson Bay for the rest of the day... just staying out of the fog and in the good wind.

We had my iPod with us and managed to get the stereo working (which was not working during our KFOG Kaboom sail). So Christian had a good time entertaining us as he sang along with the songs he chose to play.

At some point, the wind increased, the waves got bigger, and Ann started to not feel well. So we turned up Raccoon Strait and headed for calmer conditions. As soon as we got into the Strait, we noticed some items floating on the water. Time for a debris overboard drill! Norbert was brilliant at getting us close enough to a black felt fedora, which Christian immediately adopted and then wore for the rest of the day. Then we went after what looked like a briefcase, but we couldn't get close enough without the potential of going aground. So, after several attempts to snag it, we finally gave up... much to Ann's chagrin. She'd managed to forget all about her seasickness when we got busy cleaning up the bay!

By the time that activity ended, it was time to head back to the marina. Everything on the boat was perfect, the day was gorgeous, and a great time was had by all.

Sandi, Alice, Scott, and I stopped at the Spinnaker restaurant for dinner before heading back to the south bay, and that was delightful, as usual.

Two-Day Sail - Santa Cruz to Monterey

On the last weekend in September, 11 friends and I chartered two boats from Pacific Yachting in Santa Cruz and sailed to Monterey, stayed overnight, and sailed back the next day. We planned this trip two months ahead and actually had enough people to fill three boats at one point. A few people bailed, and we ended up with 6 and 6 on Zazan, a 46' Beneteau and We're Outta Here, a 36' Catalina. The crews were (respectively):

• Skipper Jeremy with Chris, Dave G, Nancy, Paul, and Rick
• Skipper Kerry with Dave S, Norbert, Sandi, Todd, and myself

We gathered on the docks with so much stuff it looked like we were going to be out to sea for a month!
Almost as soon as we left Santa Cruz Harbor, Zazan took off—a much bigger and faster boat with much bigger sails. Before we separated, though, we all got our first look at a gray whale. What a sight!

Our sail to Monterey was long (about 5 hours) and uneventful, except for the pod of whales we found about half way across. We were socked in with fog, so we couldn't see land for most of the trip. We stayed on a heading of 150 and were basically on a beam reach the whole time.

As we neared Monterey, we came out of the fog and into a crisp sunny day. The coast looked magnificent. We were in radio contact with Zazan off and on during the day and entered the harbor shortly after they did. As we motored in, we passed a very cute otter and a long seawall full of barking sea lions... hundreds of them. I thought they were very cool... at least until I tried to sleep that night!

After we docked and prepped the boats for an overnight stay, we all gathered on Zazan for a happy hour. Then we wandered over to the famous Fisherman's Wharf and looked for a place that could accommodate all of us. Sure... 12 people on Fisherman's Wharf on a Saturday night... no problem! Actually, it wasn't a problem. The second restaurant we tried sat us right down, and it was actually quite a delicious meal according to all accounts. I think it was Domenico's On The Wharf. Please let me know if that was not the name of it!

After dinner, we wandered back to the boats in the fog and finally settled down for a good night's sleep. Uh, not really... not with the barking sea lions. We all wore ear plugs, but between the really LOUD barking sea lions and the unfamiliar bed, I really didn't sleep much.

The next morning, we all got up within an hour or so of each other, got ready, and walked down to Cannery Row for breakfast. We ate at Jeremy's favorite breakfast place, which was also quite good - Trailside Cafe.

Shortly thereafter, we set sail for Santa Cruz. Once again, it was one tack most of the way—a heading of 330 on a beam reach in fog the whole way. The most exciting part of that leg of the trip was the 30-40 minute show of orcas, grays, and dolphins. What a fantastic show! We just happened to sail right into their pod. We took down the sails and lingered with them as long as they stuck around. We got some awesome pictures! Be sure to check out my Picasa web album for lots more pictures than I could fit here.