Mid-Bay Crew Transfer!

Kerry organized a group of six of us to sail together on Sunday. So we got two Merits—Sandi, Steve, and Aña (Steve's daughter) on one and Kerry, Norbert, and me on the other. We all sailed out the channel more or less together around noon. We were trying to race, but Steve's boat was trailing us by longer and longer distances, so we just kept going.

As we sailed out the channel, we saw a tug boat towing in a small plane. That's right, a v-tail Bonanza! According to a local news report, a father and son had taken off from San Carlos Airport (SQL) the day before, had engine trouble, and ditched just south of the San Mateo Bridge. After the plane had sunk, they swam to shore unharmed.

Once we got out of the channel, we headed out to the wreck, since Kerry had never been there. Around 3pm, Sandi called and said that Steve and Aña wanted to head back in and that she'd like to transfer to our boat. None of us had ever done a boat-to-boat crew transfer before, but Kerry led us through it with ease.

First, both boats attached the fenders to the sides we planned on Sandi disembarking/boarding, and we furled the jibs to get them out of the way. Then Norbert and I attached the bow and stern lines, so we could throw them to Steve. When we got close enough, Norbert threw the bow line to Sandi, who wrapped it around the lifeline on the bow of Steve's boat and threw the end back to Norbert. This way, we were connected, but Steve didn't have to climb up on the foredeck to detach the line after the transfer was complete. I threw the stern line to Steve in the cockpit, but it came off the stern hitch just as I threw it, so that did no good at all! It didn't matter, though, because Sandi basically just stepped over onto our boat, gear bag and all, without missing a beat. It happened so fast that I actually missed the photo op! I did get one of her posing afterwards, though!

Soon after the mid-bay crew transfer, we had an accidental gybe. Norbert was at the helm, but he looked away for a moment to show Kerry a knot, and boom (literally)! When the boom started to come over, Kerry noticed it and warned Sandi soon enough for her to duck. I was on the foredeck, and by the time I noticed the boom coming over, Norbert was already making a correction. We were back on course in no time.

After that, the wind was still pretty light (under 8 knots, I'd say) but it was a gorgeous day and we had a couple more hours to play, so we decided to head for the S marker. Just then, we saw Dave's boat. He was out with a class, so we headed over toward him. When we got close enough, we challenged him to race us to S, but he said he needed to head back into the channel and invited us to race him back to the marina. We weren't ready to head in yet, though, so we headed over to S by ourselves.

After finding S without a problem, we decided to try to find X. It was easier than usual to see the racing markers with no waves, but it took a while to get close to it. By the time we got close enough to see X, it was after 4pm, and we decided to head back in.

By then, the wind had all but died. We were getting about 1-3 knots. So we begrudgingly started the engine and became a stinkpot for a few minutes. We quickly passed marker 12, and by the time we got into the channel, the wind had come up a bit. So we sailed down the channel and back into the marina.

It's always something new when I go out sailing with my friends! The mid-bay crew transfer was really fun, thanks to all who participated!

More pictures are on Picasa.