Westpoint Marina and Grooves in the Muck

The day after Thanksgiving, Dave and I took out a Merit for a few hours of peace and quiet out on the water. We knew the wind was light, but we hoped for a few windy spots on the bay... and did actually get some real sailing in for a while.

We sailed out of the slip in 0 knots. That's right... no wind, both sails up, no motor. Dave pushed us off the dock and then almost fell out of the boat as he helped us avoid hitting the new Cal 24 parked at the end of the fairway, directly behind us as I backed out. Off we went at about 1/10 knot out of the marina. It took about an hour for us to get out into the main channel—200 yards or so—at which point, Dave decided to start the engine. I had just finished eating my lunch and didn't have a problem drifting around the basin, but when Dave wants to use the engine, you know there's no wind at all! ☺

After Dave started the engine, I took the helm and motored us up the channel, so Dave could eat his lunch. We'd sailed past the Westpoint Slough several times and noticed the new channel markers a few weeks ago. Then our friend Mike told us he'd gone down there one day to check out the new Westpoint Marina being build, so we ventured in. Dave had been hiking down there before they flooded the basin, but he hadn't seen the docks in the water yet. I'd never been down that way, so it was something new to do on a light wind day.

The slough is narrow, and it was nearing low tide, so we stayed right in the middle to avoid going aground. We were still motoring, so we had plenty of control. Dave took the helm part way in so I could shoot some pictures. This is going to be a beautiful marina!

After exploring the marina, we headed back to the main channel and out to the bay. The wind had picked up by that time, so we shut down the engine and sailed. Actually, we got some pretty good wind... 8-10 knots is my guess. We were actually heeling for a while, so we were having fun. Still, we only had about 3-1/2 hours out there, so we made it as far as marker 12, rounded it, and headed back.

By the time we got to the channel, the wind had died down a bit, but we kept sailing. The tide was so low by this time that we could see more of the exposed mud and muck than I've ever seen before. Dave pointed out that the grooves in the muck are from boats going aground, so I shot a bunch of pictures of the keel and engine grooves. For more pics of the Westpoint Marina and grooves in the muck, check out my Picasa web album!

About half way down the channel, I finally convinced Dave that we were going backwards, so he fired up the engine again and took us in. We were going so slowly that we were able to flake the main, put the cover on, and get the boat almost completely buttoned up before we ever hit the dock. The sun was setting as we returned to the dock... a beautiful ending to a lovely day.

Took My Kids Sailing

The day before Thanksgiving, my kids were all in town. So we decided that was a good opportunity to go sailing. I'm not ready for Finn to come along yet. He's 2 now, but he can't sit still, and there's really no way to strap him down in a Merit. So we left Emily home with Finn, and she made all the desserts for Thanksgiving.

Dan, Jen, and Matt all came along. None of them knew how to sail, although Dan has some experience with lasers and cats, and Matt has lots of fishing/motor boat experience. They all picked it up pretty quickly, though, and had lots of questions... most of which I could answer... some of which I referred them to Dave at dinner that night.

We headed out toward the bridge with about 5-8 knots of wind. They got pretty good at tacking, and we even went wing-and-wing on the downwind return. The day was relatively uneventful except for me skippering with a boat full of newbies for the first time. We all had a lot of fun, though, and they all thanked me for the experience. I think maybe they'll go out sailing with me again sometime... I hope so, anyway!

More pics of this day and Thanksgiving at my house are in my Picasa web album!

Redwood Cup Race

Yesterday was the Redwood Cup Race, hosted by Sequoia Yacht Club. I was invited to sail on Melilani, Rich Butts's J105, a beautiful 32' racing boat. Stan was the skipper, Alex the tactician, and Paul, Niko, and I crewed. Rich had elbow surgery a few weeks ago, so he just came along for the ride.

We all arrived at the boat around 11am and took the next hour or so to rig it and practice spinnaker handling at the dock. We left around 12:45pm for the starting line (marker 20 in the channel) and got a chance to practice raising and dousing the spinnaker once and then got ready for the start.

We made a good start, crossing the line just after the official start time. The race was relatively uneventful... light wind at first, picking up about mid-afternoon. Honestly, I don't have a good sense of which boats were ahead of us, behind us, who we passed at what point, or anything, because I was looking at the telltales on the jib almost the whole time, trying to get that sail trim just right!

As soon as we rounded the mark, marker 12, we raised the spinnaker. The set was good, and we were able to furl the jib, which is a whole heck of a lot easier than on Smokin J, where we have to lower it and try to bunch it up in the bow pulpit and keep it out of the way of the spinnaker trimmer and out of the water.

Sailing down to marker 2 was fast and easy. We were getting up to 13 knots of wind at that point and moving at 5-7 knots. Stan turned into the channel at marker 3, and Niko and I did a perfect gybe (according to Alex). Yeah!

We were in the last leg of the race, sailing down the channel, when all of a sudden the spinnaker tack let go, and the leading edge of the chute was flapping in the breeze. At Rich's and Alex's instructions, Niko tried to lower the sock to douse the chute, but the sock lines were fouled, and he couldn't get it down. Alex handed me the spinnaker sheet and I took over trimming as he went up on the foredeck to help Niko. At some point, someone raised the jib. I was so focused on keeping the spinnaker out of the water that I didn't even notice who did that!

Alex and Niko brought the spinnaker all the way to the stern to get it around the jib and into the boat. But when they got to the stern, they realized that the sock line was free, so they had to bring it all the way back to the foredeck, and then they were able to douse it and lower it safely into the hatch. Phew! That was exciting!

While all this was happening, Alex kept telling Stan to keep sailing the boat, which he did, so we didn't lose any ground in the race during all that activity.

Later, when I asked Alex to explain what had happened, he said not to worry about it... that this sort of thing happens all the time and that since nothing broke and no one was hurt, it was no big deal. Ok then.

By the time we got the spinnaker safely down below and returned to our regularly scheduled roles, we were close to the finish line. We finished the race in the fourth position. Thanks to Stan for inviting me to crew for him, to Rich for having me on his boat, to Alex for always helping me improve my sailing skills, and to Paul and Niko for being such supportive crew members. It was another great day out on the bay!

Sausalito and Jack London Square

Yesterday, I went sailing with Emily and Amy out of Sausalito again, and this time I brought my friend, Sandi, and Amy brought her boyfriend, Sergei. It was a really fun group, and we had wind for a change... yeah!!!

Sandi and I were a little late arriving, and the others had the boat (the C&C 32 again) all ready to go when we got there, so we hopped on and left right away. After motoring part way out of the Sausalito harbor, we set the sails and caught a few knots of wind.

Amy and Sergei are going to BVI for a week on Monday and chartering a 40-foot sailboat by themselves. Amy has BCC certification and not much experience, and this was Sergei's first time on a sailboat, so they're a little nervous about this adventure. The good news is that Sergei has spent a lot of time on motor boats and is very mechanically inclined, so he was interested in learning and picked things up pretty quickly. It was fun teaching him how to sail and showing them both little tricks I've picked up along the way. They both seemed very grateful for my help.

Our plan was to head over to the Oakland Estuary, tie up at the guest dock at Jack London Square, and have lunch at Scott's Seafood. The fog was really thick in places and kept moving around the bay. At one point, we couldn't see the Bay Bridge or the city. A few minutes later, we could see the city but nothing in the east bay. We continued to sail downwind, though, through the fog at about 4-5 knots. We actually went through the fog bank that was by then hanging in the slot and came out into bright, warm sunshine on the other side. Now we could see the Bay Bridge perfectly but could no longer see anything north of the bridge. It was quite beautiful and eerie at the same time.

We decided to sail through the western span of the Bay Bridge, so we could see the damage done last week by the tanker that hit the bridge piling in the fog. It was awesome!

After consulting a chart, we found our way into the estuary and sailed past the enormous container ships being loaded with cargo. The wind died down quite a bit, so we decided to motor the rest of the way to our lunch destination. I wanted some experience docking a boat with a wheel and an inboard diesel engine, so I docked it first at a dock that turned out not to be a guest dock and then moved it to a guest dock. It was good experience for me, and I did ok the first time and really well the second time.

Lunch at Scott's was excellent! We all really got to know each other better over lunch and did a bunch of networking, email exchange, etc.

After lunch, we started beating upwind, but it was slow going, and Emily got concerned about getting the boat back on time. So we motored the rest of the way out of the estuary and then caught some really good wind (maybe 12-15 knots!) and sailed the rest of the way to Sausalito harbor. As we were approaching the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, we could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, which made a really nice picture.

Once we were in the wind shadow of the hills, we lost the wind again, so we motored back to the marina. Emily agreed to let me drive the boat into the slip, which went very well. There was some concern that I was too close to the boats across from our slip, but I didn't hit anything and got it in in one try, so I was pleased.

All in all, it was a great day of sailing!

Sailing on Alex's Boat with No Wind

Sandi and I were going to go kayaking in Monterey on Saturday for a change of pace. Then we decided to see if Norbert wanted to sail (sailing addicts that we are!). He did, so we reserved a Merit and planned to go to Coyote Point. Then Friday night, I got email from Alex asking a bunch of people if anyone wanted to sail on his boat Saturday afternoon. I did, so I asked if Sandi and Norbert could come along, and we shifted our plans to the bigger boat, bigger group of people, and the potential to fly the spinnaker and learn new things.

Alex's crew was Monica, Michael, Alex Eiser (referred to as Eiser to keep the Alexes straight), Norbert, Sandi, and me. After removing all the covers, washing down the foredeck, and raising and furling the jib, we finally got underway around 1pm. Alex motored out of Bair Island Marina just before low tide and managed to go aground in the narrow channel just outside the marina. I was glad it wasn't me at the helm (that time, at least—read on)! It took a while to get unstuck, but we did and then continued motoring out to the bay.

When we got out in the middle of the bay, it was dead low tide, and there was no wind at all. I'm not saying it was only 5 knots or something. Literally, the wind meter said "0" and then "---"! We sat there drifting with no sails up for quite a while... ate lunch... some had a beer or a glass of wine.

We finally noticed a little wind up toward the San Mateo Bridge, so we motored up that way, put up the sails, I took the helm, and we actually got to "beat upwind" and under the bridge in about 2-3 knots. As usual, there was a little more wind north of the bridge... maybe about 4 knots. So we turned around, headed downwind, and raised the spinnaker, but we were barely able to keep it flying. If I fell off even a little bit, the spinnaker started to collapse.

Shortly after we got south of the bridge, with me focusing intently on keeping the spinnaker flying, I took my eyes off the depth meter for a second, and we went aground... again. This time it wasn't so bad. Alex motored us off in a few minutes, and then I took back the helm and focused on getting us into deeper water. I guess I'm not used to a boat with such a big draft. I know I've sailed Merit 25s in that part of the bay before... maybe not at dead low tide, though.

Anyway, after a while, Norbert took over the helm, and I took over the main. We sailed back to the channel, gybing the spinnaker 5-6 times. Alex commented that we'd gybed it more times that day than he'd done in all the time he's owned the boat.

Just as we were really getting the hang of it, Alex asked Monica to trim the spinnaker. She was pulling on the sheet but getting nowhere, so I offered to grind for her. I started grinding when suddenly I heard a snap, and the spinnaker went flying (not in a good way). We knew that the aft block through which the spinnaker sheet was threaded was twisted around and unable to pivot with the angle of the sheet. What we didn't realize was that the metal edge of the block was fraying the sheet and, eventually, it cut it all the way through. Ugh... the second snafu of the day that I felt I had caused. Alex was nice about it, though, and we were able to pull in the spinnaker before it hit the water... and no one was hurt, so that was good.

After that, we were basically back to the channel, so we unfurled the jib and sailed as far as we could and then just motored the rest of the way in. All in all, it was a really nice day... warm, sunny, and relaxing. Thanks for a fun afternoon, Alex!

For more pictures from that day, check out my Picasa web album!