This Sunday was predicted to have all the elements lined up just right... a warm (high 70s on the water) sunny day, 10-15 knots of wind, an ebb on the way out and flood on the way back with low tide around 1pm, and sunset not until 7:30-8:00pm. So we reserved a Merit and met at Spinnaker Sailing in Redwood City bright and early (for us) at 10am.At the last minute, we decided to take out the 32' Catalina, which was really nice. It was more boat than Norbert and I needed, but it was very comfortable, a lot more managable than the Merit would have been under the conditions we ended up having, and it had a head... essential on an long sail with potentially no stops.
As we motored out of the channel, we passed by this guy, who was rowing his surfboard. We told him he was about 40 miles from the nearest surf, but he was having a good time. 
Each to his own...
Each to his own...We had a little breeze as we came out of the channel (maybe 6 knots), but it was dead air for most of the first couple of hours. We actually had to motor a couple of times when it was literally 0 knots. Even north of the bridge, where we thought we'd get more wind, it was pretty quiet.
As we were crossing the middle of the bay, we noticed something colorful on the water. 
Norbert thought he saw a strobe light, so we thought we might have a real rescue on our hands. Off we went to investigate. As you can see, we ably rescued the bouquet of balloons that no doubt slipped out of some birthday child's hands. We're always happy to do our part in cleaning up the bay.
Norbert thought he saw a strobe light, so we thought we might have a real rescue on our hands. Off we went to investigate. As you can see, we ably rescued the bouquet of balloons that no doubt slipped out of some birthday child's hands. We're always happy to do our part in cleaning up the bay.The wind picked up about 4 miles north of the San Mateo finally bridge, around a mile from the beginning of the San Leandro channel, and we had a nice sail for about half an hour. Lining up with the channel was very tricky. 
The water is very shallow on the whole east side of the bay, and we kept getting warning alarms (to the point where we finally turned it off) that we had less than 3 feet of water below the keel. There were times when we had less than a foot below us, and that we a bit nerve wracking.
The water is very shallow on the whole east side of the bay, and we kept getting warning alarms (to the point where we finally turned it off) that we had less than 3 feet of water below the keel. There were times when we had less than a foot below us, and that we a bit nerve wracking.We finally got lined up correctly in the channel and centered ourselves between the markers to be sure we were in the deepest part of the channel. Just as we got to the last set of markers (13 and 14) and were about to enter the harbor in San Leandro, we hit a speed bump! It was dead low tide (we'd timed it that way, not realizing how shallow it was right in the channel), and we went aground. We'd been consulting two different charts and knew that it should be 5.5' deep there at MLL. 
However, we didn't know what the draft was on the Catalina 320. Apparently, it's got a 5.5' draft, because the depth sounder said we had 0 feet of water below us... or maybe low tide was below MLL. Anyway, we saw other boats going in (small motor boats with very small drafts, but still), so we decided to back-track a bit and try again slightly to the left side of the channel. No dice. We went aground again.
However, we didn't know what the draft was on the Catalina 320. Apparently, it's got a 5.5' draft, because the depth sounder said we had 0 feet of water below us... or maybe low tide was below MLL. Anyway, we saw other boats going in (small motor boats with very small drafts, but still), so we decided to back-track a bit and try again slightly to the left side of the channel. No dice. We went aground again.So we turned around and headed back to RWC without actually entering the San Leandro Harbor. But now we can say that we've been to San Leandro. Maybe we'll go again when the tide is slightly higher.
The wind came up in a big way on our way back, and we finally reefed at 22 knots. Considering there were only two of us on board, it was really nice to have a boat where all the rigging was brought back into the cockpit, so I could reef from behind the dodger by myself w
hile Norbert was at the helm. Actually, at some point, he hove to and ran up to the mast to jump the reefing line a bit, but it was pretty easy to do that in this boat.
hile Norbert was at the helm. Actually, at some point, he hove to and ran up to the mast to jump the reefing line a bit, but it was pretty easy to do that in this boat. Amazingly, we fought the wind all the way back, even though we were mostly on a beam or broad reach all the way. Having left the docks around 10:45am and returning around 6pm, we made pretty good time for the distance travelled about 25 NM. I'm sunburned. Norbert was smart and put on sunscreen. Oh well... It was a great day... more fun than I've had in a long time.
More pictures from the day are in my Picasa web album.
No comments:
Post a Comment