Free Ride Out of Sausalito

Remember my story about the shroud that broke? Well, it turned out that Modern Sailing did the right thing and comp'd me a free boat for a day. I tried for weeks to gather the original crew from that day, but I just couldn't find a day when everyone could make it. So I put a stake in the ground for May 18, and 4 out of the original 7 of us were able to make it (Jean, Kerry, Norbert, and myself). I invited Sandi and Alice along, too, because we had plenty of space and they're fun to have around.

As we drove up to Sausalito together in Kerry's SUV (thanks, Kerry!), we talked about two possible destinations for the day. Our first choice was out the gate and up the coast. The winds were going to be light and so were the currents, so it would be a good day to venture outside the gate. Our second choice was turning north up past the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge to see what there is to see in the San Pablo Bay.

The Bay to Breakers race was running that morning all across the city, so Kerry decided to drive around—across the San Mateo Bridge, north on 880, across the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge, and south on 101 to Sausalito. It ended up taking us about an hour, which might actually be shorter than the more direct route we usually take straight north on 101 through the city.

As we neared the coast, we could see the thick fog hanging over the coast and decided it was not a good day for coastal cruising. What fun is it if you can't see anything? So we picked up Carita, a 32' C&C, and headed north around Tiburon toward San Pablo Bay in about 8-10 knots of wind. As soon as we turned the corner out of site of the gate, we came to a dead stop. The tide was still flooding technically, but it was pretty much max slack. Clearly, there wasn't enough wind up there for a day of sailing. So now what?

Jean suggested that we head down toward Treasure Island, sail around it and back. So we headed across the slot and certainly found our wind! We reefed the main before we got into serious wind, partially furled the jib after a while, and then reefed the main again. Hardly any of the main was showing, but it was just right for the 25-30 knot winds we were getting crossing the slot.

We rounded the island to starboard, and as soon as we were in the lee of the island, the wind lightened to about 5 knots or less. On the southwest side of the island, it died down to the point where we had to start the engine to keep from drifting south. As soon as we came out of the lee of the city, the wind picked up again, and we were off!

We wanted to get back to Sausalito by about 5-5:30pm for the free BBQ at Modern Sailing. In addition to giving us a free charter for the day, they invited us to their club BBQ. What nice people! The sail back was nice, and we buttoned up the boat and headed for the scent of burning charcoal.

We ran into Curt (who'd sailed with us for KFOG Kaboom!) at the BBQ. He'd been on the club sail and wondered why he wasn't invited to sail with us. I explained how this was a comp'd charter, and we were mostly the same crew that ran into problems with the broken shroud. But he decided that this was my first string crew, and the title kind of stuck.

It was a very relaxing day out on the water, and a lovely time was had by all. Please check out my Picasa web album for more pictures by Alice and me.