May 24: Sailing the Bay

Before we left on this trip, Dave got in contact with some sailors via the internet and asked if we could possibly go out for a sail on the Bay. A very experienced instructor and one of his former students, an experienced racer, took us out in two boats. Here's a rough map of our course.


View SF Bay in a larger map

As we headed out, Mr. Boo flaked out in the cockpit to enjoy the ride. If you're not driving, you might as well be napping.


This was how we saw Alcatraz and the SF city skyline--from the water.


That is the racer on the left, streaking ahead of us past the Golden Gate Bridge, into what's called "the slot." Wind sort of funnels through there and into the bay, and you get a nice skipalong sail.


Dave and Spazzerific went with L in the Santana 22. They had great fun literally sailing circles around the MacGregor 26.

But we had fun too. Tiger Lily took this photo of B helping Mr. Boo take charge. Mr. Boo wanted to be the captain. B was an amazing, patient, calm and gentle teacher for us all.

We went out from Richardson Bay, past Alcatraz, under one side of the Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate bridge).


We sailed past some tankers...

A tugboat....

And Mr. Boo sailed us into the construction zone of the Bay Bridge on the far side of Treasure Island. We stopped for lunch on Treasure Island, then headed home behind Angel Island, through the Raccoon Straits. In the afternoon, the wind comes up, and we were dancing along pretty good.

This is B on the left, next to L, along with everybody but me (manning the camera). Thank you so much, SF sailors, for a great day and a fabulous learning experience! We want to adopt you forever!