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Our initial plan was to go out to say the Farallones Islands then to Half-Moon Bay, spend the night there, have breakfast some place nice over there, sail back on the Saturday, anchor at Clipper Cove, go over to Sam's for brunch, sail around the Bay and head back to the dock.
We didn't quite do this.
No Ocean sailing
First, we decided to go for a late start because of a late Thanksgiving celebration, of a late morning and of general lack of wind in the morning of our first day. Because we had a late start and because I didn't want to incur more fatigue by sailing well into the night, possibly on my own as I hadn't sailed with Cristin before and wasn't sure how things would pan out, I decided not to go out to the ocean the first day. Weather forecast was OK back then. Also, in general, I prefer to start with something small, especially with people who haven't sailed on Elise first, haven't sailed at all, haven't sailed in a long time or do not have short-handed experience. That way, if they want to cut the trip short, it's easy to head back to some sort of landmass. Once you're way out there in the Ocean, it might take a little longer...The ocean also is a more constrained environment so for someone who is trying to brush up on her sailing skills, adding the constraints of an uncomfortable heavy lifejacket, a harness and a tether, a boat that is moving much more than on the Bay would make the whole experience a lot more tiring.
On the second day, the forecast had announced some massive big swells and there can be some rogue waves in this area, as one gets closer to land. Arriving at night, or going around the Farallones, any buoy or getting into the HMB channel, close to breakers, etc...wasn't something I wanted to risk, particularly for no reason...There was report of a damaged boats and death of fishing men in SoCal. So sailing around the Bay sounded good. After a night roughing it on the boat, there might also be a change in plans required on part of Elise's first class passenger.
On the last day, there was no wind...(and Cristin had stated that she had enough sailing by then) - so I only did boat work...
The program
It took a while to set up the boat - actually, not so long given the number of hands from my perspective - but longer than it would for a day sail because we decided to set it up for offshoreto give ourselves some flexibility and because we had a lot more food and overnight camping equipment to stow away. We chose to have lunch on deck with some delicious pitta bread, hummus, tomatoes and bananas...and some nice cool beer (I am trying hard to become a true sailor)
I thought that I had sensed some impatience in my passenger but I wasn't entirely sure. Anyone who hasn't come on a sailboat may be surprised to see that it does require to be set up. We do not leave sails outside so they don't sit in the sun, we remove lines and blocks so they don't sit in the sun, salt and don't get stolen...Putting the boat in the water only took 20 minutes from start to finish, so most of the rigging was setting up sails and safety eqiupment.
Anyway, we met at the boat around 11:15AM, we left at 2PM after lunch. Cristin was driving and I was trimming sails. Wind conditions were perfect for learning and there was a gentle ebb. It was a nice setup, Cristin got to do some driving and I was 'single-handling' with Cristin as my human autopilot ;-) We sailed up and down, on a reach, we hoisted the spinnaker, jibes, tacked, etc...and we were doing really well. At night fall, we got to our anchorage at Clipper Cove.
Note that if anything, I got some good engine training and my weight training is paying off. I can lift it up easily, hold it with one arm while I fiddle with the other and I did a bunch of this lifting and lowering the engine throughout the weekend.
Now, I should have remembered that it gets pretty shallow at low tide on the Bay Bridge side of the cove and that there is a narrow way in just along the pier. But of course, I hadn't been here in a long time, I had spent most of the year offshore and running aground is the last thing I had to worry about. We did run aground though - quite embarrassing. Nothing major, it was just soft mud and we didn't even realize it initially. We thought that there might be a problem with the engine since we weren't going very far at all at full speed. Even more embarrassing :) A couple of live-aboards from Redwood City happened to sail by on a 30+ footer. Their intention was also to anchor in Clipper Cove and even though they tried the right approach (through the Channel by the pier), they ran aground. So they launched their dinghy and came by. Cristin had brought some delicious artichoke/lemon dip, some nice artichoke, cheese sticks, cheese, crackers, grapes...and we enjoyed a really nice chat over our little impromptu aperitif.
From my perspective, everything was cool - we had an anchor out for the time the tide would decide to go up, so we wouldn't go anywhere, we were drinking some nice beer, wine and scotch whiskey and enjoying some great company. When the tide turned about 1 hour later, since we were aground by only half a foot, it was easy for us to motor away and into the Cove for anchoring, the right away around. The anchor sets the first time around and we had a nice dinner and quiet night, in the middle of Christmas-Tree-rigged boats. We hadn't planned on going anywhere else that night, so nothing was really impacted by this little setback.
From a passenger standpoint though, it looks like this was perceived as a lack of planning. I don't really plan a sail on the Bay (or down to Half-Moon Bay), other than checking tide, weather, etc...and making sure that it will be safe. I have charts but I usually never take them out on the Bay as I am very familiar with the area - sometimes just approaching HMB, there's a GPS on board, I can go to the Farallones by just setting a compass course. So it's not really lack of planning. it's just that I wasn't thinking ;-)
Anyway, night wasn't cold at all, we continued on with dinner and a PUMPKIN PIE! My big favorite - nice comfy V-berth for me and Cirstin reported that the quarterberth was perfect for her.
Day 2
In the morning, we lifted the anchor and set out for Sam's - the engine stopped at we were reaching the end of the TI finger (not sure why, looked like there was still gas in it) - I actually lost my watch overboard that night, so I couldn't check the time (we usually have about 1 hour of autonomy on one tank. Cristin didn't have her watch handy and had to check her phone so we may also just have had the wrong time.
By then, there was wind so I decided to first hoist the jib. It is a lot faster to hoist the jib than it is to hoist the main - and that way we would have a sail up and some steerage. The sail was up within seconds. Again, from my perspective, no big issue - there was wind and the boat is much faster under sail than it is under engine, so I would have turned off the engine anyway. Still, it could look like something went wrong.
We pointed the boat in the direction of Sam's. I actually tilted the engine out of the water and hoisted the main. We continued on, hoisted the spinnaker and did a nice reachy leg. We then went up Raccoon Straits on a narrow reach. I refuelled the engine while we were under sail. After we dropped the spinnaker, a little mishap. The stopper knot at the end of the spin halyard had come undone without my knowing about it and the halyard went up inside the mast. I took it down (we would just have to put it back down the mast later) and coiled it. Cristin suggested to start the engine but we were perfectly fine under sails to dock. Wind direction was perfect - we would be facing into the wind as we would go up alongside the dock. I did cause some confusion: I didn't say that we didn't actually need this halyard, not for a while at least, so that we could just go and have some nice breakfast and worry about it later.
Which we did - and nice it was. wonderful Eggs Benedict and Florentine and some nice Belgian Waffle at Sam's with the most delicious cup of coffee of the day. The one we both dearly needed.
After breakfast, I thought that we could try to feed the halyard back into the mast - with a tag line, thread to the end of the halyard on one side and attached to some weighty bolt on the other side, it was worth a try. And if that wouldn't work, we do have an external halyard setting that is class-compliant. We use this for our spare halyard offshore but it works just as well on the Bay. So that was my plan B. Both required me to be at the top of the mast. I have a harness so no issue.
Except that Cristin had some medical procedure done not so long ago and that kind of effort was definitely not recommended for a convalescent. Fortunately other sailors happened to dock right next to us and one of them - also an Express 27 owner - was kind enough to grind me up. Turned out that the bolt was too wide and couldn't fit through the sheave so I just used the external turning block.
For me, it was just a quick fix - and since there was someone around to help with the hoisting great - the owner was actually quite glad to have found an Express he could perhaps sail on in the future. (He did email me since that day) - I didn't think that we were really messing up his day, he could of course tell us he had no time. He hung out by the boat much longer than it was necessary, looked at every corner of Elise, made some comments about how different it was from his boat (Elise has some short-handed/offshore shortcuts). Overall, he seemed to be having a good time...I could sense some impatience/annoyance in my passenger's voice though.
It wasn't just an impression - Cristin said quite simply that she had enough of this little adventure. I felt really bad and sad because I was wondering if I shouldn't have sensed this earlier and spared her a lot of this -perhaps I was responsible for her bad experience (nothing looks like it went 'wrong' to me...). Anyway, I said OK - why don't we enjoy a nice sailing day, we can always turn around. The wind and sun conditions are perfect, this is going to be great.
So off we went - and we had a wonderfully relaxed sail, with wind (except for a short while, close to Point Bonita) - out the gate and in the large Bay between Mile Rock and Point Bonita - pretty centered to avoid the breakers - we were upwind but not close haul back under the gate (quite rare), and we then turn into a reach toward Alcatraz, went around the island and back up to the San Francis. We shared driving duties and when I was driving I also tended to the sails. Nice glass of chilled white wine on deck, great conversation and stunning sunset sights - it was just a beautiful beautiful sailing day.
We finished the day with a dinner at the St Francis - very pasta-centric: clams linguine and Pumpkin ravioli...I think that by the end of the day, Cristin was exhausted (no wonder as she is recovering from this medical procedure!!!) but had forgiven me the little mishaps...
I will try to post pictures by this weekend.
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