3 bridge fiasco - Heading back to port

 The wind had totally died in Raccoon Strait and I was going nowhere fast, also fighting now a flood. I turned to the engine. It started but died within a minute or so of running and there was no way for it to run any time long...and it wouldn't start all the time.

So I hailed the fleet monitoring channel 69 asking for a tow to the nearest wind line. Otherwise, I might have pulled into Tiburon and take a ferry back. I didn't really want to spend the night bobbling along in Raccoon Strait ( I would have had to anchor at some point when the tide turned...to avoid going to the lightship)

 

Crescendo answered the call and gave me a tow to Little Harding.

Past the mark, the wind picked up at a nice 9 - 10 knot true and I had a fabulous crossing, into the sunset...

Once I got to about 20 boat lengths of shore, the wind died again and I managed to get a tow from a party boat. They were just out motoring around, dancing to music and drinking beer. They didn't mind where they were going so they towed me to the entrance of the harbor

They threw me a beer!!! I am at the bow to catch it.

 We talked to the entire time. It was so cool and fun.

 And Elise's mast head light worked fine. Nice work Peter!!!

Getting to the entrance of the harbor

Seeing me struggling to get up the channel, tacking back and forth (meanwhile I had on the radio that Opa! and Peaches were on their way back and I knew I could get a tow from them, so I wasn't too worried, I could even wait for them at the Golden Gate guest dock or something like that.

How nice! They took me all the way in!

The 'teenagers' as I called them because they were just much younger than I was dropped the line right before Elise's slip for the night and I maneuvred the boat using its momentum between 4 boats to find a spot right by the dock where Serge was waiting.

Most of the pictures are from Serge/Ultimate Yachtshots, except the ones taken from Elise.

How I love the sailing community where we just help each other out...