Dec 02
Post-turkey sail
Jon flew out from denver last week to spend the holiday on his boat, and his parents flew in to join us (and get a look at the boat). We went out the day after thanksgiving, got a late start (1pm or so), and made incredible time out to and past the gate. On turning around to head for home, we discovered the cause for our great speed: a 4.5 knot ebb, reaching its peak just as we were trying to get back under the bridge. We spent a fair amount of time crossing back and forth trying to make headway against the river of current trying to push us out to sea. We discovered that the best place to be for a favorable current was right up against the shoreline, as close as we were willing to get–the catch-22 is that the wind fell off close to the shore, as we got in under the lee of the marin headlands. We spread some more canvas (the staysail) and that gave us a little bit of a boost. Once we reached the water along chrissy field (north shore of san francisco) we were home free–we were even helped along at that point by a couple knots of flood. We motored into the marina well after dark, ending another fantastic day on the bay. Here’s our funny looking track, although honestly I expected it to look a lot more ridiculously convoluted than it does: