Hello from San Francisco
17 October 2010 | 37 deg, 51.4'N 122 deg, 28.6'W
Light N breeze in rain
Drakes Bay is just 25 nm from the Golden Gate Bridge, so we waited till mid-day Oct. 15 to leave our anchorage, hoping the fog would disperse. It did lighten up a bit and soon we were motoring again into light SE wind (friends Kai and Andrea would be calling us a motor-stick these days), in company with another Canadian boat, Marimba II from Nanaimo.
The fog did mostly clear up by the time we were off Bolinas Bay and we had a great view of the dramatic, orangey cliffs of the Marin Headlands.
The wind rose and backed a bit as we got closer, so we were able to sail under the famous bridge at approximately 1800 hrs, what a thrill!! It got quite gusty just inside the bridge and so sailing was really fun - a couple of crazy kiteboarders criss-crossed in front of us.
We went blasting in to Richardson Bay in front of Sausalito and anchored as the sun went down and the fog rolled over the top of the hills.
We will hang out here in the Bay for at least a week. So far we have only explored Sausalito but have a good internet connection here on our mooring buoy front of the Sausalito Yacht Club so that makes it easier to figure out where to go and how to get there!
We constantly monitor VHF 16 and have been hearing San Fran Vessel Traffic Services regularly warning about "unusually large concentrations of whales in the Gulf of the Farallones and Montereay Bay area," which provides incentive to get back out to sea!
It's taken a bit longer than expected to get here, but it feels like a major milestone and we are really thankful for all the help and support that has got us this far!