Canadian Invasion: Reinforcements

Foreground: Anna   Background: (L-R) Mary Beth, Barry, Pat (in shadow), David, Rena

Ever since his first trip visiting Green Rosetta and sailing her, David has been talking about his sailing buddies, Pat and Barry. Pat has a sailboat on Wabamun Lake west of Edmonton, and Barry and David crew for Pat for racing events. Especially since David and Anna's summer trip when we didn't sail to Monterey in part because we weren't sure exactly how a coastal trip would unfold, it being our first coastal cruise on Green Rosetta, David has been suggesting getting to know these two guys who would enjoy sailing these waters on Green Rosetta. His thoughts are maybe they could come along on some of our yet-to-be early adventures, covering a possible manpower and experience hole. We planned this weekend as an easy "get acquainted" event.

To be fair with the title of this post, neither Pat and Rena nor Barry and Mary Beth are Canadian. They are US citizens who just happen to live in Canada, if I have the story straight. I just couldn't resist continuing the Canadian Invasion theme.

David and Anna met me and Helga at the marina Friday afternoon, and we joined the rest for dinner at Los Moles Beer Garden in El Cerrito, covering a lot of information, mostly on background and sailing experience, while nibbling and sipping on the outside patio. Pat is the regular racing skipper, and he has chartered in the British Virgin Islands quite a bit. Barry has been involved in boat deliveries and has more long distance coastal sailing than the rest of us, but he has yet to do a crossing. Rena is routinely a sailing crew member. Mary Beth is not so much interested in sailing, but came along as a good sport.  My apologies to any if I seriously shortchanged or misstated a sailing background. That night David and Anna returned to the V berth while the others stayed in a hotel.

I had to get up early Saturday morning to replace the zinc on the propeller shaft and then get cleaned up, while David brought the other two couples to the marina from the hotel.

We headed out, aiming for Straits of Raccoon and then the Golden Gate Bridge. Pat, Barry, and David mostly sail on a lake, and I knew they would want to feel some ocean swells. The winds were pretty good and I think we set out with two reefs in the main, and as we were beating to the bridge we put in the third reef. After we cleared the boat traffic and left the bridge behind us, I turned the helm over to Pat, whom I know was itching to drive.

Here are some raw, unedited videos from that part of the trip, posted to YouTube. They are unedited because I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Apologies in advance for the wind noise. They are on YouTube instead of directly part of this blog because the video files are too big to post to the blog.

Outside the Golden Gate Bridge 1 Pat at the helm

Outside the Golden Gate Bridge 2 Coming about

Outside the Golden Gate Bridge 3 Barry at the helm

Just the ladies

We sailed a good distance out past Mile Rock, the definition of being in the open ocean at this locale. When the wind and seas are good it's always tempting to just keep going, to Ensenada, Mexico, or Hawaii, or just the Farallon Islands. But as always, we turn around and head back in.

You can see Mile Rocks at the bottom of the COLREGS Demarcation Line, and Point Bonita at the top. This is a snippet from NOAA Chart 18649, San Francisco Entrance, 1:40,000. Sorry about the blue dashed line  with waypoints, that is some of my planning stuff and has nothing to do with this day sail.

For a day sail out of Richmond, we usually sail out the Golden Gate, or we sail north under the San Rafael Bridge into San Pablo Bay, or we sail south under the Bay Bridge into the south bay. This day we got two bridges. After coming back into the bay we sailed along the north and then east shoreline of San Francisco, under the Bay Bridge and well into the big commercial ship anchorage before turning around and heading for home.

Sailing into the south bay David at the helm

We shared some great sailing and covered a lot of ground and were treated to a beautiful sunset as we left the marina.

We headed out for dinner at Gangnam Tofu Korean Cuisine, went to bed, and did it all again the next day.

The only place left to go was north, so we sailed up under the I580 bridge and passed East Brothers Island, lighthouse, and bed and breakfast on the west side, turned around the island and passed in the gap between the island and Point San Pablo.

After we got back Helga and I had to scurry back to Carson City, so there was no time for long farewells, but we had a great time and all are encouraged to invite themselves back any time.

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