Although Father’s Day gave us ample time to discuss and decide that Bill and I will forever stay away from giving each other gifts and kudos on future “Parent’s Day” occasions (these tasks are now fully delegated to our young adult daughters), I nonetheless scooted in under the wire and gave Daddy Bill the gift of sailing (I know, easy gift to give…).
We started out heading due south, intending to pick up a light westerly wind near the Gate, and then take a downwind spinnaker run up to China Beach in San Pablo Bay. Good idea in theory, however, we neglected to take into account that there are regularly three or more yacht club races going on any given weekend day. To say that this was an obstacle course, would understate the challenge, but manage we did, right up until our spinnaker sail decided to prematurely escape from the chute…OMG! Here we are in the middle of the Bay, attempting to dodge the racers coming around the marker bouy directly in our path, when I suddenly see a puff of blue billowing on deck to port. I thought that when I turned to tell Bill what I was witnessing he would immediately jump to the rescue, so I was amazed when he looked toward the spectacle and said, in denial, “It’s fine”. Seconds later we witnessed the complete spinnaker blowout as it flew overboard t o port, and we flew into action. While I took the helm and attempted to dodge the racers, Bill moved forward to pull the sail out of the water and stuff it back into what was left of the chute. Mission accomplished!
Being duly humbled by our experience, we maneuvered our way through the racers from the Corinthian and Berkeley Yacht Clubs, eventually making our way into San Pablo Bay. By this time, the winds had shifted from light westerlies to blustering northerlies, with gusts up to 35 knots. No matter! We were sure that anchoring in the protected cove of China Beach would offer coverage from the elements. This was not to be the case, however, as we were humbled once again that day. Lessons learned: Do not assume that we are hooked in these conditions. Do not immediately close the shades to relax and watch a movie!
Within 20 minutes we were jolted into action as we realized that not only were we dragging, we were spinning around! Immediately on deck, I took the helm to avert a collision with a nearby boat, while Bill went forward to direct me toward the anchor. Our second rescue of the day left us scratching our heads as we decided not to go for a third, and instead motor toward our second “home”, and the comfortable cover of our beloved Tiburon Yacht Club. End of adventure…whew! The photos you see here do not do justice to representing the traffic in the water that day, however, you will see that I neglected to mention we were additionally dodging hoards of kayakers. Yikes…never a dull moment!
P.S. I also neglected to mention that we were able to squeeze in a beautiful wing-on-wing downwind opportunity. Fun stuff!
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