Son of a B*$#@!

5-7-2010

I had to run up mid week to move "Dayspring" from Berkeley Marine Center's long dock over to Berkeley Marina until I could get up and sail back to Coyote Point. It sounds like it should be simple to arrange rides etc., but it wasn't. I didn't want to sail back solo if I could help it and few of the usual suspects were available. A friend of friends had mentioned he wanted to learn to sail, so I thought this wasn't ideal, but I gave him a call and the dominoes fell into place. I could pick up Kella (my "crew") and then drop my car off in San Mateo and another friend, Matt, would be able to ferry us on up to Berkeley Marina as he had a meeting up there anyway.

I had been checking on the weather and was feeling good that we would have a decent sail and favorable tides. My biggest concern was Berkeley being on the receiving end of the "Slot". I have never sailed on the SF bay proper, only the parts south of the Bay Bridge. I had a couple of little things to do when we arrived at the boat, but ended up cutting these jobs short after realizing time was slipping. I would never have set out at 2pm if I could have helped it, the wind engine is usually set to "high" at that point. Regardless, I talked Kella through the obvious stuff like the locations of safety equipment, the importance of not falling out of the boat etc. then we departed. I did take the time to speak with the harbormasters office before heading out. They told me of the way to cut through a gap between the "developed" pier and the pier ruins. This saved a couple of miles at least.

What followed was the antithesis of what to subject a new sailor to. Soaking, cold, white nuckled, laugh in the face of death sailing. It was something of a battle to make it under the bridge and once past, it eased a bit, but was not relaxing. I thought of the food and beer down below and how we really had no time to indulge (No time for pictures either). Average speeds ,when I could look at the GPS, showed around 7 to 9 mph. We covered the 26 miles (give or take) in just over three hours.

Kella was a good sport and said he had a good time. I, honestly, couldn't have been more sorry. I wanted to teach the hows and why's of sail trim etc., but couldn't do much more than give direction. We arrived at Coyote Point and unloaded the boat, washed it down and headed out damp and a bit shell shocked.

The plus for me was gettingto sail the S22 in some of the most desperate conditions I have been in to date. I know, I'm still inexperienced and that these conditions are the norm for this region of the bay, but it was a good confidence builder. A new boat, to me, and getting the feel of it and gaining confidence in its abilities takes a little time. Some day sailing like this will be old hand, but not yet....man it was a blast!