Today was a mixture of sun and clouds and (happily) some wind as the afternoon wore on. I started out wanting to try sailing Laelia with the main being the only sail hoisted. It is convenient sometimes to be able to tack back and forth without having to take care of the jib every time I tack. Laelia does not do this well. In a 10 knot breeze she gets up enough speed to do it - but she does it reluctantly. When the wind dropped, she wouldn't do it at all.The wind picked up as I got out toward the slot - blowing 10 to 15 knots straight in from the Golden Gate bridge. To top it off, the tide was coming in and would be pushing me toward Alcatraz. Perfect!
I unfurled about half of the jib and set off. Pretty soon we were flying along at 5.5 to 6 knots. The wind was a steady 10 knots with occasional gusts higher. The waves were going pretty much the same way I was. Easy sailing! In short order, I was getting close to Alcatraz - a little too close for comfort. I had to tack away to keep the incoming tide from pushing me onto the rocks at the western end of the island. I misjudged the speed of the current and ended up having to tack twice to make it past the end of the island.
In the second picture, I am sailing past the south side of the island - the side facing San Francisco. I can imagine how tantalizing it must have looked for prisoners to look out toward the city - so near and so far away!
Rounding the eastern end of the island, I got a picture just for Don Lundquist so he can understand why I don't pick up prisoners! And then there's the problem of no more prisoners. Oh well!
Rounding the island, I ran into an area of confusing winds - quick direction changes and variable strength. I was in the turbulence caused by the wind flowing over Alcatraz and back down onto the water. The turbulence last only a few minutes before I was through it and back into steady wind.
The picture to the right is the northern side of the island.I headed back to Sausalito. The sky was getting progressivly darker and the wind was starting to pick up. The wind was from the right direction (close reach) for me to hoist the mizzen for an extra boost. For most of the trip back, Laelia was flying along at close to 6 knots.
As I got close to the channel to the marina, I started dropping sails - first the mizzen, then the main. That left Laelia sailing along quite nicely at 3.5 knots with just the jib.
I sailed past a Coast Guard boat that was headed out toward the bay as I was coming in. About the time I got to sailing under jib alone, I glanced back and saw that the Coast Guard seemed to be interested in me! They pulled along side, said something about checking for illegal boats coming into the bay and asked me for identification and boat registration. I passed them over and they pulled away a few feet after telling me to keep going toward my slip.About five minutes later, they pulled along side again and handed back my documents, wished me a good day and departed. They were quite courteous during the whole thing.
I was relieved! I thought they might be doing safety inspections and I'm sure they could have found something to be unhappy about.
Getting back into the slip, I was very happy that the ends of the slip were heavily cushioned. I misjudged the amount of correction I needed for the crosswind and hit the corner pretty hard with the side of the boat about six feet back from the bow. Laelia weighs in at a litlle over 17,000 lbs so it could have been ugly. Thanks to the heavy duty padding, no damage was done - except to my ego.
By now, the sky was looking pretty ominous. I got Laelia all buttoned up and came below for a beer. As I write this, the beer is almost gone, the wind is howling and the boat heels over a few degrees every now and then. I am happy to be here and not out on the bay trying to get back!
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