Tuesday, May 22, 2007

General Log, May 11, 2007 - September 3, 2007

September1-3 - Sailed down the coast to Half Moon Bay (actually motored since there was no wind) for the Labor Day weekend. Nice trip. Discovered anchor light and tri-color light on mast did not work. Motored back to Alameda (little wind). The Perkins performed beautifully, and we had a good chance to test out our radar and chartplotter on the trip as well as use our motor and dinghy for the first time in over a year. For more go to my homepage (Sep 13, 2007).





July 22 - Day sail to Raccoon Strait. 19-20 knot winds. Beautiful sail across the back side of the slot and an even more beautiful sail back again. A crystal clear, gorgeous day of San Francisco Bay, but I forgot my camera.



July 21 - Day sail in the south bay. Moderate winds, very choppy. Tired so didn't stay out long.



July 7 - Deborah's son Jason went out with us for a nice afternoon sail in the south bay. He was at the helm almost the entire time and quickly picked up the feeling for keeping her on course and not over-correcting in gusts. We had a great time and ended the day with a nice dinner at the club.



July 4 - Took Spindrift out for a three hour sail today. Found a really nice, comfortable breeze in the south bay, and reached back and forth for an hour or so. Lost the wind coming down the estuary, and it got very hot. But got the sails down easily, brought her into the berth perfectly, and put her to bed quickly and went up to the Encinal Yacht Club's July 4th BBQ and pool party. This was great fun, too.



June 23-24 - Deb and I took Spindrift out for an afternoon sail on Saturday. We had a little wind, but it was pretty disappointing. We motored most of the time and never made it out of the south bay. We did use the autopilot and get used to it. On Sunday we left the dock a bit earlier and sailed up to Angel Island, past Tiburon, across the bay to the city front, and back down to Alameda. We had good wind, sailing the first leg from Treasure Island to Angel Island with two reefs in the main and a reefed jib. We shook out the reefs behind Angel Island, let autopilot guide us while we had lunch in very light wind, and then went on with full sails. Deb took us across the bay, and when the winds picked up to 17 or 18 knots apparent, she was thrilled at how well Spindrift handled. It was a really nice day on the bay.



June 16-17 - Deb took Spindrift across the bay to the Corinthian Yacht Club for the Encinal's All-Women's Cruise. Two other boats went - Kismet, an Alden 44, and Music, a Nordic 45 - altogether three of the nicest boats in the club's sailing fleet. First time she's ever taken the boat out without me aboard. She had a crew of three other women, and they all had a wonderful time.





































May 19-20 - Sailed to the Pt. San Pablo Yacht Club with fellow cruisers from the Encinal Yacht Club cruising group. Stopped at got fuel on the way (15 gallons), and had a nice reach up in light winds up past Angel Island to the Richmond Reach. Going down the Richmond reach we hit 7.5 knots. Had a chance to get basic familiarity with new chartplotter.



The club gathering was a great success. Returned on Sunday, and practiced putting in and taking reefs in the main. With one reef in the main and four-five turns in the jib, she hit 9.9 knots across the Slot between Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge. Deb is thrilled because Spindrift is so stable. The rig is tuned so much better than it was before, and the lines are really easy to work! We are very satisfied with the results of our refit.



May 18 - Ron Jones of Star Marine went out with us to calibrate our instruments and autopilot. Unfortunately, his minion forgot to make the SeaTalk connection between the instruments, autopilot, and chart plotter, so we'll have to go out again.



May 11 - We brought Spindrift back to her slip today. Spent the next several days cleaning her up for our first sail next weekend.

2 Comments:

Blogger David Uy said...

I was reading an older blog about your Islander Bahama 28, Dog Days. Was it difficult to sail alone on that boat?

7:21 AM  
Blogger james and penelope said...

No, it's easy to single-hand, and I still do often.

6:40 PM  

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