October Catch-Up I

It has been a while since posting. Some of the pictures include the Bay Bridge construction, Fleet Week activities, boating maintenance, some great skys and miscellaneous, part 1.



San Francisco through Clipper Cove between Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island.



I cannot decide which if these I like better.



This is Mount San Bruno looking over Sierra Point.



A nice day for clouds.



We passed through a race, these folks sure were enjoying themselves.



Dan and Mo relax on the deck of Cirrus, owned by Jeff, hiding at the helm.



The San Francisco floating drydock and marine facility are full up.



The bow bulb and the bow thrusters. These help the ship move through the water, and turn.



The western anchor points for the new Bay Bridge.



The eastern approaches to the span, notice the segmented contsruction.



Things just sorta end, don't they?

Sailing 4-1-2006

We took a sail this weekend with Tony on his Snowbird 30, a steel boat he bought in New Zealand, about half way through his circumnavigate of the world. Tony accomplished this feat mostly singlehanded.



Tony started out his trip on a Folk Boat, which is not an ideal world cruiser.



Tony uses his control line, an innovative tool for dockside boat handling. Basically, it runs from bow to stern, and outside everything. It gives you control of both the bow and the stern from a point in the middle while you get your actual docking lines in order.



Freedom performed very well in light air, for what must be a heavy boat, made from all steel.



Freedom has a nice proportion to her, not overly beamy (wide) but beamy enough for good handling characteristics.



This is another kind of Freedom. These are a design that utilizes an unstayed carbon fiber mast and a wishbone boom. This makes for a boat that is easy to handle, only one sail, and a very efficient poser source as the boom naturally stretches the sail in all the right directions at the same time.



The Freedoms look like comfortable boats for the long haul.



The rig design allows for a lot of sail area when dead down wind, with no shadowing of sails that are not there.



The Port of San Francisco is very small compared to what it used to be.



There are only a few cranes left, and they don't appear to be busy very often.



There was only one ship on the quay, and it didn't look like it was loading or unloading.



This is an unusual angle to view the city from.



While the loading and unloading operation at the Port of San Francisco, there is a very busy repair facility.



Norwegian Star is lifted out of the water in a floating dry dock for repairs. They seem to be working on the very large drive units attached to the propellers.



Norwegian Star from another angle, with SF and the Bay Bridge behind.



There are several of the floating dry docks at this facility, but while usually busy, there was only one boat out of the water on this day.



Independence appears to be an older design, she is not as beamy as the Norwegian Star.



There are a couple of interesting buildings at Hunters Point, the old naval shipyard that closed in the 1960's and is still in the process of being environmentally rehabilitated.



The docks around these building are in sad, sad shape. But if things were different, what a great location for a restaurant.



This one, is only a few yards from the one above, and we pondered what a great brewery to feed the restaurant.



The docks near this one are in only a little better shape.

Spreckles Lake

Spreckles Lake is a man-made feature located in Golden Gate Park. It has a large attendance from all kinds of model boats, both sailing and power, with a club house to store some of the fleets, and organized races.



Being a man-made lake, it has some features not found in the wild, like the large turtle sculpture these snapping turtles have hauled themselves out to sun themselves upon.



This RC (radio controlled) model was a present received over the holidays by a friend of mine.



As you can see, it is not very large.



It comes with auxiliary power (see the outboard engine) in case the wind dies.



She sailed quite well, both upwind and downwind, but we have no idea how it would compare with other models.



Traffic was light today, but a few other boats showed up. This one, on the opposite tack, was twice our size, and therefore probably a lot faster.

Year of the Dog

Here are some shots of the The Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. I arrived late as we were sailing until sunset.



I am not sure what are supposed to represent, but they sure are having fun.



This drum corp displays a lot of enthusiasm as they approach the judging area in front of Union Square.



Numerous characters on stilts.



The energy of these young ones, choreographed flag waving.



No opportunity for a good view is lost.



A little self conscientiousness from this beautiful young lady.



A part of one of the very colorful dragons.

Sailing 2-11-06

Light early, filled in later, so we went sailing later.



Jeff stretches the staysail outhaul.



A fairly classic design, with here racing stripes hanging over the side.



Jeff got quite a workout, we made him take the helm.



This sealion wasn't working very hard, though a partner that was up there a few moments before took a dip.



Jeff has a fancy new watch, here he is checking his altitude above sea level...or was he checking the watch?




Anytime sailboats are headed in the same direction, they are racing by definition. Bigger boats go faster than small boats by definition. But we managed to hold this one off, right to the marina, and he got no help from the full moon.



The sun sets as we round into the marina.



Some sunsets can create fairly dramatic opportunities.



And the full moon reflects in the marinas' calm waters.