7/21/2007 - Sierra Point, at about 6:30 AM.
| After driving to South San Francisco four or five times to clean and scrub, we decided if we NEVER cross the Oakland Bay bridge again it may be TOO soon. It takes about two hours to drive to Berkeley marina, then another to cross the bay and get to South San Francisco. The solution, for now, is to move the boat to the Berkeley marina. We rented a slip at the Berkeley marina for a month ($251) - number A-25. Then on Saturday, July 21 - we set out from Sierra Point marina at 6:40 AM. We wanted to leave early to avoid the strong 20 - 25 knots of wind that comes up from the west in the afternoon. After getting up at about 3:30 AM we drove to Berkeley and dropped off Linda's car. Then we both drove on to Sierra Point Marina in Brisbane, CA - where we prepared to cast off. There was a light breeze already as we pulled out around 6:40 AM. |
 Motoring out of Sierra Point Marina. |
|
8:00 - We near the
Oakland Bay Bridge. The wind has freshened and we are able to raise the
sail for an additional boost. Under outboard alone we are making about
4 knots (slightly more than an idle since the boat moves through the
water very easily). With the main sail up and the breeze we increase
our speed to about 5 knots. Since the knotmeter doesn't work yet,
everything is an estimate.
The trip is uneventful up untill the last few moments when pulling into
the dock in Berkeley. I bumped the throttle closed to slow the engine
& it died. Fortunately we already had our nose into the slip
and were slowed to a crawl - so Linda just stepped off and used the
dock line to bring the boat to rest. We arrived at the Berkeley Marina at about 9:40AM and are tied up and having lunch by 10:40 AM. We burned a little under one gallon of gas per hour. In the picture at the left you can see the city, the bridge, Alcatraz, Angel Island and Tiburon. Not a bad view! By the way, the suspender things we are wearing are life jackets. If you fall into the water you pull a little rip coard and they inflate. It is much more comfortable to wear the suspender types than the old fashioned kind. |
 Nice view of the bay. (Click for a larger image) |
 Linda is in charge of the tiller. |
 Alcatraz. |
 Sailing towards the city. |
 Leaving the city behind, heading for Berkeley. |
 Dave brushes up on the finer points. |
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Safe at the dock.This web site was prepared by Dave Howe using a text editor.