CyerCruise Report Dateline: San Francisco, Jan 31st - Feb 1st, 1998 CyberCruisers, And so we complete another Horseshoe Cove CyberCruise and, true to tradition, we had georgeous sailing weather intermixed with pounding rain. As usual, the weather gods consulted our schedule before dumping on us. The Friday evening sail provided light winds and even I had to finally crank up the Atomic 4 sometime around midnight. When we arrived at TI, with Wild Flower, California Girl, and Invictus in formation, we found Pelican, Dragon Lady, and Tasherana already anchored. A few heads popped up to lend a hand and welcome us, but as it was well after midnight by that time, and as it was just beginning to rain, most were content to bed down. And then the rain and wind hit! It poured all night. Saturday morning showed some promise. We even saw the sun trying to break through the clouds a few times. California Girl had left the dock with about 3 teaspoons of gas the previous evening and, after the engine died somewhere around Jack London Square, was towed to TI. Steve, Don, Darwin, and Dudley decided to sail over to for a fill-up. After much debate, The Salty Dog was picked as our destination. No sooner had we broken away from the raft-up than the sun came out in full-shine mode. We had a nice sail down the estuary under spinnaker, sailed into the gas dock, filled up, sailed away from the gas dock and all the way back to TI before starting the motor to make an underway crew swap for the sail to Horshshoe Cove. There wasn't much wind rounding the tip of TI...I couldn't even get Invictus onto the right tack, but before long it picked up and gave us a nice sail to HC. We tacked back and forth a few times, enjoying the view, and then headed into HC before the ebb forced us out the Gate. The smaller boats found slips, the larger ones, now joined by Incessant Wonder, anchored out. The next order of business was chow. The Beer Babes cooked up a spread and gave us a free lesson in manners. With full bellies, we headed up to PYC clubhouse where we found a private party was beginning. The club members told us that we could use the upstairs, where the band was, but would have to share it with the party. The party people soon informed us that they didn't like kids, so they had to leave. It soon became apparent that the party people didn't like us there either (we were the only ones upstairs listening to the band), so we decided to make a polite retreat back to the boats. And at about midnight it began raining again. And it poured all night. It was still pouring at 9:30AM when we headed up to the clubhouse for breakfast. We tried all sorts of contingency plans, but before we could get anything finalized, it began to clear. The boats started leaving at about 11AM. By noon, the last of the boats were on their way back home. Teresa sailed back to her car in Alameda with Don and Terri. I single- handed back down to Redwood City. It was a beautiful sail, beginning close-hauled but easing to a beam reach after the Bay Bridge. There was some pretty good chop fetching up from the South Bay, the ride was much smoother as I was able to sail down the backs of the waves rather than dropping of them as is common in the South Bay summer winds. Every so often, I would bury my bow, but I still prefer than to the South Bay belly flops. Invictus passed under the S&M Bridge just after 4PM (Teresa saw me from the bridge) and was back at Pete's at 5:40. It was a beautiful sail all the way, and I was shadowed for much of it by another "real" sailor, also in a Catalina 27...the only other boat I saw south of Hunter's Point. Gotta love those Catalina sailors. And then, after I was home in bed, it began to rain again. Another teriffic sailing weekend despite dire weather predictions. A great time!!! Quiz: How can someone forget what they did with $56 worth of food? Dudley Invictus From Dragon Lady: Most of you may not know it but we popped off the mooring at horseshoe cove sometime about midnight Saturday. Good thing we had set an anchor firmly in the muck and mire before we tied to the mooring. So at midnight-thirty, I was out in the dinghy tying a line to the mooring again, along with a second backup line. These both held well and presented no problems. Good thing considering the nasty swell and winds we were beat with all night long. Bet it was 'rough' at the dock as well. Then we decided we wanted to be underway by about 10 am, and though I didn't look at a watch, don't think we missed it by all that much. Thanks to the group for waving at us, high and dry from the yacht club window while we retrieved our mooring line in pelting rain. Yes, it was quite an adventurous sail back on Sunday. We had a motor/reefed sail across the bay to the bay bridge and got some nice rolling swell activity, and as we approached the bridge, could see lots of white-caps beyond. It got even nastier as we got past the bridge and we buried the bow several times before we got abeam of South Beach Harbor. At this point, the kids were beginning to take a pounding below (as Mary said "they were flying across the cabin") and we wisely decided to pull into South beach to unload Mary and Tristan, and Colin for a road trip back down the bay (thanks to Julie, my wonderful sister in law!!). Then Wiley and I took off again at about 12:30 or so, to head straight upwind into some really nasty water. We took enough water on the bow (and over) to not only clean off the anchor, which was still covered in caked on mud from anchoring at Horseshoe, but wash all the accumulated mud off of the deck. I think we had about a foot and a half over the bow at one point. It was very very rough with the worst of it about even with Hunter's point, then the wind seemed to swing more to the west and we cautiously let out about half the jib, sheeted in and with minimal motor power on, were doing (at times) 7 knots through the water and sometimes over 8 knots by the GPS over land. After a nasty squall hit, it mellowed the seas a bit and we deployed a reefed main, and sailed a bit. Then it continued to mellow so we let out the rest of the jib and were doing fine in very moderate waves by the time we hit the San Mateo bridge. It continued to flatten and mellow until it was virtually calm and glassy as we got to the Redwood City turning basin. Mary and the kids waved at us as we passed the old Cement plant, and we were nicely in our slip by 3:30 pm. Hope the rest of you had an uneventful sail back. Downwind Dragon Lady From Incessant Wonder: Well, I thought it was a great trip. The Admiral, on the other hand, has revoked my boating privileges indefinitely. We were actually the first to arrive at Horseshoe Cove. As soon as we arrived, we were hailed by the "Port Captain" (is that 'Bulldog'?) and directed to the guest area on the main dock. He even cleared the huge logs out of our way and helped us tie up. Then he jumped into his boat and went out for a sail. California girl was the next to arrive, and we were in process of getting him rafted up to us when the "harbormaster" shows up. "What's going on here !?!" he demands. We try to explain that the port captain told us to tied up here, but he wasn't buying any of it. I got the impression that he didn't want any of us there, but he settled for "no boats over 30'". I didn't mind too much myself, as there was a significant surge that was really working my boat against the fenders. The Admiral felt slighted that we weren't all together. The only problem is that now I am on the inside, so California Girl had to untie and pull out to let me out. By now, Dragon Lady has arrived, and has started setting anchor out in the middle. We were joining him about the time Invictus arrived. Tasherana arrived a short time after that. We had a nice time up at the club. I didn't know that there was a formal request for the kids (or us, for that matter) to leave, as much as a suggestion that maybe the kids should. Videos were waiting back at California Girl, so the kids had no complaints. It was about 10:00 when we all headed back. All in all, Saturday was great. Fairly warm, fairly calm, no problems. Sunday was a different story. The raft-out group started breaking up around 10:00, in between squalls of rain. The Admiral really doesn't like swells, and she was afraid of area right outside of Horseshoe Cove. The fact that it was raining didn't help matters at all. Fortunately, the first part of our trip home was just fine. Once we passed Alcatraz, however, things changed. I think we picked up the exposure from the south bay, and waves became a little more significant. Mind you, Anna won't consider a sailboat because she doesn't like the idea of the boat heeling over. She likes it even less when our power boat starts rocking back and forth. The boat was handling it fine. Our previous boat would have been uncontrollable in that sea, but Incessant Wonder never budged from her course or failed to respond to the helm. We were slogging through at about 6 knots, a compromise between "hurry and get through it" and "maintain control". The Admiral was not happy at all with the conditions, but was managing to keep her composure, until that one really big wave hit us. I saw it coming in time to turn a little into it, but it still hit us mostly abeam. That's when things started falling, which pushed Anna over the edge. (The liquor cabinet doors slid open, and a bottle of Meyer's Rum fell out and spilled on the salon floor. You know, that actually made the boat smell nice!) A short while later, we were in the lee of Treasure Island. But we had one more brief exposure when we crossed over to the estuary, and Anna was terrified. So I opted to pull into Clipper Cove and take a rest. So we pulled up to the marina docks and waited for a while. About ten minutes after we pulled in, Andy and Marian arrive in her houseboat. You may recall that Marian is the new Harbor master there. As it turns out, I am tied up in the spot that they intended to come into. Ah, nothing like getting caught in the harbormaster's slip! We chatted with Andy and Marian for about an hour. The Admiral had regained her wits, the rain had stopped, and for an instant, the sun broke though, so we decided it was time to make the dash across to Alameda. We crossed paths with Wildflower and California Girl coming out of Clipper Cove and exchanged a brief radio message before losing the shelter of Treasure Island. Another set of large waves partially emptied the cabinet above the refrigerator, but we were out of it before Anna could get too worked up. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Total casualties amounted to a partial bottle of rum and a glass ball / candle. The Admiral, however, had declared that Incessant Wonder will make no more voyages if they are predicting bad weather. Rod McInnis Incessant Wonder Dateline: San Francisco, Jan 19 1995 This weekend was yet another cybercruise for the Bay Area. The meeting place was Horseshoe Bay, just inside the Golden Gate. The weather reports were rather iffy, but luck was with us and we had a great time. The weekend was also the date of the 3 bridge race (also known as the 3 bridge fiasco), which several of the cybercruisers were participating in. Having a small interest in the 3 bridge race, I left my slip at Alameda about 12:30 heading north, expecting the racers to be north of my location by that time. Once I got to a point where I could see the nothern most mark, but could not see any sail boats, I was a bit confused. So I headed towards the San Francisco water front. There I encountered a large fleet of sailboats, obviously in some sort of race, heading towards Treasure Island. But this couldn't be the 3 bridge racers! They started 4 hours ago, just a short distance from here. Well, little did I know that the best stratagy for this race was to drop anchor and wait for some wind to build. Being confused about the 3 bridge race (and the three boats I knew would be in the race) I headed directly towards Horseshoe bay. This is a wonderful little cove, just inside the gate, where the Coast Guard and the Presido Yacht Club have docks. Upon arrival, I found that a boat (not associated with us cybercruisers) was occupying most of the available space at the PYC dock. Well, there goes plan A. So I simply dropped anchor about 1:30 and decided to wait for other cybercruisers to show up. The family and I had a nice show while we waited. We saw the Coast Guard in action as they went out to "rescue" two different people who decided to jump off the bridge (they found one, but not the other). It was interesting to watch, but rather sad when we realized that the poor guy didn't survive, even though the Coast Guard tried hard to revive him. We were also very amused at the efforts of a few race boats attempting to make their way towards Racoon Straights. There they were, spinniker set, sailing majestically at about 4 knots. Unfortunately, the ebb was about 5 knots, so we watched them sail slowly in reverse out the gate. About 4:30, I decided that this temporary anchor I dropped was going to need to become a little more permanent, so I pulled it up and started to reset. Darn if the wind didn't pick up just then. I managed to get a bow and stern set, but not nearly as well as I would have liked. No sooner had I set the anchor than Mike, AnMarie, Rosanne and (Dave? Sorry, I'm terrible with names) on Chanteuse showed up. We got them tied up, then Ruth and Rouie (I am not sure of the pronounciation, let alone the spelling), in Bilikin arrived. They were *supposed* to be in the 3 bridge race, but had never made it to the start, so they spend the day in Sausilito. It was well after dark that Paul Kamen (fishmeal) arrived with crewperson Rene. It seems that he had made it to the farthest point away when time had expired, so he had to motor all the way to the cove. It was some time later that Paul's S.O. (Casilda) showed up to swap places with Rene. We were joined for a short while by Rick Boyce on Paloma. Although he was not actually intending to be a part of the cybercruise, he happened to be making a stop at horseshoe cove. He is part of a delivery team that ferries people and supplies out to the Farralon Islands, and he just happended to be dropping off a scientist. But he had to continue on his way, as part of his crew needed to return. Sunday morning we were visited by Jim Kent (who belongs to the PYC) for a short period of time. What would have been a worthy an entry to America's Funniest Home Videos was watching all these experienced sailors trying to row around in my little dinghy. You see, I have this tiny, plastic boat, that fits two small kids or one adult just fine. (if I had known that I was the only one who was going to bring a dinghy, I would have brought the inflatable). But to watch Mike row his dogs to shore, or Paul trade his crew for his S.O. (he cheated, he paddled it like a canoe) was rather amusing. The raftup broke up early on Sunday, as Mike and crew wanted to head out early as they had a long cruise back to Redwood city. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. The weather was great, the sceanary was fantastic, and the company supurb. There was some talk of making this an annual post-3 bridge event, and I am all for it. Rod McInnis
From Ruth.Summers Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 08:07:34 +0800 <. They were *supposed* to be in the 3 bridge race, but had never made it to the start, so they spend the day in Sausilito.> Yep-After we floated backwards past Blackaller we decided enough was enough. We were really out of the race by that time anyhow- Rui had to start the engine to avoid a collision with an achored racer. Rats. Rather disconcerting bearing down on an anchored boat-backwards while the person on the boat was calmly eating a sandwich. :( Instead of dead ahead-dead behind-or would that be dead astern at 6 o'clock ??!!!! Oh wellll. It was a feat just getting around the point from Horseshoe to Sausilito ! Sunday we left late, probably got over to the city front around noon or 12:30 (motor/sailing) and did fine until we tried to get under the Bay Bridge. That little 3.2 hp Johnson was trying real hard - at least we weren't going backwards ! We noticed we had quarter tank of gas, time to turn on the Loran to ck speed over ground (not impressive), got the hook out just in case-did manage finally get under that darn bridge- seemed like forever--finally got to Alameda Marina 4:15 p.m.-missed the darn kick off. Oh well. All in all we really enjoyed ourselves this weekend-I'm planning a trip soon in my Cal-much more comfie !! Ruth
