Adrenaline high!

This was supposed to be a leisure sail into the Sacramento river delta, yet it turned out to be quite some adventure! Weather forecast was W10-15kn increasing to 15-20kn in the afternoon, nothing to be worried about on our boat. I guess I didn't really appreciate the thermal effects around here, where a really strong westerly kicks up as soon as the Central Valley heats up. So the Central Valley forecast had temperatures around 95F in the forecast, really hot and early for the season and plus the San Francisco Bay being still cold. So quite a thermal gradient here! More about that later..
Anyways we set out and tucked in a reef just to be safe and went riding up the flood tide at 8-9kn over ground, woohoo. On the way we got passed by some of the boats racing the Delta Ditch run (but not too many :-)) And as soon as we turned the corner after the bridge things really heated up. The guy in front of us wiped out with his spinnaker and we quickly reefed the jib. So after passing Middle ground we decided to stop for extended lunch break behind one of the islands and wait for the tide to turn to get back home. As we took the sail down I suddenly noticed that the engine didn't have any power and all of a sudden we were drifting with the current towards some sandbanks. Oops. So we unrolled the jib and sailed to some more or less protected spot where we dropped the anchor.

Track through Suisun Bay

After things had settled down I took out my snorkel gear and dove below the boat to see what had happened. Visibility in the murky water was about 4 inch (=10cm) so it was hard so see anything. So I couldn't almost believe my eyes when I finally found where the prop was supposed to be and was staring at a bare propeller shaft instead! Somehow the locking nut must have come loose and we had simply lost our prop!
Meanwhile the wind had started kicking up and we were witness to numerous boats in the race wiping out, shredding spinnakers, plus quite some chatter on the radio on grounded boats, dismasting etc. Jikes! So how to get back home without engine, not even thinking about getting docked! We waited for the tide to subside somewhat and then went to the task getting the anchor up hand over hand. Also, we had put in the 2nd reef in the main and went hauling on the chain while the boat was sailing left and right with the main up. Finally the anchor broke out and we were on our way! On the way back not too many boats any more. The wind kicked up to sustained 25-30kn with some gusts around 35kn. With the 2nd reef in and only maybe 1/3 of the jib we still were able to make 5kn headway on some pretty decent tacking angles (see pic!). Kudos to Olin Stephens! The channel is pretty narrow and we ended up tacking a total of 37 times till we made the Benicia harbor entrance. Totally exhausted, we finally arrived at the harbor entrance, after some anxious moments under the bridge, where we had to tack in fickle winds to avoid being swept on the bridge towers.
Docking turned out to be quite easy, as the wind had finally come down a bit and we were merely coasting into our berth. So now I just have to figure out how to get a new prop on and then we can go out again!

Sausalito!

Sailed to Sausalito and anchored in Richardson Bay over night. Impressive fog rolling in from the Pacific Ocean. On the way back it got quite windy with gusts up to 30kn. After staying at China Camp for lunch break we zoomed across San Pablo Bay with no main and just half of the jib up, at 7kn+ boat speed! Kind of different from last time where we were struggling getting back home..

Sunset at Richardson Bay

Windy day requires some gear!

Angel Island!

Ayala Cove, Angel Island

Golden Gate Bridge

First time pleasure sailing with Constance into the Central Bay area. This is a 50mile roundtrip so it requires an overnight stay. Perfect for a weekend! We stayed at Angel Island's Ayala Cove. You need to moor the boats between 2 buoys bow and stern which is a bit tricky given the shifty winds and currents in that cove. I bought a new 100ft mooring line for that purpose and it actually worked on first try! One problem is to get ashore since we don't have a dinghy (yet!). Thankfully a helpful boat neighbor gave us a lift with his inflatable and also picked us up on the way back. California is a friendly place! The next morning we went around the island, checked out the Golden Gate, Alcatraz and the SF waterfront before starting the long slough back. Took us 7 hours to get back as the current was  quite strong and the winds were super light. Good thing is the shallow draft of the Tartan34, so we could duck into the shallows on the southern side of the San Pablo Bay to avoid the most of the current.

More maintenance!

I meant to post this a while ago: Here is what the boatyard in Berkeley did to improve the spreader. When I shipped the mast there they found out that one of the spreaders had developed a crack in the aluminium on the trailing edge. They could still weld the crack, but the root cause of the problem was a construction feature (or flaw) of single spreader S&S designs, which allows the spreader to move freely back and forth to better respond to loads on the mast when sailing. As a result, the lee spreader is kind of flopping back and forth when under way, hence the wear on the edges. The yard machined jackets around the stressed area of the spreader and also changed the connectors to the mast such that the spreader won't be able to move any longer (see picture). That should last the foreseeable future and was actually much cheaper than replacing the whole assembly. I never really like the sight of the floppy spreader so I'm quite happy with it!

New spreader jackets

Other than that we rebedded the chain plates, and sealed the mast foot which was leaking a bit. So far no more rain water in the bilge! We'll see what else is leaking in the next big rain :-). Also, I got a shipment of balsa core and xbonded fiber glass to tackle the next big chore: replacing the soft spots in the deck and on the cabin top. I have to admit I'm a little nervous about that one, probably will start with the cabin top as it is a smaller spot and less conspicuous. In case I mess up it should be easier to fix..

As for cruising, we've been taking the boat out quite a bit, and I'm still marveling about the Martec folding prop, quietly but efficiently pushing the boat in and out of the marina and sometimes against the raging currents of the Carquinez Strait. I'm also getting a lot of practice reversing the boat into the slip. Not an easy task when it is windy, but so far no scratches to report!

Varnishing!

2nd weekend in a row we spend sanding and varnishing. It's not super pretty but I think it should be ok now after the 3rd layer. Need to go sailing again!

Suisun fleet!

Some more impressions from sailing by the anchored fleet. Wonder if they will be ever used again! These are mostly cargo ships, tankers and other supply vessels, being mothballed for decades now. The battleship USS Iowa was also anchored here for quite a while, but left unfortunately last November, so no pics.

The mothball fleet close up

Sailing the Delta

It's unbelievable, here we are in early February and it feels almost like summer! The winds around this time of the year tend to be very benign and are mostly from the East, so we tacked up the Sacramento River delta to visit the mothball fleet. One has to be very careful as it gets shallow very quick on the sides. There is a huge sandbank in the middle of the river (which is like 5 miles wide here), and you can see birds walking on the water at high tide. Either they have very long legs or it is darn shallow over there!

calm conditions