Round the Rocks!

At the starting line

Did the SSS (singlehanded sailing society) Round the Rocks race! Was lots of fun, and we even managed to get a decent finish, 4th in our division and 17th out of 44 overall in the double handed class. Already at the start at the Berkeley Olympic circle the wind was blowing 15-20kn and it was forecasted to peak in the afternoon, so we tucked in a reef. Glad we did it, did pretty well on the first leg to Alcatraz where others were struggling. Going around Harding Rock in a breeze but then I was agonizing wether to put the spi up or not. When the wind calmed down in Raccoon St we quickly threw up the spi (aka The Beast) and gently moved past the non spi boats on the growing flood tide past Red Rock towards the Brothers. The Brothers are a couple of small islands in the San Pablo strait, this was also our northernmost turning mark. I took the conservative approach taking the spi down quite early, just to make sure no mess up would prevent us from going upwind after the mark. Man, it was churning in that narrow channel! Thankfully still enough wind to sail free, but once we approached the Richmond bridge it was dying down quickly. Just past the bridge there were a whole lot of boats parked in a wind hole. We tried to sail around, but no avail, the wind eventually died everywhere! So we were slowly swept back through the bridge on the flood tide. It took some agonizing 40 minutes for the wind to come back. From there an exhilarating reach to the finish line at Richmond YC! I love my new folding prop, it makes all the difference in light air!

Anchored at Clipper Cove the night before the race

New folding prop!

Flexofold 16x11

New folding prop is mounted. Flexofold is a danish brand, it is super solid and here are the reasons I liked this one more than the other ones (Gori, Martec): 1) No special designed anode that needs to be bought and replaced in a complicated manner (check out the normal 1" anode on the shaft). 2) The blades are connected with a gear, a Martec prop always has the chance that one blade is hanging down adding drag if the propeller is not exactly centered.  3) The Gori is also way more expensive. 4) Also, the chance of loosing the thing is minuscule vs. Gori (where I heard this happened a couple of times), and Martec (happened to me). First sea trial on the way back to Coyote Point: Man this thing has way more power than the 3blade fixed. At about 1700-1800rpm I get max speed around 7.0kn (!) Let's see how that translates into fuel economy! With the old prop I barely ever got above 5.5kn (@2200rpm). The new smooth bottom may contribute as well, who knows. One downside the yard manager already warned me of: There are quite some added vibrations since the substantial weight of the Flexofold is at the end of the shaft and there is no supporting bearing behind the cutlass bearing. There is some concern that the cutlass bearing will start leaking eventually. Oh well, time will tell. The T34C cutlass bearing is quite solid and I haven't heard that anybody had issues with this and a folding prop. I sure love the speed I get with this prop. Reversing in the marina was no big deal, the boat pretty much stopped on a dime. 

Hauled out!

Constance is getting a new bottom paint. I'm not exactly happy with the hard epoxy Seahawk Sharkskin that is on there right now. Already after one season it started to build up algae within a week after cleaning. So now after 2.5 seasons it's time to get something better! Also, I need to get my new Flexofold 16x11 2blade folding prop installed. Not to mention some blemishes that need to get fixed. Motored today against a strong flood tide to SF Boatworks, located some 2miles south of the Bay Bridge. One thing I noticed after hauling the boat is the comeback of the dreaded center board droop. I might be lucky as it seems to be just the arm position not being right..

Constance getting a wash down 

9BF!

Actually, this is called the Three Bridge Fiasco, aka TBF. See last year's post. It's called the 'Fiasco' since you can chose the order of rounding marks at your leisure, including in which direction to pass the start/finish line. On top of that, this is the most popular race in SF Bay for the whole year, with 350+ boats on the starting line. One caveat, you cannot have a full crew, max is 2 people on board. So, maneuvering in tight quarters with plenty of boats is quite a challenge. The race is a pursuit race, that means each boat has an individual starting time, based on handicap. Slow boats start first, and theoretically everybody should arrive at the finish line around the same time. Chaos pure! 

SO this year, totally different conditions, compared to last year! A raging noon ebb tide paired with low winds made things really difficult. With Constance being slow in little wind, we opted to go with the current and start downwind, finishing the race course clockwise. I positioned ourselves upwind/upcurrent of the line with 5 minutes to go and started setting the spinnaker. Everything went fine while Jewel was steering towards the line. THEN I realized that EVERYBODY else was starting upwind, meaning in opposite direction as we were. Luckily we were on starboard tack and most boats just stayed out of the way, but for a moment I was truly scared looking at the fleet coming towards us. To give you an impression: Time lapse of the starting line here:  

After we got without incident through the starting line (only 30sec past our starting time!), things went pretty well and we passed a bunch of boats on the way to the first mark. Spinnaker takedown was equally successful and we rounded the mark tightly, heading hard up into the wind to cross the shipping channel towards Raccoon strait. That's when I realized that boats in front of us got swept out of the Golden Gate by the ebb current. Checking the GPS track showed clearly that this was our fate too, so I tacked back to get upstream somewhat. Meanwhile we were in the maximum ebb current and could barely hold our position, just moving sideways over ground while going 5kn through the water. 

Then the wind died. And like the rest of the fleet that had opted for this direction, we got brutally sucked out of the Golden Gate. While spinning the boat in the current eddies, a big gigantic cargo freighter appeared from the ocean and tried to work his way through hundreds of sail boats drifting slowly with the tides. TOOOOOOT!!!! At that time we were in the middle of the channel, but luckily I was able to spin the boat around and point in the right direction. The 4kn of current speed gave us enough wind into the sails so that we could inch out of the channel before the biggie was there. Some other boats had to fire up the engine and had to abandon the race therefore. 

Now came the biggest challenge, getting back into the SF Bay against all that current. There is a strong countercurrent heading east at the northern shore, so that's where we went. And miraculously we made it back under the bridge, until we almost were able to tack over into horseshoe cove out of the current. Almost! Just like 30 other boats we ended up in one big gigantic eddie swirling just West of the bridge. Once you cleared that little headland, a strong side current would sweep you easily back into the Pacific Ocean. We tried 9 times (!) to clear that headland without success. That's why we call this race the 9BF :-). After 3 hours of this no end was in sight and out of 21 miles race distance we had done maybe 2 miles. No way we could finish the race and we opted to abandon the race instead to go swimming at Aquatic Park anchorage!

Out of 357 boats on the start line, only 1 boat finished (!), about 9 minutes before the deadline at 7pm. Another catamaran apparently finished too but didn't have running lights so got disqualified. Bummer! Anyways, was lots of fun, totally sore the next day from numerous tacks and even more close encounters with other boat in the tidal swirl off the North Tower of Golden Gate! Next year we'll be back...

Motor-sailing towards SF

Beautiful sunset

3BF starting line

30 boats stuck under the Golden Gate

Captain got a sunburn..

Spi training!

Spi is flying!

Light winds today, perfect for some spinnaker training. Not so easy with only 2 people on the boat! Went through 10 gybes, 2 sets and 2 dowses. I was totally sweaty, already sore before we went home! Still need to work on the spi dowse, takes way too long to take the monster down, even with the sock. The problem is really the possibly disastrous interaction between sip and jib. Need to find a way of unrolling the jib without getting the spi all tangled up.

Half Moon Bay!

Our Christmas cruise: Out of the Golden Gate, into the Pacific Ocean! We found that we had a nice weather window over the holidays, combined with the ebb tide running out in the morning and coming back in in the afternoon. Perfect for venturing out of the Golden Gate! First night we spent at Angel Island, from where we left early in the morning next day out towards Half Moon Bay. This is a trip of about 26mls, so with the limited winter daylight no time for dilly dallying. Just outside the gate the scene was serene with lots of various sea birds circling the boat. Gradually, the hectic waves from the tidal flow changed to the long swells of the Pacific. We thought we could catch some wind outside the gate, as the forecast predicted a nice 14kn NE breeze. But alas, not even a whisper. Only around noon when we passed Cape San Pedro we got enough wind to (slowly) sail for about 1hr, the rest was all underwater genny work. Meanwhile we had to dodge hundreds of lobster buoys (or crabbing buoys I should rather say), apparently crabbing season is on!

Early morning leaving Angel Island

Rounding Pillar Pt just outside Halfmoon Bay we observed with awe how the gentle swells transformed with fury into the famous Mavericks, towering breaking waves just outside the harbor entrance. You have to follow a good detour around the dangerous shoals in order not to get sucked into there. I was just thinking that hopefully the engine doesn't die, as there was virtually no wind to sail free and the swells were pushing the boat visibly towards the shore. So we kept a respectful distance and made it into the marina without incident, phew.

Halfmoon Bay sunset

Thankfully the marina had an operating fuel dock, we were kind of low after combined 8hrs motoring so far! Refilled 12 gallons of Diesel and then checked in with the harbor master for a guest slip. Halfmoon Bay is a busy fishing port, and with crab season at its peak, we could see fishing boats coming in and leaving the wole evening. Dinner at the famous Halfmoon Bay Brewery, sampling their nice selection of brews! 

Brews at HMB

Next morning was quite foggy, so we motored our way through the thick fog with one eye on the AIS and one ear towards engine sounds. Visibility went down to about 100m, but otherwise the swells from yesterday had subsided, so no issue getting around the breakers. The fog stopped somewhere around San Pedro and we started sailing out into the Pacific! Coming back through the Golden Gate was no issue with the flood tide pushing us gently. We stayed overnight anchored at Aquatic Park, which is quite a nice setting with the bustling Fishermans wharf in the background. One peculiar thing about Aquatic parc: At any time of the year there are swimmers in that little cove. Of course in December the water temperature is really cold (about 47F or 8deg Celsius), so I really wonder how these guys can do it! Next day was an easy motor home, overall we had clocked 98 miles in 4 days, along with 16 hrs of engine time!

Marker in the fog

Golden Gate!

Anchored ships in the South Bay at sunrise

Slow and easy

First time setting the spi in a long time! The furious winds of the summer have finally abated and we're moving along gently with 5-10kn breezes this time of the year. Or no wind at all in which case Otto Helm takes over the steering while Vin Diesel pushes the boat. In that case one of the best places on the boat is all the way in front where the coach roof provides a nice back rest, and the splashing of the bow wave drowns the puttering of Mr. Vin.

The sun deck is open!