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We arrived in Berkeley late Saturday night. Our friend Tim had given us directions to a parking lot near the harbor where we could park and sleep. The kitties really enjoyed the fishy smells of the Berkeley Marina during their evening walk. In the morning we walked over to OCSC, the sailing school where Tim is an instructor during the summer. We helped Tim, John and Katie (friends of Tim’s, John is a ski instructor at Beaver Creek with Tim in the winter) stow our gear on the boat. What a great day, unseasonably warm and sunny for the San Francisco area, should be perfect for sailing.

At 24’ our boat, the Rock On, was one of the smaller sailing vessels in the marina and it was smaller than I had anticipated but it had adequate room for the 5 of us. After all the gear was safely stowed we put on our bright yellow foul weather gear and PFDs (personal flotation devices, not lifejackets!) and listened as Tim outlined the rules of sailing:

Maintain 3 points of contact with the boat at all times, Don’t fall in, Step only on the white paint, Don’t fall in, Help look for cross-traffic and finally, Don’t fall in. Tim emphasized that a good sailor never swims!

I don’t think anyone, except Tim, was prepared for how rough it was. Sailing looks so calm and serene from shore! Katie and I laughed at our ignorance, she thought she’d be able to write postcards and I thought I’d relax and catch a nap. It was the kind of day that sailors love, windy.

Yet somehow, we became becalmed, we had sailed into Angel Island’s wind shadow. There was wind on either side of us yet our sails hung limply in the sun. Making the best of a bad situation we decided to eat lunch as we rocked back and forth. Apparently, I would not make a good pirate, lunch was the furthest thing from my mind! Keeping my insides inside was my main goal, and I was not the only one looking a wee bit green.

Finally, the tide drifted us into the wind and we were off again. The breeze made me feel better instantly. We tacked our way north of Angel Island toward the Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful! The sun was shining, sailboats skimmed across the Bay, dolphins and even a shark swam by. I would’ve taken pictures but the waves were huge, splashing all the way over the keel and we were tacking hard. Tim said he only worries about capsizing when the angle is over 60% which means he must have been a bit worried! It was so windy and rough that we had to abandon our plan of sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge, our sailboat was too small to handle waves like that.

Tim proved to be an able captain, especially when it was rough. He sailed us out of the roughest part toward San Francisco and we were enjoying the view when the ferry from Alcatraz almost ran us over! It wasn’t that close but it was close enough. With our sails full of wind we soon left the city and the ferry far behind.

I must admit that stepping onto the pier was a relief, semi-solid ground! It was around 6PM when we finished “lunch” at a table in the warm grass. Even though I didn’t do anything except hang on and slide across the boat, I was exhausted! Huge thanks to Tim for making such a great adventure possible (oh, and for not killing us)! It was a super way to explore the bay and see the city.

Photos: See our shining faces in the Sailing San Francisco Bay photos.
Notes: We sailed from Berkeley across to the Golden Gate Bridge and back on Sunday July 23, 2006.