Finally at anchor!
The Rock in Gibraltar to the left, and Monte Hacho in Africa to the right. Tomorrow we head towards there and then turn right!
Working!
You’ve heard about my crewing on USA76, but I’m also skippering afternoon sails out of Spinnaker in Redwood City. We’re sailing Merit 25s and go out into the Bay for four hours to give people a chance to see what sailing is like, and for students to practice what they’ve learned. The wind is almost always 10-15 knots (+-) NW. Only question is: do we tack or motor out, and do we reef at the dock or later? And obviously, it’s always sunny and everyone is happy. What’s not to love?!
Sea trials (literally)
Finally able to leave the marina (reading Heavy Weather Sailing and they talk about Marina Fever as a risk (you go out when you shouldn’t be) because you are so tired of the Marina - very timely!) and do an overnight sea trial to Soller on Mallorca. It was quite windy so not relaxing, but definitely fun with dolphins, bioluminescence and very seaworthy boat in its element. Found lots of things needing fixing before ocean crossing - very happy we did this now when spares are plentiful.
I’m still sailing!
I haven’t posted anything here all winter! But now I am back and promise to keep it up. Since my last post, I received my Captain’s license, and have finished my training and am now working in two places here in the bay area: crewing on USA 76 up in San Francisco, and as an instructor at Spinnaker down here (Redwood city). I continue to prepare for my around-the-world sail, with my latest class being in Diesel engine maintenance. It was surprisingly fun! And I have some great deliveries scheduled for the summer and fall, starting Monday! So watch this space!
My new office!
Lining up sailing jobs in the Bay Area. Very excited about getting to crew on USA 76!! Isn’t she beautiful?! She is an old America’s cup boat, now used for charters here in San Francisco. She might be “old’ but she is far more complicated, and everything is sooooo much heavier than what I’m used to. And faster! Some stats for the sailors among you: 84 ft, 50,000 lbs, 115 ft mast, 2800 sq ft sail area. Wahoo!
You can learn more at acsailingsf.com - and buy tickets 🤣
Back to racing!
Back to Wednesday night racing in the Bay. It’s one design racing on club boats, so super competitive - and fun! I’m back on David’s boat. This race I did jib sheets and foredeck. It is always great to sail with David, as you learn so much while still having fun. This race was extra fun with us coming in less than a boat length after the winner, after a 90 minute race! We had two incredibly close calls with other boats while tacking (we were the stand on vessel both times) that forced us to do emergency tacks - it has definitely gotten even more competitive since I took a hiatus to do last year’s big delivery!
Back in the Bay
Back at my old club (Spinnaker) in Redwood city, doing an afternoon sail with Fred to try to remember how to sail 25 ft boats with outboard motors, to get ready to start racing again. Turns out I have forgotten how to dock too!
Weather, part 2
Those of you who have followed my blog since the beginning, know how frustrated I’ve been with the weather forecasts, especially in the Med. I use Predict Wind and ECMF the most (just started using Arome recently in the Med - thanks Jos!), but have a dozen services and a handful models I check plus I also check land weather for that area. And I’m still often caught by surprise. Finally I read an article that helped me understand why!
Weather#@$!
So we were supposed to have 10+ hours of sailing on the 14+ hour crossing from Ibiza to Valencia. Instead we had 10+ hours of motoring. Very annoying! Some good sailing in the midddle, and a gorgeous sail into Valencia at the end with dramatic skies and a setting sun. Then as we pulled into the welcome dock to get all paperwork sorted the sky opened, lightning all around us and the wind pushing the boat off the dock. Made for exciting docking for sure! I did tell myself that if James can land a jet plane he should be able to dock a boat - and he could! 🤣. Now this whole adventure has ended and we are cleaning the boat, while I start thinking about where to sail next….
