San Francisco, baby!

As many of you know from Jud’s Facebook posts, we did in fact survive our fears and inexperience, and made our first major milestone by sailing to San Francisco!

To get here, we needed to get past the feared Cape Mendocino. It turned out to be motor sailing in calm seas over 24 hours and then anchoring for rest in a beautifully dramatic setting called Shelter Cove. It really didn’t seem that sheltered to be honest, but it was the first reasonable anchorage after the Cape. Lots of wind still and some waves, but better than nothing.

The next place we anchored was even more gorgeous. It was in Elk in a place called Cuffey Cove in between rocks and hazards tucked in towards a beach. In my previous life I wouldn’t have had the nerve to sail into such a boisterous wave breaking, narrow entrance, but with a little more experience understanding what the boat (and sometimes crew) is capable of, we try these things.

The sail that day was particularly memorable:  we found ourselves in the middle of a very large pod of humpback whales for a couple of hours. They seemed to be following us and got a little close to Sputnik. I don’t have any great pics:  but I’ve added what I did manage to capture.

After that was Bodega Bay. Lovely little small town, seemingly bucolic. We had intentions of finding a car to rent and going to taste some wines as it is so close to the Napa valley and doesn’t Bodega suggest wine? Unfortunately getting to a car rental place meant taking a bus an hour away to another town- and the bus was scheduled once a day. It seemed impossible. So, we contented ourselves with hiking Bodega Head and the sand dunes. Such beauty!

And then rewarded ours efforts with some delicious crab nachos and beer after. Yum!

We left as the wind was looking good toward our next destination - Drakes Bay - just before San Francisco. Not before scaring ourselves to death by watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, set in Bodega Bay. Have you watched that movie?  Iconic setting, costuming, acting and suspense. A little bit of cheesiness with all the smoking and the way the birds attack, but so darn good.

And then, and then, our dream of sailing once again under the Golden Gate Bridge came true. We have done it before on another person’s boat after we graduated from university around 36 years ago. So to sail with our own boat that we have poured so much money, blood, sweat, tears, hopes and dreams, was pretty cool. The wind was in our favour and we let out the Genoa and had the best few hours taking in the bridge, the San Francisco skyline, the hundreds of sailboats all enjoying the 25 knot winds.

And for those of you who have visited San Francisco, you certainly know how great a city it is to visit. Lots of eye candy with the bold and varied downtown architecture, fabulous public art, Victorian houses all dressed up and embellished with the brightest metallic accents, and great people.

On the first day of exploration we went up to Haight Ashbury, the centre of counter culture, protest movements, vintage stores and the Grateful Dead. It happened to be the 47th annual street festival and how glorious it was. Blocks and blocks of stalls, performers, skate boarders, bands, food, clothing and best of all, all the freaky gorgeous people of every demographic just bumping along to the beat, wearing tshirts of various slogans that give you hope in this very strange moment of politics. And pot vendors moving effortlessly through the crowds with their doobies and packages. Pretty darn fun.

We gratefully took public buses back downtown as we had already walked up and down those hills for 8 or so miles and we were pretty tired.

Having our kid here for a bit makes this visit extra extra special.

We rented a car to go climb Half Dome, a mountain composed of a huge half sphere of solid granitein Yosemite. The car and the hostel were well sorted but our park pass was not. We needed reservations to climb the grueling dome which we missed the reservation window for. Though disappointed, we made a plan B for another hike which would be about 10 miles total and we could see the half dome, El Capitan, etc etc. When we got to the park entrance the park rangers told us because we weren’t American residents, the cost for entry would be a minimum of $250! That was way too much for one day, so even more disappointed, we made a plan C and decided on a hike along the Merced River. All I can say is, thank god, because of the heat of the day, I could barely finish that hike. Fortunately we had the cool river to dip our feet into at our half way point. I swear I had heat exhaustion - I had to stop frequently to rest on that return trip. There is no way I could have done the 10 mile straight up and then down hike at Yosemite, nor the 12-14 hour half dome. So creator was looking out for us.

Another highlight of San Francisco was meeting up with some of the other sailors making their way down south. We have formed chat groups to share tips, wind speeds, anchorages, boat breakdowns, crew breakdowns and all the things you might want to chat about on your 4 am watch. We organized a rendezvous at happy hour at the beach of an anchorage in the heart of SF for only $10 a night. It was so good to meet up with folks that we have shared advice with to congratulate each other on making it this far and make plans on what’s next. I haven’t laughed that hard in ages, tears streaming, from the shared anxieties, challenges and experiences of sailing down this coast. 

What could make this part of our journey even more epic? We found one in the form of a concert we could go to that would appeal to our kid as well as our tastes. It was a hot, sweaty, loud, body grooving, head banging, guitar thrashing vibe at the Jack White concert last night. Live it all, live it loud….

One more day in this very cool city and tomorrow we say goodbye to Lou, weigh anchor and slowly continue our way south. 

All my relations

Leah