Hello Sailor! ;-)

Let me tell you about our latest
adventure - a day at sea!! Well, technically a day sailing round San Francisco Bay, but you get the idea.

It all started at 8am on Saturday when Pirate Pete and I assembled at Captain Leo & First Mate Vera's house and set off for the marina in Berkley where we were hiring our boat from. Second Mate Brian joined us at the marina and our little crew was complete.




We set about prepping our 26ft vessel for action, with the seasoned sailors taking care of the technical stuff - y'know, the sails and shit - and Brian and myself attempting to go through the pre-sail checklist, which was a bit of a challenge as we really didn't know our jib from our boom or whatever that thing is called! But with a little help from the captain we were soon done and making our merry way out of the marina.

It was a beautiful, though chilly, morning and the wind was good for sailing as we set off towards San Francisco. Once Leo had cleared the marina everyone got a shot at steering, although I politely declined my turn - I was quite content with my responsibilities pulling the rope to turn the front sail thingy (which I later learned was the jib). Brian was up first, and did a grand job for a newbie! He did pull some interesting manoeuvres, and Vera and I soon decided that the theme for the day was Adventure Sailing, but there were no casualties!




Next up was Peter, who was sailing for the first time
in about 15 years, and enjoyed testing the boat's capabilities. In fact, he viewed the fact that the boat was impossible to capsize more like a challenge and we all enjoyed his many attempts to disprove this!!

He was clearly having an awesome time, and everyone was happy to leave the bulk of the steering up to him for the rest of the day, with the captain content to direct and advise.








Sadly, though, we were about to have our one and only casualty of the day when Peter's hat was blown off :-( A rescue was attempted, but was soon called off when we forgot to nominate someone to keep an eye on the hat and it disappeared. Though saddened by our loss, we ventured on .....








Our goal was to hit the farmer's market at Fisherman's Wharf for lunch, and soon the famous skyline of San Francisco came in to view. Unfortunately the wind was not really playing our game and it took us a few attempts to get on course, but the boys were spurred on by Vera's frequent demands for burgers .....







...... right in to the path of a container ship! At first we thought we could comfortably pass the ship and held our course. A brief game of maritime chicken ensued until our opponents sounded their horn and we pulled a swift U-turn to give them right of way!!






Eventually we made it to shore, an hour later than hoped, and went to play in the market. Farmers markets are really popular over here and this one was awesome!! We headed first to the hot food stalls and feasted on burgers from a speciality butcher - Vera and Leo had been singing their praises all morning and they lived up to their reputation! We then wandered round the rest of the market and bought some strawberries for dessert - yum! Sadly I forgot to take my camera with me to the market so I can't show you all the sights, but we will definitely be going back and I shall do my best to remember next time!! We passed a very pleasant couple of hours on land then headed back to the boatie for round 2.

In anticipation of stronger winds, the captain decided to set off with only the main sail raised to make the boat easier to control. But as we sailed round the bottom of Angel Island it became clear that the wind was not in our favour and we were forced to weave continuously to try and catch the gusts. This made for very slow progress and some unrest among the crew!

Now, don't judge, but at this point we decided to cheat a little and powered up the motor to get us round the corner and back to the fun times. Oh, and there were fun times a-plenty to come! With the wind our friend once again, we were propelled smoothly around Angel Island and on to the home strait.



Now, this is where things got interesting, and Peter's sailing skills were put to the test! With the wind behind us, and away from the protection of the island, the waves were getting bigger - and a lot more fun!! Peter had to work hard to get us through the swells with only minor soakings - and while he wasn't always successful nobody minded because, quite simply, is was bloody brilliant fun!!!



Tired and wet (some more so than others!) we made it back to the marina around 6pm. With thoughts of the free bar and barbeque the sailing club was providing in our minds, we sped through the packing up and hosing down of our little vessel, only to discover that the damn thing finished at 6pm!! But, as Leo said, we would much rather have had the extra time on the water so we weren't too upset!



To round off our day we all made the trip back into San Francisco to a random little dive bar called the Broken Record where we enjoyed such delicacies as pork fries, blue cheese chicken wings, and chilli served in a cheesy toasted bun, while we raised a glass of beer to our adventures at sea.




This was such a fun day out! I have always loved being on or around the water, but this was my first time actively sailing (although my role was mainly decorative for most of the journey!) and I absolutely loved it!!!

So, when's the next trip ....?!?!?!?!?!?!

PS - A huge thanks to Vera and Leo for organising the trip, and to Brian too - it was a pleasure to meet you!

PPS - Pirate Pete has already started looking into boats for sale, and we have narrowed the parrot down to a Norwegian Blue called either Hades, Jasper or Vigo. Watch this space ....... :-)