San Francisco, finally!

Well, we finally made it off Coos Bay and not soon enough.  We were there for 5 days and that was 5 days too long.  Our intent was to pop in for a day or so to let the weather settle and get some rest, but a persistent  weather system was stalled off the coast and just wouldn't cut us any slack.  And then on the day of our planned departure, the Coast Guard had the Coos Bay bar restricted.  We were ready to go, the boat was ready and we just sat there all day listening to the VHF for the bar to open, which it did late in the day around 3 pm.  That of course meant that once over the bar and heading south night time would be upon us.

Negotiating the bar was a bit tricky as it was foggy.  We had to motor out a narrow channel from the marina with sandbars on both sides and then make a sharp left turn to enter the bar channel.  Conditions were fairly rough going across the bar, but we made it out with no issues.

As it was only Janet and I on this leg, we set up our night watch schedule for 2 hours on and 2 hours off.  It actually worked out pretty good, with both of us managing to get a fair amount of sleep.  The only issue was the cold.  We were both bundled up with multiple layers and it was still cold.  We ran the diesel heater at times which helped.

This was a 72 hour run and we had hoped to sail most of the way, but as luck would have it, the wind was fickle and we ended up motoring for about 50 hours.  We sailed when we could and did have one stretch of good wind that lasted for most of the day and night.

We rounded Point Reyes mid afternoon and estimated the run into the bay would take another 3 - 4 hours.  As you should enter the bay on slack or on the flood and the timing just wasn't right, we decided to drop our anchor and over night in Drakes Bay.  What we thought would be nice sheltered anchorage was far from that.  The wind was blowing at 25 - 30 knots, so we set our anchor with plenty of scope and got a good set.  Our new Vesper Marine AIS had an anchor watch, which we put to good use and I think gave us the piece of mind we needed to get a good night sleep.

In the morning, we woke early to time our entry into the bay and under the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was a beautiful sunny day with good brisk winds on our stern that carried us all the way in.  It was a Sunday and I think everybody who owned a boat was out on the bay that day.  Even though we have sailed many times on the bay, it was still an amazing sight.  Once in we made a beeline for Marina Bay in Richmond, which is where we've been for the last week.

We've had family visits, boat maintenance, re-provisioning and a trip to the dentist.  We had hoped for a few days to just hang out and relax, but it seems that it just wasn't meant to be for this stop.

We hope to be heading south in a day or two.  The plan is to harbor hop down the coast with stops in Half Moon Bay, Monterrey, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Long Beach and hopefully the channel islands and then San Diego.

While en route and some 20 - 30 miles off shore, this
little guy payed us a visit.  He even flew down
below and gave the furry crew quite a surprise, you
can only imagine the excitement that generated.

Janet's head made for a nice place to hang.

Rounding Bonita Point and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge
was an amazing sight.

Janet was relived to finally be passing under the
Golden Gate Bridge.

Paul was pretty excited to be back on the bay again.

We had family visits.  This is my sister Arlene and my
brother Roger's girl friend Janell.