January 15, 2012; 2 hours and 45 minutes, 10 NM, max speed: 7.6 knots
Thank you, Martin Luther King Jr.! Monday was a day off for Cindy! We arrived on Cool Change on Friday night. On Saturday, Cindy drove to Alameda for a big-boat motoring clinic, and Rick stayed on Cool Change to perform some maintenance. Sunday morning, our friend Sharon arrived to join us for a sail over to San Francisco, around the east side of Angel Island, and to a pair of mooring balls at Ayala Cove for the night. We expected light winds, but woke up Sunday morning to more wind than anticipated, so Rick and I doused the 130% genoa and replaced it with our smaller Yankee. Good thing we did – we had 23 knots or so coming across the slot. Do you see that little jog in the track on the east side of Angel Island? That was us, backing up with the sails up! When we sailed behind Angel Island and the wind calmed down a bit, we performed a ritual necessary to eradicate any last evidence of the prior names for our boat, by “backing” over them. It was fun. We sheeted out the main, headed into the wind, and then held the boom out so that the wind pushed us backwards. We didn’t go far, but far enough to show on the track, so I was happy!
Sharon and Rick on Angel Island hike
After safely mooring at Angel Island, we inflated the dinghy, lowered the outboard onto her, and went to shore to use the facilities and pay our $30 for the mooring for the night, even though it didn’t seem like anyone was there to collect or to care. The next morning, we hiked “the wrong way” around the Angel Island perimeter trail – a glorious view all around. Then we quietly motored back to Sausalito on Monday morning. We still had the dinghy out and inflated, so we towed her back to Sausalito from Ayala Cove. When we got close to the fairway, Rick hopped in the dinghy and got some rowing practice in as he rowed her to our dock; meanwhile, I drove Cool Change into her slip and Sharon helped tie her off.
We cleaned Cool Change from bow to stern, more thoroughly than usual, and went to talk with a yacht broker.