How I spent my weekend
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 3:02 pm
This past weekend was a great cruise for me and and my wife. We belong to the Diablo Sail and Power Squadron. Although this group is mostly power boaters, there are a few of us sailors in there to keep things honest.
We had a cruise from Vallejo Yacht Club, to San Rafael Yacht Club, and then back to the Benicia Marina. Three-ports in four days, if you count the voyage home.
We left on Friday morning around 0800. Because the wind normally blows right down the channel, and because we wanted to get in before dark, we had elected to power cruise this leg. Quite by chance, we hooked up with one of the other sailors in our group, and we power cruised together. Winds were about 10 knots, from right down our desired course. We had a push from the ebb current for the first part, but then ran into a strong flood as we got closer to our destination. We made it into Vallejo around 1300.
Saturday, we got out of Vallejo at around 0815. "After Fifty" (the other sailboat) and "Offline" (our 26X) raised sails and sailed about 2/3rds the way to San Rafael. At that point, the wind was building to the point where reefing was a consideration, but as before, we wanted to get in before conditions got too bad. They were predicting a Small Craft Advisory for later in the day. At the end of our sail, winds were 15-25, with gusts to 30, and I was having trouble keeping the boat on it's feet. I hove-to and lowered the main, and then took in the jib as we slowly powered into the wind. On the way to San Rafael, we detoured into Loch Lomond Marina and said, "Hi," to Jeff at Arena Yacht Sales. It was here I got a chance to see the new 2005 "M". Nice boat. Made my wife want to trade in our "X".
Sunday dawned with no wind, so we power cruised back to Benicia. I got a chance to sail for about 15 minutes while waiting for another group to clear out from where we were supposed to berth.
Monday was the gem of the trip. We left Benicia at 0930. We had 10-20 knots of wind, mostly from behind, but occasionally on the beam. We sailed all the way from Benicia to our home port just east of the Antioch Bridge. This was about 24 miles, and we did the trip in 4h20m for an average speed of about 5.6 knots. At one point we were showing 7.9 knots of water speed, and over 10 knots over the bottom (GPS speed)!! We ran our motor for about 5 minutes to get out of the harbor at Benica, and about 15 minutes to get into the harbor and onto the trailer at our home port. We probably burned about 1/4-gallon of fuel all day, making our fuel economy for that leg about 96 MPG. I bet that will make my friend with the 48' Bayliner a bit jealous when I tell him.
All together our trip was just over 100 nm, and we had a blast. My wife, who doesn't normally look forward to sailing, even claims to have enjoyed herself. Who knows, she may be warming up to sailing.
I'll be posting pictures of this trip (I didn't take too many) to my web site soon. I need to get them out of the camera first.
--
Mark Galbraith
Mac 26X "Offline" (2002)
Oakley, CA
http://www.geocities.com/[email protected]/offline/
We had a cruise from Vallejo Yacht Club, to San Rafael Yacht Club, and then back to the Benicia Marina. Three-ports in four days, if you count the voyage home.
We left on Friday morning around 0800. Because the wind normally blows right down the channel, and because we wanted to get in before dark, we had elected to power cruise this leg. Quite by chance, we hooked up with one of the other sailors in our group, and we power cruised together. Winds were about 10 knots, from right down our desired course. We had a push from the ebb current for the first part, but then ran into a strong flood as we got closer to our destination. We made it into Vallejo around 1300.
Saturday, we got out of Vallejo at around 0815. "After Fifty" (the other sailboat) and "Offline" (our 26X) raised sails and sailed about 2/3rds the way to San Rafael. At that point, the wind was building to the point where reefing was a consideration, but as before, we wanted to get in before conditions got too bad. They were predicting a Small Craft Advisory for later in the day. At the end of our sail, winds were 15-25, with gusts to 30, and I was having trouble keeping the boat on it's feet. I hove-to and lowered the main, and then took in the jib as we slowly powered into the wind. On the way to San Rafael, we detoured into Loch Lomond Marina and said, "Hi," to Jeff at Arena Yacht Sales. It was here I got a chance to see the new 2005 "M". Nice boat. Made my wife want to trade in our "X".
Sunday dawned with no wind, so we power cruised back to Benicia. I got a chance to sail for about 15 minutes while waiting for another group to clear out from where we were supposed to berth.
Monday was the gem of the trip. We left Benicia at 0930. We had 10-20 knots of wind, mostly from behind, but occasionally on the beam. We sailed all the way from Benicia to our home port just east of the Antioch Bridge. This was about 24 miles, and we did the trip in 4h20m for an average speed of about 5.6 knots. At one point we were showing 7.9 knots of water speed, and over 10 knots over the bottom (GPS speed)!! We ran our motor for about 5 minutes to get out of the harbor at Benica, and about 15 minutes to get into the harbor and onto the trailer at our home port. We probably burned about 1/4-gallon of fuel all day, making our fuel economy for that leg about 96 MPG. I bet that will make my friend with the 48' Bayliner a bit jealous when I tell him.
All together our trip was just over 100 nm, and we had a blast. My wife, who doesn't normally look forward to sailing, even claims to have enjoyed herself. Who knows, she may be warming up to sailing.
I'll be posting pictures of this trip (I didn't take too many) to my web site soon. I need to get them out of the camera first.
--
Mark Galbraith
Mac 26X "Offline" (2002)
Oakley, CA
http://www.geocities.com/[email protected]/offline/