Fetch; Oakland estuary

June 22.

Another week went by working on the centerboards and rudders. After fiberglassing they got painted with two coats of barrier coat (two part primer) and two coats of Easypoxy paint.  They looked good and would last for many years to come and Stefan (the customer) was happy.

 

 

 

Saturday I picked up my tools, cleaned up my corner, said goodbye to the folks at the shop and went back to Sausalito to put Fetch on the trailer. I was amazed how much growth I had on the bottom after only two weeks in the water. Either I hadn’t sailed the boat enough or the anti fouling paint was getting tired. It’s always worse where the sun gets to it. While cleaning the hull, people stopped by to ask about the design. Fetch has started many conversations.

 

I had one more dinner with Laurel, a woman I had met a few days before. An interesting lady who had written a few spiritual books, had lived all over the world and just had moved on a boat in Sausalito with her cat Arthur to continue her work. She was working on her boat with a local shipwright Jeff and once in a while I added suggestions about woodwork between conversations on spirituality.

 

 

 

I said bye to Marti who had set me up with the marina, which had been very convenient for those few weeks. Marti and his wife live on a sailboat as well. He is a very energetic guy full of ideas and always trying to pull off the next project. Just about every time I was in town I would run into him, sometimes even twice, usually on his bicycle racing through town, while nothing escaped his keen eye.

 

 

I had my last breakfast at Café Taste of Rome, nodding goodbye to the regulars that I had seen for a few weeks now. Most folks knew each other by name and just about everybody pulled out a laptop at every session. Often 9 out of 10 were connected to the web while enjoying breakfast and coffee. Days later I was talking to Dan Phy later about yuppies and fancy cars in Sausalito and he asked me if I knew what BMW stands for: Basic Marin Wheels.

 

 

Sunday I visited Keith and Shari in Tiburon for lunch and a visit to the wooden boat festival in the local marina. His friend Mark joined us. Keith had crossed the Pacific with Marcelle, who I know from Port Townsend and she recommended I meet with him. He had owned many boats in the past, but now had reduced his fleet to two stand-up boards, which he liked a lot due to their simplicity and versatility. On the way over to their house I took pictures of an America’s Cup Boat and a fast catamaran. The Bay is always full of surprises and activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday June 24 through Wednesday 26

Monday morning I drove over to Oakland to meet folks of the Potter Yachters. Dan Phy had invited me to join them to sail on the Oakland estuary with Don Person and Jim Kirwan. The four of us had sailed and beach-camped a few weeks earlier on Tomales Bay. Don organizes a sail out of the Oakland Yacht Club just about every Wednesday. It’s very convenient to be able to tie up in a slip, have a shower ashore and buy breakfast in town. It’s interesting sailing on the estuary. Often lots of wind without the waves, lots of Optimists and Lasers and such on the water with youth learning to sail. Next thing you know is sailing up to an enormous steel hull of a freighter being loaded with containers. You turn around and a high speed ferry passes by along with a tug and a barge. At the end of the estuary you enter the San Francisco Bay with the skyline of the city, the Bay Bridge right there and the Golden Gate en the distance.

The first day (Monday) we didn’t go as far as the Bay and we had to reef and use a storm jib. Fetch sails nicely with that combination. Tuesday we sailed out to the bay and went up to the first tower of the Bay Bridge, with fairly light winds and an incoming tide. On the way over we were dwarfed by the container ships tied up to the cay with huge cranes reaching over them. Containers loaded on deck, 16 wide, 6 high and about 20 fore and aft! That’s about 2000 of them, just on deck and who knows how many more down below. You wonder how much junk is in there, stuff we don’t really need. Cheap stuff from overseas that in a few years is either broken or outdated. I know, I know, there are quality durable items shipped as well. Like our Toyota Corolla from Japan; now that was a durable item that lasted without big problems for over 23 years and is still going.

Wednesday three more Potter 15’s showed up and we sailed out the estuary in very light wind to end up at the Bay without any. We turned around and headed for lunch at the yacht club. That afternoon we had a nice breeze. I had a chance to try out Dan’s Montgomery 15 and liked the way she sailed. Very responsive with that big Ida Sailor rudder. The wind was laying down so I couldn’t try her out thoroughly, but the big cockpit, the running rigging and basic layout seemed to all work quite well. The interior is spartan, but comfortable without a trunk or compression post in the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday morning we loaded up on the trailers and each went their own way. My way was going to be east! For about 3300 miles….brrrr.