Date: 4/25-4/26 2026
Crew: Rebecca Hinden, Rowan Fennell, Tom Paulling, Tim Roche
Course: San Francisco Bay to a point west of Cordell Bank
Duration ~24 hours
All told we sailed 155 NM over about 24 hours. We chose our timing wisely, and were able to head out the gate on a strong ebb, under full main and j3 in 10-12 knots of wind, After a few tacks to keep us in good current we headed north west to point reyes, the wind abated some and we changed up to the j1. We were progressively lifted sailing towards drakes bay, nearly laying the point in one tack,
Our plan from there was to head west, with an intended destination somewhere around cordell bank, expecting the winds to clock around to a more northwesterly angle giving us a good angle for a spinnaker run to the bay.
We had a delicious dinner of freeze dried, tom rowan and I opted for mac and cheese, while Rebecca chose the lasagna. The scenery with dinner was lovely as we sailed by a cliffs and rolling hills of point reyes.
After we passed west of the point, the wind picked up a bit so we tucked in a reef and cruised along happily at an increased speed for an hour or so until the wind dropped again when we shook the reef.
As we approached the northern approach TSS, it was quite busy, we saw 6 or 7 ships pass around the time we were attempting to cross. We were scooting along at 7.5 knots, slowly converging with an MSC container ship going 9.8 knots, so decided to tack to cross the behind her and cross the lanes at as close to 90 as we could, but with the light winds, and the lee of the ship, we were not making much progress across the lanes, so decided it would be a good time to charge the batteries and make time across this busy stretch of highway. We motorsailed for about an hour and a half, briefly dropping the jib, but quickly getting it back up after we had cleared the shipping lane.
Rebecca and Rowan took the first night watch, and got us out to the turn around point just off the continental shelf right around midnight. We set the spinnaker in around 9 knots, then gybed for home. Winds remained somewhat light for an hour or so, but we could see squalls building behind us, and soon enough we started getting a few stronger gusts, then the wind built to a steady 15-18 knots, great surfing conditions for zaff. Port gybe had great alignment with the sea state, making for very fun conditions. Smooth sailing until we approached the TSS again, where yet again there were multiple ships to avoid, A little bit of soaking down gave us a comfortable 4 mile passing distance for the last of them.
At the shift change, there were lots of large bioluminescent creatures in our wake, but we weren't slow enough to see what they were, I suspect they were jellyfish, too bad we were going too fast to get a good look, i find them fascinating.
During the next watch, there were a couple gybes, I came up for one, and then rebecca and rowan handled the other one. The doublehanded one went better. The next shift change saw us approaching the golden gate, Rowan saw the uprights, and decided we needed to kick a field goal. We passed back under the bridge shortly after 7:00 am, with clearing skies a moderate flood and a decent breeze in the bay. We sailed under the spinnaker until we ran out of breeze under pt. blunt, then motorsailed over to the cityfront to find better current and got the kite back up. The breeze picked up again, and we sailed under treasure island, under the Bay Bridge and into the estuary. The wind direction wasn't great for a sleepy doublehanded run down the estuary so we struck the kite and powered back to the slip.
It was a lovely sail. I think the conditions were about as pleasant as one could ask for in an out and back 150 mile voyage leaving from the bay.
