sailing

Crowds on Pier 39

Yesterday, my father and I had an opportunity to go sailing out on San Francisco Bay on a catamaran.  The group we were with had arranged for the sunset tour - and it was spectacular.

Sailing away from San Francisco

Alcatraz

We decided to drive into the outskirts of the City and then take public transportation out to the Pier itself.  Our reasoning?  Fleet Week.  Once a year, San Francisco is inundated by large numbers of military (mostly Navy and Marines with a handful of others, including Canadian Navy) and others in some kind of celebration of water-based military peoples.  I'm not quite sure what it's about, but there are air shows and parades of ships and lots of people, including lots of people in uniform.  We figured it'd be hard to drive closer to the Pier and back out again - and we were right (on the way back, the trolley we took, which is *supposed* to have a clear track on the street, was stuck at one intersection for THREE changes of the traffic light because there were so many tourists driving and the Embarcradero was totally jammed full).

Golden Gate Bridge

At any rate, we made it to Pier 39, home of the sea lions and Adventure Cat, the company that runs the sail.  They have two boats - the other is a bit larger than the one we were on; both sailed out at the same time.

You can see the water through the netting

The weather was gorgeous - not too cold, sunny and clear, not super windy, the water wasn't too rough.  We sailed out around Alcatraz, out to the Golden Gate Bridge, then back around the other side of Alcatraz and back into dock.  Altogether a bit over an hour and a half.

The bridge, the sunset, and the other boat

A catamaran is a sailboat with two hulls.  This makes the boat much more steady on the water.  In order to give guests maximum space to move around, these boats were outfitted with nets between the hulls.  It was kind of neat to see the water rushing by under one's feet.  The captain of this boat also allowed a few guests to steer - my dad had a great time taking his turn at the helm.

Under the bridge

Tugboat and barge.

Out near the bridge, we saw a few harbor porpoises.  Unfortunately, I was unable to snap a photo - they were up and gone too quick for my finger to react.  We saw a few pelicans and many gulls as well.  We did see a tugboat hauling a barge out to sea - apparently there is a rather long, heavy chain that runs between the tug and the barge - do not sail between the two boats!

Overall, we had a lovely time.  It was a great experience, and despite getting a little damp, I'm so glad we decided to go.