Out the Gate and Turn Left

Our target was to leave August 1. After ten years of dreaming and planning, two days late isn’t too bad. But what does “late” really mean – we aren’t on any schedule any more! We told ourselves without a schedule, we would sail as much as we could. But as we cast off from the Berkeley Yacht Club guest dock at 10am under overcast skies against a flooding tide with ZERO wind, we left under motor. The cityscape was an artistic study in grey.
When we had reached the Golden Gate bridge at 11:30, the wind temporarily built to 18 knots, but as we approached Point Diablo, it died down again to about 10 knots, so we set our sails and turned left to start slowly sailing toward the south. The wind died again as we approached Point Montara, so we motored on in to Half Moon Bay, having covered our first 34 miles in six and a half hours. Our new Manson anchor performed flawlessly in its first use – luckily Cathy was holding on when it set!