King Tide on the Bay
Afternoon sail in SF Bay on a Catalina 36
Today Simon and I sailed on San Francisco Bay as guests on Luna, a 36 foot Catalina, captained by Fran and Robert (and ably advised by Fran’s dad Arthur). It was a King Tide where sea level was dropping a foot an hour- not something we think of checking in Sweden! We enjoyed a couple of hours of cruising around the East Bay, with views of Treasure Island, Angel Island and the Golden Gate Bridge. Thanks for the sail!
Things we learned:
In California you need to check tides and currents! Fran mentioned L-36.com.
Make sure you know your boat draft (depth below water) before heading out, we had to do some quick googling :) Go slow if you’re in shallows, it will be easier to get unstuck.
Self-tacking jibs are cool- this was the first one we’ve seen
The jib will probably blow over before the main, as a warning of an unintentional jibe
A wheel for steering is so intuitive as to be unintuitive - it’s like a car, steer where you want to go (unlike our tiller where steering is opposite).
A larks head is a good way to get a line out of the way to hang on the lifelines while being quickly accessible, like so:
Winches can have a metal thingy to guide the line on without tangling, and a grippy plastic track to prevent the line from slipping out. And a cover. Want!
If you have a continuous toerail (a border rail on the deck of the boat) and calm winds, you can find the stone that fell out of an engagement ring under sail!
There’s a very cool lazyjack that stays on the whole time that the sail folds neatly into because it has high walls
Bumper on the end of the boom is smart! Common boat injury is to get smacked in the head 😣
Springline on the bow is good because… reasons :)