This was my first multi-day sailing trip on the largest yacht that I’ve sailed on too. A 3 day trip from the port of Redwood City, spending two nights in Sausalito, with a day trip out to Farallon Islands and back. We sailed around Treasure Island, past Alcatraz and Angel Island, out of the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge, and into the Pacific Ocean, experiencing the ocean swell away from the protected waters of the bay. The Farallon Islands are 30 miles off the San Francisco coast, which makes for a 60 mile round trip, on a boat with a top speed of 6-7 knots that’s a 10 hour day.
We arrived at Redwood City on Saturday morning of a 3 day weekend, got our stuff loaded onto the boat, got acquainted, and our Skipper, Andrew, gave us a briefing of the boat, a Beneteau 39. The boat has 3 cabins, 2 heads, a navigation desk, and a central galley/dining area. There were 6 of us in total spread among the 3 cabins and the seats converted into an additional bunk.
We set sail mid morning, leaving the dock with glassy still water. The rest of the day was very still with no real wind at all, so the entire day we spent under motor, first passing under the San Mateo Bridge, then to San Francisco, under the Bay Bridge, and doing a dockside tour of the city, crossing over to Marin before the Golden Gate Bridge, and finding our dock in Sausalito for the night. The first day was the easiest, and in the evening we sat on the boat with some hors d’oeuvre before walking a short way to a French restaurant for dinner.
The second day was the big one, Andrew got up early to get the coffee going on the stove, and put some croissants in the oven as we left the dock, we’ll eat breakfast on the way. We left Sausalito with some light rain patches and small rainbow appeared over Marin, but still, as forecast, very lights winds. As we rounded the Marin headlands, now with hot croissants in hand, and headed under the Golden Gate Bridge, the ocean swell hit us immediately and the boat rocked around with relatively high and closely spaced waves. It was a beautiful morning with some high clouds and the sun managing to poke out.
As we carried on out into the ocean the swell died down until the ocean became very flat. We left wide berth for the passing container ships, but ducked into the shipping channel to pass by the San Francisco Buoy, which marks the center of the channel into San Francisco Bay, 3 miles out from the entrance. A seal resting on the buoy eyed us wearily, jumped in as we circled round, but climbed back on as we departed. On our trip out we dodged around crab pots, which have little buoys floating on the surface, and continued on our way motoring through the calm ocean.
We were massively helped by the ebb tide, flowing out of the bay, under motor our boat has a top speed of about 6.5 knots, but the tide pushing us along our speed over ground was almost 9.5 knots. About half way the hazy outline of the Farallons appeared on the horizon.
As we got closer the rocky outcropping jutted out of the sea, with a splash of green down the largest rock. Small waves were breaking over the steep rocks. It can be dangerous to sail too close to the island when the swell is high, but with such light swell we could circumnavigate relatively closely with a smooth ride. The islands are desolate (Farallon comes from the Spanish for steep rocks or cliffs) as they jut into the ocean, where on a clear day the San Francisco coast is faint in the distance.
The islands are a nature preserve and are protected, you are not allowed to land at them. They are an important habitat for sea birds, and the entire journey from the bay to the islands the ocean was always rich with birds. As we rounded the islands we could see some birds, and quite a few seals, but it wasn’t until we rounded the last corner that we saw a huge field of birds all chattering at each other, covering the entire side of one of the steep cliffs.
As we rounded the island the mist was descending on us, and it was getting wetter with moisture in the air, and reduced visibility, the islands disappeared into a misty haze rapidly as we departed back for San Francisco, we timed it incredibly well. In contrast to the journey out where we could see both the mainland and the islands for most of the trip, on the way back we could see neither the islands or the coast. The ocean was still calm with very gentle swell, and we watched for shipping containers on the AIS electronic boat identification system.
Eventually San Francisco and the Golden Gate appeared out of the haze, and a few hours later we rounded the Marin coast and headed back into our slip in Sausalito. We tied the boat up just as it was getting dark, and tonight we went straight to the restaurant right next to the docks to warm up and hungrily devour a meal. We were all pretty tired and got an early night. Tomorrow is a shorter day so we could eat breakfast at the dock before heading off.
Andrew brought a jar of his wife’s homemade marmalade, from limes and ginger grown in their garden, it tasted absolutely delicious on the warm buttered bread. The forecast today called for some wind in the afternoon, up to this point we hadn’t been underway without the motor running as there was simply no wind. We were able to cross the bay from Sausalito, past Angel Island and Alcatraz, and alongside Treasure Island under sail, but the wind died down a little and we powered back on to navigate around Treasure Island as we ate lunch.
In the afternoon we powered down to the San Mateo Bridge and finally found the wind, turning the engine off and using the sails to take us under the bridge and back into the port of Redwood City. The wind picked up so much by the end we had to reef the mainsail to reduce the area. We had more opportunity to get some hands on sailing on the bigger boat, I got to practice helming and controlling the yacht to counter the rolls due wind gusts and sea state. We pulled into the dock just as the stars were starting to appear in the sky. It had been an easier day but I was still exhausted. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend, it was a great introduction to multi-day sailing trips and getting to see the bay from the water was pretty magical, let alone the trip out and around Farallon Islands, which relatively few people get to see as close up as we did.