San Francisco Bay Fleet Week

Hello All,
It is finally raining here a little bit so it has forced me to stay inside and get some photo editing done from last weekend. We had fleet week here which consisted of 4 days of military ship parades and air shows. I took the boat to the city and anchored a block from Fishermens Wharf in a nice little protected anchorage known as Aquatic Park. It is managed by the National Park Service so you need a permit to anchor here. It is really easy to get one and it is for free. I just texted my boat info to a gal at the office and thats it. Little did I know that it would be one of the best places to view the airshow from and hear the events happening from announcers and loud speakers on the beach. It was calm and clear both days I was there and hot, wow!, what a weekend.

I had my kayak with me so Friday afternoon I took a short trip to a nice sandy beach and walked around some with the mass of people touring around. The anchorage offers great views of the city skyline as well as the bay and golden gate bridge.

Its hard to describe the feeling of being there with all of the action so I took some good videos and lots of pictures. I will post them here below the text.

Out side of having 2 great weekends out on the boat it has been work as usual with never ending projects keeping all of us here at the marina busy.

Enjoy the pictures and video and I will chat at you soon


PEACE

Westsail Rendezvous 2016

Hello All,
I just had the greatest weekend at the Northern California Westsail Rendezvous. We met up again at the Richmond Marina Bay Yacht Harbor, I timed it this time, it took me 10 minutes to get over there from where im at, pretty close indeed , anyway I arrived on Friday about 1:30and got tied up, I had some help landing the boat, there was already 3 Westsail boats there so that was handy. After getting settled in I started visiting with a few people I havent met before so that was really cool to see new faces that brought boats. By the end of the day we had 11 boats in all, it was a great turn out and all but one was a Westsail 32. A young couple gearing up to go cruiseing off shore came with a #1 hull Westsail 42 Cutter Ketch. Explaination , cutter has 2 sails foreword and a ketch has 2 masts. Beautiful boat if i may say anyway. I saw alot of the same faces from last year so was nice to visit again.

Saturday, late morning Bud Taplin showed up, recap , Bud is our go to guy for Westsail parts, he worked as a manager for the company in the early 70's, he is a wealth of knowledge and a hoot visit with. Anyway he drove up from home base New Port Beach California to join in on all the fun. He also brought books up that he had published about the Westsail Company while he was there and there are some stories that Westsailors sent to him to put in the book as well. Well needless to say i bought one and had him sign it. I have only skimed through but looks very interesting.
After all of us were boarding each others boats and taking notes on ideas of what someone else did we had a bbq at the Harbor Masters Office party room. I helped set up the tables and did what I could to make it easier on our organizers. I think there were 45 people showed up, It was a great visit moving around the room and the food was great.

I had to leave early this morning to get back to work but all the rest of the boats did a parade on the city front all sailing together. Next year Im taking Sunday off to do this , sounds like to much fun.

Well thats my weekend In a nut shell, Ill post pictures below, enjoy.

PEACE

Yosemite National Park

Hello All,
It's been a very long time since I've been here. I think I'm a little rusty. Anyway things here at the marina are pretty business as usual and I do get to take my boat out in the bay from time to time for day sails. It is a lot of fun just to say I'm going today and 10 minutes later your sailing along.

Well I'll get right to the point. I was invited to go on a 3 day camp out last week by our old Harbormaster Rick. He retired 2 years ago but still attends our Wednesday night BBQs. My self my boss Eric and one of our tenants, Anders, that has a marine repair shop here all jumped into Ricks big fancy van and we headed out last Sunday morning. It took us about 5 hours to get up into the mountains to our campsite taking our time enjoying the views. We set up camp at Tuolumne Meadows, made a fire and about 10 more people showed up to join the group. Rick and friends he knows do this trip at least once a year. He told me they started the group in 1986.

Monday morning we had a light breakfast and jumped into Ricks van and went to one of the trail heads where we hiked up to 10,000 feet and 8.5 miles in all. The views are amazing there and the weather was clear and not to hot.I was pretty tired when we finished but amazingly felt really good the next day. I haven't hiked like that in years.

We had a great visit with all of Ricks friends when we returned to camp most all retired now. Everyone pitched in for a great dinner cooked on the campfire with a Dutch oven. Some great stories were told as well.

Tuesday morning we were treated to a great breakfast as well. we tore down camp and everyone said there goodbyes. They already have another trip planned for the Valley floor this time. I said I'll think about it.

I will post a few pics below

P.S. I have a Westsail rondevous coming up at the end of the month so you will here from me next month.

PEACE

Northern California Westsail Rondevous

Hello All,

How has everyone been, I know its been a while but since Jon left its been all business at the marina. We just took delivery of 2 new dock systems at our facility to replace 40 year old docks that were falling apart. In order to do that that the old ones have to be moved to make room for new ones and all the boats tied to them have to be moved as well. So we have had our hands full working overtime and 6 days a week for now. The projest should be completed by the first few weeks in November.

In all the busy work I found time to take last Saturday and go to the next Marina over from us , about a 15 minute run and attended the Northern California Westsail Rondevous. I attended one here in 2009 on my tour and had a great time. 9 Westsails showed up for the event so it was a lot of fun to see what everyone else has done to their boats. Saturday morning to afternoon was the time everyone spent boarding other peoples boats and visiting.

Bud Taplin, so called the God Father of Westsail was there visiting as well. He has a parts company in New Port Beach California that services the aging fleet of boats. He worked for Westsail Corp for a spell in the early 1970's He is a hoot to visit with and a wealth of knowledge. He boarded my boat and stayed for an hour just having a nice chat.

Saturday night we had a really nice dinner at the Trade Winds Sailing Club house and we had a few raffle prize give aways and I managed to win 3 different items. I havent been that lucky in a while, maybe I need to try Las Vegas again. I had to work on Sunday so I said my goodbyes after the event and left early Sunday morning.

Sunday I missed out on a Westsail Parade on the bay. A film editor Mike came up from Los Angles to film the parade from a chase boat. It looked like they had very good wind for it. Mike is friends with one of the Westsail owners, Randy and they are working on putting together a documentary film of the history of the company that built the Westsail boats and got so interviews of the owners them selves. They even interviewed me for a few minutes on board Freestyle. Im excited to see how the film comes out. They have a lot of research to do yet so may take a little time.

Thats what I have been doing in a nut shell. I will up load a few pics below and at some piont I will post all my going south travel pics, sorry for the delay.

I will talk to you soon.


PEACE

Settling into work

Hello All,
Started off being a lonely week here with out Jon. He left back to Basque on Friday and is starting work tomorrow. It was so cool to hang out with him again after all these years and I'm so glad he gave up all of his vacation time to help me sail the boat down, now thats a good friend for sure.

We went out sailing in the bay for one last time with the go pro on a kite and got some awesome birds eye videos of the boat in front of the golden gate which was very cool. I have the video posted on the videos link on my website.

For me it has been business as usual with work and all. Jon and I got to do a few things together while he was here but for the most part he went out on his own exploring. He had my jeep to drive around so he made a few road trips down the coast to see a few places here. I hope next time he will be showing me around his place in Basque.
Since he left I have been sorting through all my stuff I brought down. The marina gave me a locker to use so I have been slowly but Shirley filling it up with things I don't need bay sailing. The boat still needs a good cleaning inside but at least all the extra things are put away.

I will post a few pics here and in the next few days I will post more on my photos page.

Thanks to all that have followed me through the trip and from time to time I will post a blog to explain what I have been up to. For now the boat is staying put till I get some things sorted out but will be out there again soon I hope.

Have a good evening to all and I will talk to you soon.

PEACE

P.S. Enjoy the pics below

San Francisco Bay California

Hello All,
We arrived in the bay at 2 pm yesterday afternoon after spending the night at Drakes Bay anchorage. It was a 4 hour trip to get here in flat calm seas. Going under the Golden Gate Bridge is always amazing. I did it 6 years ago and was still a lot of fun a second time. A light breeze picked up as we entered the bay so we got to sail all the way into the harbor. I was greeted by my boss Erik as we pulled into the slip. It is really great to be back, I start work again tomorrow.

Today Jon and I will go into the city and do the tourist thing, Cable Cars and so on.

I will write more later and recap all the travels.

PEACE

Drakes Bay

Hello All
We are anchored 25 miles from the golden gate for the night, we are timing a tide to go under the bridge. The last 70 hours we spent out in a gale guesting 40 knots off shore. We are so glad to see the wind and sea come down. We have seen in a North sea anomaly happen the last few day and don't care to see it again .

Our last 50 hours of sailing were more than I want to explain but I will say Freestyle, performed well for our well being, like Jon says she's a turtle, slow but strong. Anyway, anchored and safe, will be in San Francisco Bay tomorrow night. Will talk about it more when I'm home.

Talk to you soon

PEACE