A Shakedown sail

Ahoy Sea Otter, give us all your fair maidens! Oh..ok, give your gold then.
Bay Bridge to San Francisco
Who's a happy chappy when he's sailing/
Looking west to the Golden Gate

Snuggled in, heading back - it's 12 degrees!

It took me awhile this morning to get motivated, but Geoff was keen for a 'shakedown' sail. So about 10 am we motored out into the estuary heading for San Francisco Bay. We ran across a couple of square riggers in the estuary, they must take school children out for educational trips. It was pretty funny as all the crew were decked out in authentic period clothing..quite a sight to sail past.

We tried our new Autohelm but it seemed to want to zigzag along not keep a straight course? Another problem we will have to solve immediately. As our model of the Autohelm is now retired, we could only get a new drive unit, not a full backup model. So we NEED it to be working, as we couldn't hand steer for 30 plus days to the Marquesas's! Well not without a mutiny.

We pull the main up and hauled out the wee jib and sailed out under the Bay Bridge (in the photo above) I can tell you it was a pretty awesome feeling to be sailing your own boat passed the skyline of San Francisco city. Sea Otter seemed to pull a good turn of speed (if the instruments are all accurate) we were doing on average around 6 knots plus!! Whoo HOO! Timana's average was usually around 5 + knots. The boat felt comfortable and was dry down below..... the wind piped up as you got close to 'the slot' as the locals call the open area of water near the Golden Gate bridge. It would have been around 15 knots in the open area, a very nice shakedown breeze.

We sailed passed Treasure Island and the idyllic looking Angel Island (a nice stopping spot before we head off on passage were told) Then towards San Rafael our original US destination, before heading through Raccoon pass to Tiburon (millionaires row) We could see Sausalito not too far off, but decided it was 2pm and we should head back. The tide had changed to a ebb and was running about 3 plus knots. As we passed Alcatraz Island, we ended up having to put the motor on to get under the Bay Bridge to head back into Alameda estuary. I can tell you...those Alcatraz escapees better have picked their tides right...cause they could have ended up out at sea with the ebb tide apparently hitting 6+ knots in places!! hmmm better make sure we pick our tides for when we want to head out under the Golden Gate too!

We motored back into our berth around 4pm and for the first time EVER I brought the boat into the dock. Usually Geoff prefers to be at the helm, but I think he has got a bit soft in his old age and was happy for me to have a go. I only bumped a little :/

So a nice day out, were pretty happy with the boats performance and handling, now if we can just resolve the Auto steering issue?????