We left Ft. Bragg for San Francisco on Aug 29. We had to wait for the tide to start coming into Ft Bragg to safely make it out the river with adequate depth. We motored the to Drakes Bay, where we dropped the anchor at 1230 AM to get some sleep. Our “date” with the Golden Gate Bridge wasn’t until 10 AM, so we had some time to wait, so we might as well sleep.
It was our first time (FFT) to anchor in the dark, navigating into an unfamiliar anchorage in the dark and fog. Thankful for our Mantus anchor.
We slept about 4 hours, raising the anchor and getting underway at 0715 for the remaining trip to SF.
We passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at 1100, and congratulated each other. THIS was a huge milestone. We made it down the most challenging stretch of the Pacific Coast.
Alcatraz Island
City of San Francisco
Once we were in SF Bay, we shut off the engine, pulled out the jib and sailed for about 2 hours across the bay past Alcatraz Island, past the city of San Francisco towards Alameda. Skies were a little bit blue, and there was enough wind. We sailed under the Oakland Bay Bridge, then motored down the Oakland Estuary to our berth in Grand Marina, Alameda.
We stayed in Alameda for 4 days, working on boat projects and going for walks. We rented a car for a few days, and enjoyed meeting one of my former vendor reps when I worked at JLD for lunch. He lives in Walnut Creek, and drove over to meet us.
Coincidently, while we were sitting at our table at the restaurant in Ballena Bay marina, we looked out and saw our friends on S/V Frisky (met them in Newport) who just arrived! We had an opportunity to say “hi”. It’s awesome to meet fellow cruisers and continue to bump into them along the way.
