Emery Cove Marina, Emeryville, CA
Left Wednesday, 9/15 @ 10:00 am, Arrive Thursday, 9/16 @ 11:15 pm
Winds: 0 - 16 knots
Seas: 1-3 foot swell with 1 foot seas
Skies: sunny, clear on Wednesday, foggy on Thursday, clear, foggy, clear today, Friday
Distance: 240 nautical miles
Total distances traveled since leaving Seattle on 6/24: 2374 nautical miles
Wednesday morning we left at 10:00 am after a stop at the fuel dock in Eureka. It was clear with little to no wind. We watched the coast go by. Rounding Cape Mendicino was a non-event the antithesis of what we experienced in 2001. In the evening the stars were out and you could see their reflection in the sea it was so smooth.
Thursday morning the fog set in. Visibility was less than a boat length at times. We watched a tug and barge pass us on radar and AIS within 2 miles and we never saw it or heard it.
In the past we entered San Francisco Bay, at night with some fog. Once in 1999 when we first brought Windarra up from Long Beach and in 2001 when we left to go cruising the first time. We estimated 5 knots an hour for our transit from Eureka to San Francisco and believed we would be in early Friday morning so we could see the bridge. Well, we were going too fast. By 8:30 pm we were already in the middle of the traffic circle for entry to the bay. We certainly were not going to stop and wait for morning. It would not have made any difference, we still did not see the bridge even when we were directly under it since there was so much fog.
When we entered the traffic lane from the north we were about to notify Vessel Traffic Service for San Francisco on VHF channel 14. They already had us on AIS and called us first. They were extremely helpful and courteous. We indicated our planned course for entry and they notified the other vessels in the traffic coverage area. We switched to VHF channel 13 when we entered the traffic circle so we could communicate ship-to-ship with others in the 'traffic pattern'. We talked with the pilot boat, Drake, and the pilot on boat the container ship Maersk Merlion to negotiate our respective transits through the circle. They were north bound, we were east bound and meeting in the middle. Our distances apart were within 1.5 miles but we could not see them other than radar and AIS. It was comforting to know that they were aware of us and did not want to 'run us over'. We finally saw some markers as we headed up the channel to the bridge. We saw the lights marking the pillar of the bridge be we could not see the bridge. AT ALL!
If you look at the screenshot from our charter/plotter with the AIS, we are the red boat on the upper left. The green triangles are the other vessels reporting AIS with the red arrows pointing which direction they are going. The longer the arrow the faster the vessel is going. The green triangle on the lower left is going 20 knots. You can see that our speed is 6.5 knots.
We made out way over to Sausalito and picked a spot and dropped anchor. After an omelet, we went to bed to get some much needed sleep. It was past 11:00 pm and we had been traveling for 37 hours and it was time for a rest.
This morning we got up leisurely and enjoyed our coffee in the cockpit, looking at Sausalito. There was still a lot of fog in the bay and we could not see the bridge, still. After breakfast we weighed anchor and again using radar and AIS and later visuals, crossed the bay to the Emery Cover Marina which will be where we keep Windarra for the next months until we are ready to leave again.
We have enjoyed our summer cruising a lot but we are ready to be in one place for a while. I think Katmandu would agree as well.
No worries,
SV Windarra
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