The boat didn't notice

the beating from the confused sea state on the way out of San Francisco Bay, but my stomach was sure feeling it. We hit strong wind-over-tide conditions coming past Angel Island, and then ran into wind waves and sea swell clashing from different directions as we passed Pt Bonita on the way to Drakes Bay on our first coastal cruise for 2018. In a confused sea state, the ultralight Tiki bounces around like the proverbial, and things did not improve until we were well past Duxberry Pt (Bolinas).

The video below shows us encountering the start of the ocean swell as we pull away from Duxberry Reef. The swells are still bouncy from the wind waves, but things are starting to improve. We had a nice close reach/beat all of the way past Pt Reyes on a single tack in a steady 10 knot breeze.

Although this was my 4th trip to Drakes Bay in Little Cat, we had never rounded Pt Reyes itself. On this trip I decided to take a look around the corner in prep for a future trip to Bodega Bay and/or Tomales Bay, and so sailed the extra 5 NM to do so - what a spectacular setting for the Pt Reyes Lighthouse and how wonderful the views must be!

Leaving Pt Reyes astern

Then it was back to the calm shelter of Drakes Bay to put up our new Sunbrella deck tent and kick back with some food and a nip of bourbon after a good day's sail.

Looking East to the historic Chimney Rock Lifeboat Station (1927) at sunset

Snug under the deck tent, I had a big bacon, egg, tomato and onion cook-up, while the sun went down, then settled down to watch and listen as night settled in.

Looking West towards the old Pt Reyes fish docks

You can't have too many bacon and eggs, so after a redo in the morning it was time to pack up and move out. I only had to run the outboard for a minute to get us away from the shore, and then it was engine off and we ghosted out of the Bay wing and wing past the treacherous breakers beyond Chimney Rock - don't cut that corner, as I was tempted to on the way in (see video below)!

The breeze was a very light 5 knots from the West, so we hoisted the symmetric spinnaker to make the most of it. What followed was a great spin run all of the way back to the Shipping Channel, and then a series of gybes north until around Mile Rock.

Running home under spinnaker in the morning

The wind gradually built during the day until it reached around 15 knots, and gusting over 20 knots. The ocean swell continued to build until it reached the forecast 10+ feet as we crossed the top of the Four Fathom Bank into the Shipping Channel. There, to my surprise, we encountered the BAMA Double-handed Farallones fleet as they were running back to the Golden Gate under spinnaker. We got overtaken and passed by a succession of big, fast, boats including several F-31 trimarans.

By the time I dropped the spinnaker at Mile Rock, I was very tired after sheeting the spin for several hours in increasing winds. For the last hour or so, I had to pull the tack and sheets in tight to de-power the sail as the wind built. My little symmetric (240 square feet) is cut too flat to be stable dead down wind and requires a lot of trim.

We sailed the rest of the way home under the white sails. 90 nautical miles, this trip.

Update:

Sailing photographer Leslie Richter was out taking pics of the returning BAMA fleet and got some great shots of Little Cat coming down the shipping channel to the Golden Gate (below).

Farrier F-31 is bearing down on us at speed

Wing and wing

Homeward bound