Race to the Lightship

For sailors in San Francisco Bay, spring begins with an ocean race to the Lightship followed a couple of weeks later by a race out to the Farallone islands.

Last weekend Synthia and I celebrated the beginning of the ocean racing season by joining 110 other boats that started along the SF city front, sailed out to the San Francisco Lightship, and sailed back underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

Our Hawkfarm "Eyrie" did pretty well going out and back, but as we approached the Golden Gate an army ship freighter followed us in and pushed us farther right than we wanted to go.

It's always interesting to gybe underneath the Golden Gate Bridge where raging currents going in different directions often make for turbulent, disturbed water.

We even had to tether our flamingos on to make sure they didn't fly the coop in the wind and disturbed water (note 4 flamingos on back of boat). This picture was taken right before Synthia pulled off a magnificent gybe in 19 knots of wind.

Unfortunately we couldn't carry the kite to the finish line, too much wind and too close of a reach. We took second place in our division, getting beaten by our dear friend (and now nemesis), Phil on Sail A Vie (Ericson 35). Phil wiped out under the GGB but still managed to beat us by 9 minutes.

We'll get you next time Phil!!