Sausalito sunrise
We haven’t posted an update for a while. We needed to get busy completing boat
projects before we head south to join the Baja Ha-Ha in September in San Diego. As you’ll see in the next few entries, Agave Azul spent a lot of time in boat
yards getting cruising and offshore items (arch, solar panels, electronics, antennas,
lighting & rigging, dinghy & motor lift) designed & installed and we’re
testing everything this spring. There
are a few more items to complete, but we’re taking a short break from boat
projects. It wasn’t all work, however,
and I’ll include some photos of the fun activities we were able to enjoy in the
Bay Area while getting our boat ready.
Bike Tour — Sausalito is an interesting town and one
day I did a tour of the nearby streets and alleys. Here are a few pics, with thanks to my
daughter Carrie for letting me use her bike.
Coffee shops
everywhere
We should all
decorate our mailboxes
Jody from North Bay
Boat Works – no fiberglass repairs done here!
One of many very cool
old cars I rode by
How’d you like to
live on this houseboat?
Sausalito has a Corps of Engineers dock where they bring
debris to keep navigation safe on the bay.
This is home for old pilings, docks and derelict boats - a very busy place after a storm.
Corps of Engineer’s
dock towing a derelict boat
Visitors — San Francisco Bay gets a lot of interesting visitors. One day we were sailing past the Corinthian
Yacht Club and noticed an unusual sailboat.
It turned out to be L’Hydroptere,
a 60’ trimaran that set the sailboat speed world record in 2009 – 51.4 knots,
or 59.1 miles per hour.
Corinthian Yacht Club
L’Hydroptere
L’Hydroptere moored at Angel Island
One morning I heard on the radio that the space shuttle
Endeavour was doing a flyover of San Francisco Bay on its way to its permanent
home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. For its final flight it flew almost directly
overhead of Agave Azul before flying over the Golden Gate bridge.
Endeavour on its final flight
I learned about another famous visitor when I
was checking our AIS system. I saw an AIS icon a couple miles from our slip with a familiar name, Nereida. Nereida is Jeanne Socrates boat and she is on her third attempt to sail solo non-stop around the world. She
has completed a circumnavigation, but a broken boom rounding Cape Horn and a grounding in Mexico stopped her first two solo non-stop attempts.
Kathryn offering Jeanne a bottle of wine
On her current trip, she lost her life raft shortly after she left
Victoria, B.C. The rules allowed her to
anchor in San Francisco Bay to install a new life raft, but only if she
received no physical assistance. She replaced the life
raft and we motored over to wish her well on her way out the gate, but the wind and current didn't cooperate (she can’t use an engine on her solo non-stop sail around the world). We
offered her a nice bottle of wine, but she said she couldn’t accept anything
after the start of her trip. You can
follow her travels at http://synereida.livejournal.com. Fair winds Jeanne!