February 2, 2015

We left Paradise Cay at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday, heading for Golden Gate YC having viewed the tide tables and the WRAMS 1 km weather forecast on Sailflow. With our start at 9:32:30, it looked like there would be a little flood left at the start and the weather forecast showed a light wind out of the north with the wind at Red Rock shutting down around midday until about 3:00-4:00 p.m. That gave us the initial strategy to go for Red Rock first and then let the wind decide whether we should take Blackaller or Yerba Buena next.

As our start approached, we took a good look at the wind and saw nothing to change our minds. So we started heading east making for the Berkeley Flats. We took a tack out to the main channel and Zeehond (a Newport 30 which started just behind us) stayed on the starboard tack. We enjoyed the flood and a nice lift as we headed towards the Olympic Circle. The wind seemed to be doing what was forecast, so we tacked on a slight header to put ourselves in the shallower water between the Southampton Channel and the main Channel to the west of Red Rock. As we approached Red Rock, the wind did what Sailflow said it would do and steadily dropped as we approached.

Zeehond was over on the Richmond side and we were now getting Moore 24 and Express 27 company. We lost the wind a bit more and anchored for about 10 minutes until we got a southwesterly puff. (To call it a breeze would be an overstatement!) Some of the other boats were very close to the west shore of Red Rock, and in fact a J/22 ended up aground – I think they were the only boat I saw in trouble. Synthia Petroka, singlehanding the Hawkfarm Eyrie, had been catching us up until we anchored but she got swept backwards.

Siento el Viento fighting the tide a Red Rock. ©2015 Susie Woodrum

The puff was enough to get us slowly around the rock. The custom Wylie 24 Run Wild passed us here and Zeehond went closer to the shore than I was prepared to and passed us at the rock.

Having rounded Red Rock, Siento makes tracks for TI. ©2015 Susie Woodrum

Heading down to Treasure Island, Zeehond stayed closer to the shore as we tacked out to get into the main ebb. I think we passed them abeam of Angel Island, but then the shore started to work for them and we were about 10 boatlengths behind as we got abeam of Treasure Island. The wind was now westerly, and we both set our spinnakers at the same time. We dropped ours as we got close the the I pier of the old bridge, while Zeehond carried theirs through the bridge. However, we closed in at the Coast Guard station, and we were right on their transom as we rounded the back of Yerba Buena. We both enjoyed a nice steady breeze all the way around.

Halfway to Blossom Rock, we tacked over to the main channel (again to get more ebb), while Zeehond stayed on their same tack heading into the City. We got a strong tide and a nice lift and made our next tack at Alcatraz. By now we were well in front of Zeehond. The westerly was still going well for us, as well as a good ebb, so we stood out in the tide and then headed for the white barrel close to Blackaller rather than Blackaller itself. Looking into the sun, it was hard to see Blackaller and you certainly couldn’t see the color! Fortunately, a D-Class catamaran was with us and could now see the correct mark.

It’s a good thing you can take all the marks in either direction, so we rounded Blackaller to starboard and did a bear-away set only to have the wind die! That was really nerve-wracking, but fortunately the westerly came back and we rode the spinnaker to the finish. We finished at 16:21:01, almost seven hours after we started! The D-Class cat got a horn, but you can imagine my surprise and pleasure when we got the gun – yaaay!

Next, drop the spinnaker, unfurl the genoa and point the boat to Raccoon Strait. Open a couple of beverages and head home to Tiburon YC. As we turned out of Raccoon Strait we looked over to Red Rock – it was a mill pond and there were 20 or so boats ‘parked’ there. It was 5:15 or so, so we wondered if any of those were going to make it. Probably not!

It was a beautiful day on the Bay and we were so happy to have finished.

— Ian Matthew, Siento el Viento

You can view Siento's track and a few others on Jibeset. For more photos from the finish line, see http://1drv.ms/1EY0qu7

Our Three Bridge Fiasco coverage continues with the next post.