It's a nice little vessel, just the perfect size for one or two people. The salon is open and feels spacious even if it is in fact small. Below decks on a J105 feels cramped in comparison.
While blasting along in a J105, watching the knot meter for every .1 of a knot improvement is fun with a capital F (especially with the kite up), Sabina is just nice.
We left Emeryville with the promise of little wind. Flat seas and a small amount of current set the tone of the day.
Peter wanted to practice sailing without the helm, balancing the center of effort of the jib and main so that what was left over force wise was a straight line. Once the main was up and the jib unfurled, we headed off towards the end of the ruins of the Berkeley pier and adjusted things. Eventually we got both the main and jib working together and the boat sailing straight and true. This brought us along a course that would have passed through the ruins, so we adjusted some more and got the boat to turn itself off the wind.
With everything set, we headed towards Alcatraz. Ghosting along in 3-6 knots of wind, it was a very mellow sail. We watched a small number of other boats around the bay doing much the same thing and relaxed.
We watched a sea going tug drag an old navy ship out of the South Bay and pull her through the Golden Gate under grey skies. Bound for points south to be sold for scrap it left the bay for the last time.
We motor sailed for a while then turned off the iron wind and made our way through Raccoon Straights to raise the Genniker and play with that as we made out way south again. Watching the texture of the water carefully, we stayed in a wind/tidal current zone that quickly brought us to Pt. Blunt and set us up for an easy ride under the Genniker back to the channel leading through the shallow water to the Emeryville Marina.
We were able to carry it all the way through the channel, jibe it and drop it inside the marina, a first for Sabina and a source of joy for her crew.
We then sailed the boat into the slip using the engine for stopping power alone.
Isn't sailing nice?
1 comment:
I-27, I did not know there was one (some). Mine is a 29, of course people say that about mine. I've seen lots of 28's and 36's ( belong to the club)
Wait I did see one back in Berkeley Marina I thought it was a 28. That must have been his.
Yeah, sailing is great as are islanders!
Post a Comment