Of the many great sailing traditions we enjoy the Friday night beer can races from the Corinthian Yacht Club is one of our favorites. It's a fantastic way to end a week and start a weekend. We actually call it the 'Friday Night Buoy Tour' since we race non-spinnaker class so we can invite non-sailing friends and have varied crew every week. The Friday night races are like a weekly open house at the club, members and guests gather for te ritual-like evening sail and we do a quick loop of a favorite collection of buoys on San Francisco Bay.
Last night - June 5th, was one more magical night on the Bay. We'd picked up our daughter from the airport midday as she returned from her first year away at school and were hoping for a wonderful welcoming sail. We got it. The predicted, and unusual for San Francisco Bay, thunderstorms never appeared and a balmy 8-10 knot not-so-unusual Westerly breeze was blowing in from the West.
The light was golden, the water flat and a challenging flood tide in the light air Belvedere cove was forcing lots of racers down onto the pin. We punted it. Forced to go below it, jibe around then then restart well back in the fleet. From there though it was a lovely sail around our old friend Knox buoy off of Angel Island and back to the treachery of Elephant Rock buoy where a big flood and fading breeze was causing havoc with every racers ideal plans for a finish with a flourish. We caught a few boats who were graciously waiting for us in the wind hole and somehow slipped through the crowd to get deeper into Belvedere Cove and out of the nasty flood which was spoiling everyone's dreams of finishing. Most of the fleet ended up out in the flood and we thought we had an ace in the hole going into the cove. But the breeze filled out there and we flopped around out of current but also out of wind. In the end a few puffs for us and a few puffs on the outside had two of us head for the line and the gun. The outside won but we were happy with our second as it became our turn for the fickle winds to grant us a finish and let the rest of our fleet enjoy a little more time on the water watching the full moon rise.
For us, with it our daughter's first night home, it was a ideal as it gets. A pleasant evening sail, a full moon rising over San Francisco Bay and a packed club house afterwards with everyone reviewing the play-by-play of the devilish tricks the wind and current gods play on sailboats attemting the escape and return to cross an imaginary line in Belvedere Cove. It's the same but different every week. That's what makes it fun.
Reaching home....
The full moon rose over the club.