Bay Bridge Dismantle - Staysail Trial

August 4, 2014 - Visit SF Bay Bridge Construction.

Recently, the dismantling of the old Eastern Span of the SF Bay Bridge has begun in earnest and, after watching from a distance, we though it would be interesting to make a run and see things up close from the water. Also, because the weather forecast promised good wind in the PM, we thought it would be a good opportunity to exercise the new #3 staysail on the Solent Stay. 

We had a great run out from Richmond to the bridge, with the #3 and a single reefed main in about 15 kts of wind. The new tack line holds the reefing points of the main sail a bit higher than the old gooseneck hooks did and the #3 was tacked on an 18 inch pendant to clear the dinghy on the cabin top, but Circe still balanced out really nice and we were able to run hands off with no autopilot. Sweet.

Even more impressive was the 6.7 knots SOG.....we have no knot meter. There was a little bit of ebb helping us, maybe a half knot, but it was pretty close to slack water. Considering the weight of all the junk we have on the boat it was still pretty impressive running just above a beam reach with such a conservative sail plan. 

Here we are, off the East side of Treasure Island, approaching the bridges from the North. G pier on the right, H on the left.

The Admiral at the helm. 

We were so busy checking out the demolition and taking pics that we strayed into to the safety zone under the G-H piers and......... 

..........got scolded by the CHP.  Yup, CHP in the middle of SF Bay......go figure!

We had seen all the relevent Local Notices from the Coasties but the Skipper got distracted.....my bad.

Plotter/Radar view as we transited. OK, OK we know the Radar is Head Up and the Plotter is North Up......we were playing around with the sync feature and different presentation views.

Here we have just transited the Bridge(s) via the approved alternate channel. 

By this time the wind was easing and clocking around toward the NW so we headed over toward the head of the Oakland Estuary, trying to get a good  tacking angle for the return trip back under the West Span of the Bridge and along the west side of Treasure Island. 

When we finally tacked over the wind was down to less than 8 kts and we ended up motor sailing. 

Here we are going back under the Bridge on the W. side of Yerba Buena Is. We debated shaking out the reef in the main and swapping the staysail for the genoa but decided that we would be into the tail end of the 'Slot' soon enough and surely then we'd pick up some wind?

This is the back end of the famed 'Slot' on SF Bay on a midsummer afternoon. We should be enjoying 20+ kts.... this day we had about 12.....Duh! It was enough to get us moving but it was a real leisurley ride home to Richmond.




A pretty good day in unusual summer conditions.....even a weird wind day is better than nothing though, right? It was good to try the staysail in moderate wind although it would have been nice to have seen how it handles heavier going. Next time!