{"id":6501,"date":"2018-07-30T03:43:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T03:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?p=6501"},"modified":"2023-07-12T19:42:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T19:42:49","slug":"sailing-in-the-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/local\/sailing-in-the-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Sailing in the bay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sailing<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sailing<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sailing<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday I went sailing with some coworkers, or to put it more accurately a pair of coworkers sailed a ship while instructing the rest of us on what to do. For my part I barely know port from Starburst<\/span> starbird<\/span> starboard, but if you need someone who can pull on whichever rope you tell me to, I’m your guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We began sailing from a boat rented at Club Nautique<\/a> in Alameda. After strapping on life jackets our captain (one of my coworkers) gave us the safety rundown, we stepped on the boat, and I started the engine so we could motor our way out into the bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once we were headed straight into the wind we deployed the sails, killed the engine, and were under wind power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s something strangely relaxing about sailing on the bay’s calm southern waters; perhaps too relaxing. We were all jolted awake when an enormous cargo ship snuck up behind us and honked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike on land, in the water right of way is apparently kind of complicated but the basics are simple enough: smaller vessels need to stay out of the way of bigger ones. We only got a single honk, which I’m told is a warning. Five honks would have been the signal to move immediately and\/or expect a visit from the Coast Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sailing<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sailing<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sailing<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I’d never approached San Francisco from Alameda on a boat before. In some ways it’s a little disorienting. For example I kept thinking “what’s that big green thing?” before suddenly realizing I was looking at the stands of AT&T Park. Likewise Sutro Tower not only looked further south than I’d expected but seemed very surreal, poking up out of the foggy skyline like a pitchfork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we went under the Bay Bridge the second in command wondered what the deal was with the “bow and arrow.” I explained that it’s called Cupid’s Span<\/a> and it evokes the romantic idea of Cupid and Tony Bennett’s song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Not exactly<\/em> what the artists intended though it’s close enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sailing<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maneuvering around some ferries we docked at pier 1 and 1\/2. This is just north of the Ferry Building, right behind the restaurant La Mar.<\/a> It’s one of the few public places boats can dock in San Francisco. We all brought our own food and snacks and ate at a nearby public table. Despite many restaurants in the area, we had no way of knowing if there’d be an open place to dock so we came prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protip: There are two single occupancy public restrooms at the pier. Just go inside the front door facing The Embarcadero; they’re both in the lobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sailing<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The return voyage was a calm one, with the wind in our favor. There were few other boats to contend with aside from other sailboats and the RocketBoat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a certain point I looked back at the city skyline and noticed it had begun to look almost like a mirage. The features on the buildings disappeared and it took on a gray shadowy appearance, back lit by a mountain of clouds. After docking the boat back at Club Nautique we all went our separate ways for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having lived in San Francisco for the past fifteen years I’ve never visited the city via sailboat — all this time I didn’t even know it was possible to step off a sailboat and walk right over to the Embarcadero waterfront. Who knew?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday I went sailing with some coworkers, or to put it more accurately a pair of coworkers sailed a ship while instructing the rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","slim_seo":{"title":"Sailing in the bay - MrEricSir.com","description":"On Saturday I went sailing with some coworkers, or to put it more accurately a pair of coworkers sailed a ship while instructing the rest of us on what to do. F"},"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1315,512,38,1314,23],"class_list":["post-6501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-alameda","tag-boat","tag-photos","tag-sailing","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6501"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9893,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6501\/revisions\/9893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}