took with Cygnet, our '78 Islander 36. It was significant in that it was our first trip where we didn't rent a guest slip in marina and will hopefully mark the beginning of a progression toward real sea camping in the Bay Area.
We've had Cygnet for six years at this point and up until now, overnight trips have become a
well-worn path of guesting in Sausalito or South Beach. These have always been great
and memorable. Usually, this is the only arrangement that will work if all five members
of my family are camping on Cygnet. Typically, I'll provision and sail single-handed or
possibly with one of my kids from Coyote Point where she's berthed, to the marina in
Sausalito or South Beach (in SF). Usually, it takes me 3-4 hours to move the boat. Then,
my wife, Janice, will drive from Santa Cruz with everyone else to where I'm at.
This particular trip to Ayala Cove required more forethought than usual. To stay overnight at
Ayala requires a dinghy since you must rent a mooring to stay overnight there. No overnights
at the docks. So, a few days prior, I brought our inflatable to Coyote Point, inflated it, and
worked out a system of getting it inverted on the fore deck using the topping lift.
The other piece was how to actually pick up a mooring there. You are required to attach
to mooring balls fore and aft. The moorings are spaced roughly 150'. After some research,
I went to West Marine and bought two 1/2" rodes, one 150' and 200'. I also bought this device
called a 'Happy Hooker' ( we had fun imagining the marketing debate that went into
this thing... ). The 'Happy Hooker' allows sailors to pull a line through a loop in a
mooring ball. It's attached at the end of a poll which the user provides. Expensive
and plastic, I had my reservations whether this was a wise purchase. Finally, I should
mention that my son has a minor visual impairment which prevents him from
mooring or driving the boat in close quarters.
Monday 3/30/2015
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| Cygnet at Coyote Point |
We set out on Monday early (~9 am) in a decent breeze that allowed us to sail for the first hour past SFO. I was concerned we would get to Ayala and find no space. We also thought we'd get some biking in later that day ( we had two mountain bikes lashed inside the shrouds ). As we were making ready to shove off, my dock neighbor asked if I was aware that there was a 'blow' coming later in the week. I knew about this, but it looked like more of an offshore event than for the SF bay, so I wasn't overly concerned.
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| A little sailing at the beginning |
Approaching Hunters Point, the wind slacked to where we motored and in fact, we ended up motor sailing for the remainder of the trip. It's roughly 17 nmiles from Coyote Pt. to Ayala. We caught the slack-to-ebb current which helped and we were at Ayala before noon.
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| The Embarcadero |
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| Alcatraz |
My concerns about there being no space in the cove were unfounded. There were
three boats moored (some on lunch hook) so we had plenty of options.
We picked a pair of buoys towards towards the outer edge of the mooring field on account
of being concerned about depth and didn't want to be too close to shore. Some
of the outer moorings were damaged so we decided to go with a pair that we'd
share our bow mooring with another boat's stern mooring.
The 'Plan' was to hook-up was to come alongside the stern mooring, attach with
happy hooker (from the cockpit). Then have James play out the 200' stern line as I
would motor up to the bow mooring to attach (from the cockpit) the bow line. The
150' bow line would be pre-attached to the bow cleat and led aft to the cockpit.
Then after both lines had been looped through fore and aft mooring balls,
we'd calmly take in the slack on both lines, secure both ends of both lines to bow
and stern cleats, and enjoy the afternoon!
What actually happened is a little different from the plan. There was some wind puffs
coming over Angel island into Ayala. Also, since we were at max ebb at the time, the
current was complicating things in the cove. We came alongside the stern buoy and
managed to loop it through. After that, things got a bit frantic. Changing the 1/2" line
on the hooker took longer than I planned for. When I got the bow line attached, I
looked up and realized we were drifting into the stern of the next boat! Reverse-and-
throttle avoided any contact but had me rattled. On the next approach, we were able
to loop through the bow mooring but had to fend off contacting the other boat due
to the current. Then the '150 of bow line somehow got dogged and ended up as a ball of
rode at the bow mooring. Nonetheless, we were attached fore and aft for the moment.
Whew! We spent the next 45 minutes in the inflatable fixing the dogged bow line and
cleaning up the aftermath in the cockpit and the salon.
Next time...
- Avoid buoy pairs where we share one with another boat.
- 200' of line was overkill and '130 should be plenty.
- Attaching bow first and then backing down is worth a try. We don't need to worry about fouling the prop but we have less control in reverse.
- Happy Hooker performed well. But we do have some large SS carabiners that attach to the boat hook and slide off. It might be better to use these with a single shorter line to attach temporarily. Then replace it with the loop in the dinghy.
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| Cygnet Monday afternoon |
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| Yup! Still attached! |
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| James at the snack shop |
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| Camp Reynolds |
Monday evening was quiet and peaceful. We grilled
some Italian sausage on the Magma out back and
ate them in the cockpit on some really big sour
dough buns. Then just listened to talk radio in the
cockpit eating chips and graham crackers (plus
beer and root beer) until bed.
Tuesday 3/31/2015
Woke up after a solid night's sleep. Had our coffee, tea and oatmeal. Lounged a bit and made a plan for the day. We brought bikes and wanted to get them ashore. After some discussion, we decided to bring them one at a time on the inflatable to the docks nearest the boat.
This scheme went off pretty well. The bike was placed in the front of the dinghy with the front tire hanging over the front. The bottom of the front tire did get wet. So, two trips for each bike. Then the final trip bringing both of us ashore.
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| Third trip in before the Bike Trip |
We started off clockwise on the perimeter road which is roughly 5 miles round trip. Just past
the Immigration Station, we took the north ridge trail up to the fire road. Going counter-
clockwise on the fire road we found the north ridge trail head to Mt Livermore where we locked the bikes and started for the top.
It probably took us 35 minutes to get to the top. The trail up is a really beautiful hike. Not very
steep through wooded and grassy areas punctuated by stunning views. At the top, James broke
out a day-old Cinnabon from home which he cut with his jack-knife and we lunched. I now wish
I had photoed the food but this one I took right after we ate. James did make this video though.
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| Sir James at the summit |
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| Cygnet from the summit (right). The dock where we dropped off the bikes is visible lower right. |
We were at the top for 20 minutes taking pictures and videos before we went back down the
trail to the bikes. Continuing counter-clockwise along the fire road, it was an easy ride
around back to where we came up from perimeter road and the Immigration Station.
We'd spent a lot of time in that area on foot during previous trips, so we decided to continue
clockwise on the perimeter road. Going past the coast guard station, we stopped at a
serpentine quarry the army set up in the 1930s to provide crushed rock for the paving of
roads on the island. Before that, everything was moved with mule power and dirt roads
were easier on their hooves. Serpentine lovers could get some great samples there ( this may
be illegal though... ). Check out the video!
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| Serpentine Rock Crusher |
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| Serpentine Quarry |
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| Serpentine Boulder |
The rest of our ride back to Ayala was beautiful but we didn't stop.
Back at Ayala, the wind had started to build out of the NNW 10-15 knots...
We spent some time noodling around ferry docks there. Around 3:30 we decided it was as good
a time as any to get everything back to the boat since we were leaving in the morning. Someone
would need to be on board to help lift the bikes out of the dinghy. So, first we rowed out
without the bikes since the inflatable can carry either two people or one rower and one bike.
One of the chambers in the inflatable had a slow leak and this was apparent when James and
I started out. The wind made progress very slow and we ended up tying off to a spare
mooring to rest up for the remaining trip. But we did finally get there. I tied the dinghy
off to a stanchion with a clove hitch on the leeward side of Cygnet.
We needed to re-inflate the inflatable before bringing the bikes over. But first, I made a
little coffee and James had some tea and a sandwich. The wind was a little stronger now
and we started to rethink the logistics of getting the bikes back on board. We noticed
our neighbors in front of us would get ashore by rowing over to the western shore of the
cove where there was a little more protection from the wind. This seemed like a better
plan given the current wind.
Around the time of these deliberations in the salon we heard some shouts from one of the boats in the cove but didn't think anything of it. However, a few minutes later, when we were setting up to go back to get the bikes, we came on deck and saw a loose dinghy in cove being blow into shore. Our dinghy! Fortunately, a motor boat was entering the cove at this time. We were able signal it for assistance to our obvious problem and they graciously obliged. Whew! Lucked out there! No one was looking forward to swimming ashore to retrieve it.
After re-inflating, I rowed over to the western side, pulled it up the beach a bit and
walked over and retrieved a bike from the bike rack where we had locked them. The trip
back with this bike was strenuous. It became important to row hard in the gusts just to not
be blown back to shore. Progress was made during the lulls which would last 10-20
seconds. Eventually, I got into the lee of the neighbors boat and after that it was
relatively easy. James pulled me in, tied me off, lifted the bike out, and lashed it inside
the shrouds.
Before returning for James' bike, he told me the combination to his bike lock (4232).
But when I got over there, it didn't seems to work. I didn't bring my cell for fear of it
getting wet. So, I walked out to the dock closest to Cygnet and shouted across the
cove with cupped hands into the wind
"What's the combo?".
"432?" came back.
"Please repeat!".
"4232" from James.
"That doesn't work!".
"Can I try?" asked James to the howling wind.
"<expletive>!". I walked back to the bike to redouble my effort hoping to avoid having
to return to the boat to get James. Luckily, I tried 4323 and it worked! Two middle digits
got swapped!
We got both bikes back on board and decided to bring the inflatable to the fore deck,
deflate it, roll it up and lash it down for the morning trip. By this time, our neighbors,
concerned about the conditions, told us they were leaving. I turned on the wind meter
and we were getting gusts to 20 knots. I thought this wasn't serious. We had the wind
on our starboard beam but were attached to two moorings with brand new 1/2" rode.
We made dinner and settled in for the evening.
Two other boats camped on moorings that night. They attached to a single bow mooring.
This was probably a better and more comfortable arrangement and we thought about
changing to that scheme. But it was dark or close to it and we didn't want to change
something that was working.
We did not sleep quite as well that night. Cygnet was very rolly and we had gusty winds
until after midnight. I periodically got up to make sure my neighbors were still there
in the same position.
Wednesday 4/1/2015
By morning, it was pretty quiet. We got up, breakfasted, made ready and motored out
into Raccoon Strait. At this point, I had James drive. James is able to steer when
motoring with low traffic and calm conditions. He uses his monocular to scan for other
boats and to set a heading using points on land. We did have an audio compass at one
point and there were parts of the trip home he could have benefited (Hunters point
to Coyote Point.
We motored all the way home. It would have been great to sail but no wind. We pulled
into our slip just before noon. A nice quiet finish to a good adventure. Here's to more
of these!
