Encinal & Svendsen's Cruise April 26, 2013

Home	Encinal & Svendsen's Cruise April 26, 2013

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

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The record-dry San Francisco spring held right on into late April, making for a beautiful weekend for the first cruise of the season. Bright sun and a building thermal hurried Islanders into the Estuary and up to Encinal YC for Encinal Cruise & Svendsen's discount Night. This kick-off event has become a tradition for over 10 years, combining the hospitality of Encinal Yacht Club and the generosity of Svendsen's Boatworks - caretaker shipyard for many of the Islander fleet.

On the way over, Vanishing Animal noted radio calls on channel 14, VEssel Traffic Control, calling the sighting of a whale headed east toward the Golden Gate. And, shortly before turning east into the Estuary, we got pictures of another type of "whale", the Swedish America's Cup 72 Artemis. It was about 1245 and she was getting towed (dead down wind in light air) to her compound on the outside of Alameda Island.

Today the Oakland/Alameda Estuary had 5 mammoth container ships and a smaller Matson Line freighter that goes back and forth to Hawaii. Just beyond the commercial docks, Jack London Square floods the waterfront with historic ships and piers. Past Presidential yachts and a retired lightship, tourist day ships, and regular docks line the Oakland side of the waterway. On the Alameda Island side, about two miles of harbors provide thousands of slips in half a dozen marinas. Marina Village is one of the largest, and tapers into the Oakland Yacht Club and Enicnal Yacht Club docks.

Skipper & Nancy Wall's Snowflower were once again the first to arrive, followed by Dan Knox with Luna Sea. Rick Van Mell tucked Vanishing Animal into a corner at 1350, followed shortly by Ron & Karen Damsen and Woodbine. Commodore Melton was next, filling out the line on the west side of the dock with Freedom Won. Add in Charles Hodgkins and Kathryn Munn parking Mischief on the EYC members side and the stage was set for dinner. Rick Vulliet backed Paradesia alongside Vanishing Animal as the sun set to fill out the 7 boats at the dock on Friday night.

Of course, arriving is just the beginning. And your Islander Fleet is really fine at turning arrivals into friendship and a celebration of life. The easiest measure is that anyone who walks down the docks is almost automatically invited to join the festivities. Just ask the gals who were helping one of them set up for Saturday's single-handed race - the one Dan Knox is going to race too. We were delighted to have Gene & Cheryl Novak of Fantasy join us for dinner (now we're up to 8 Friday night). Even Teak snuggled down near the table full of goodies in hopes that something would fall to the dock.

We won't try to fill in all the chronology, but in total we had 41 people representing 22 different Islanders:

4 R Sanity	Roger & Linda McClellan
Cassiopeia	Kit Wiegman
Constant	John Baldwin, Steve Baldwin Jennifer Head + 2 kids
Diana	Lou Zevanov
Fantasy	Gene & Cheryl Novak
Freedom Won	John & Nanci Melton
Groovy	Alan Warren
Kindred Spirits	Don Henderson
Luna Sea	Dan Knox & Myphi Alloy
Mischief	Charles Hodgkins & Kathryn Munn
Natural High	Dennis & Judy Bush
Osprey	Jim Lovell & Adelle Treakle
Paradesia	Rick Vulliet
Pegasus	Robert Aston
Serenity	Eric Mueller
Snowflower	Skipper, Nancy & Scott Wall
Tacoma Blue	Rick and Takae Watters
Vanishing Animal	Rick & Sandy Van Mell
White Horses	Rob & Ruby Blenderman
Woodbine	Ron & Karen Damsen
Zenith	Art & Betsy Fowler
Zingara	Steve & Jocelyn Swanson

SF Bay's signature "fog" - low stratus by NOAA standards - gave a grey start to Saturday morning. With the heater going and a pot of coffee brewing it was cosy below. Even a morning walk with Teak was enjoyable to watch the first of the rowers practice on the calm Estuary waters. A super low tide - minus 1.4 feet - exposed lots of rocky shore and left a few boats sitting on the bottom. Dan Knox was ready early to cast off single-handed racing starting on the Berkeley Circle. The challenge will be the 1234 hours 4.4 knot flood tide current (following this morning's 0547 5.6 knot ebb) when the fleet is trying to round Harding Rock, about five miles upwind.

The morning light also gave us two pleasant surprises. Osprey had arrived about 2000 hours, and were taken under the wing of Charles and Kathryn. Also, Constant was on the dock. Having sailed in from Benicia (through the usual square waves of San Pablo Bay) they arrived at 2230 and were quite surprised to see so many Islanders. They weren't members of the Association, but by the end of the day, with lots of well wishes from everyone, and being included in Svendsen's Night, they're looking forward to joining up!

The sun poked through before noon and clear skies and soft winds filled the afternoon. We Islanders assembled upstairs at Encinal as 1300 approached and put together one really long table and another short one to accommodate about 28 people for lunch. Plenty of banter and sailing stories to tell.

Robert Aston then set to work doing USCG Vessel Safety Checks. At least Diana, Woodbine, Vanishing Animal, and Mischief got their inspections. (And, it was FREE!)

Kit Wiegman measured some boats, but got away before your reporter had a chance to pin him down on details. We'll add them as we get them.

The afternoon quickly rolled on toward Svendsen's Night. Luckily, the wind had come up so Luna Sea had finished her single-handed race, and was back to tell the tales and serve up some champagne in Ruby's special metal glasses.

Lots of cars and people headed for Svendsen's and stormed the doors at 1730. The usual quantities of line and flares were bought. LED lights and replacement bulbs were big on the list too. Dan ordered up another big fender and a beautiful snatch block. Commodore Melton gathered the group together at the end of the evening to thank Svendsen's for this wonderful opportunity.

Back at Encinal just before sunset, Charles and Kathryn arranged for Rick Vulliet to set up the big screen video in the downstairs Regatta Room to show the Disney movie Morning Light. Again, thanks to Charles and Kathryn, we once again enjoyed Tuckers Ice Cream (Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry in three delicious separate cartons), plus a bunch of cookies. What a great way to coast into the evening: watching a wonderful bunch of young people learn to sail a TP 52 and compete in the Trans Pac from Los Angeles to Hawaii.

After we applauded the credits about 2100, some headed for their boats, some headed upstairs for a nibble or a beverage, but all had smiles on their faces. Made even slightly more so, when Charles and Kathryn announced that they had been able to arrange for a special early breakfast at 0900 Sunday morning for the fleet.

Pictures (so far) by Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Heading for Encinal ...	flags flying.	Hunters Point old crane	Lots of tankers ...	big boy ...
cargo type ...	red and city ...	blue and city!	America's Cup 72 ...	Artemis Racing
Headed in early.	Estuary row ...	is full!	Lots of ...	containters.
This is one ...	big ketch!	Marina Village.	Oakland Yacht Club	Encinal Yacht Club ...
guest dock and ...	clubhouse.	Snowflower ...	is relaxed!	*Luna Sea*
*Vanishing Animal*	Nice afternoon ...	Lined up ...	Woodbine ...	arrives.
Nancy & Karen	Ron & Dan	Here comes John.	Dockside full ...	flags flying ...
everywhere ...	over there too.	Good sun	Karen cooks sliders.	All shipshape.
Just the start ...	Myphi adds a salad ...	Teak's hopeful ...	Slider platter ...	Gene & Cheryl's great Chinese Chicken Salad
Tasty time ...	Ron too.	Easy chatter	Kid's cold swim!!!	A fun Islander Potluck ...
closer ...	A great afternoon for ...	an Islander event.	Encinal's burgee.	On into evening.
Friday night beer can ...	great sailing ...	movin' fast ...	chase them?!	Coming back ...
chute pulling.	Single-hander ...	and friend.	Saturday low tide	Good morning Teak ...
Good morning Karen ...	Good morning Paradesia	Dan's ready for ...	Svendsen's shopping & ...	single-handed racing ...
off to start at Berkeley Circle ...	fast rowers.	Kitten is ...	checking currents and ...	ready to go ...
Good Luck!	*Osprey*	*Constant*	Dockside banter ...	Ron, Alan & Judy
Dennis is relaxed!	Rich too!	Kathryn, Takae, Judy & Dennis	Nancy & Charles are happy ...	Woodbine crew too ...
ditto Nanci & cheryl ...Hi Nanci & Cheryl	*and Osprey's* ...**	Jim too!	Great afternoon.	Heading for lunch!
Lou, Art & Jocelyn	This short table ...	quickly got long ...	one end ...	the other ...
right down the middle ...	Kit, Art & Lou	Table talk ...	was easy ...	overflow table ...
what to order?	Hi Ruby!!!	Plus Linda ...	and Roger.	Dan holds court.
"Don't you dare," ...	catch Nancy eating!	Let's shop!	Where do I find ...	right this way ...
Line conference ...	Hat conference ...	"Step Right Up" ...	"Check Right Out!"	Zen Master, Lou
The Commodore thanks Svendsen's	Back at Encinal ...	dockside fun ...	Constant ...	is welcomed.
lots of flags ...	are flying.	Is it Ice Cream time?	Let's go see ...	sure looks good ...
great flavors ...	Delicious!	Any for me?	Trans Pac movie ...	Morning Light
Some of the audience ...	more audience	Into the night ...	*sails Paradesia.*	Sunday Breakfast Nanci, Ron, Karen, John
Charles & Kathryn	Dan, Nancy, Skipper, Rick & Sandy	John, Jennifer & Steve	but the kids ...	want their own table!

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