Home	Summer Sailstice, June 21, 2014

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

Summer Sailstice is a great idea for celebrating the beginning of Summer. What's better than getting out on a boat to enjoy summer weather with family and friends?! Well, the dirty little secret on San Francisco Bay is that June and July can be anything but "summer" waether. Take June. In the City, the weather, even on television, is often described as "June Gloom." Read fog until noon with 20 plus knots of wind on the water and a temperature hovering around 60. Small craft advisories for the Bay start anywhere from 11 AM to 2 PM - usually daily. As for July, there's a reason the "2nd Half Opener" race weekend is at the end of July - when "summer" winds might be backing off just a bit!

Saturday started out true to form -- cold wind and fog. It did clear over the City by noon, and it did blow right on into the afternoon. That may be why we had up to seven Islanders showing some interest in participating in Summer Sailstice, but only three made it to the rendezvous point. (Some may have been sailing but didn't join up with the fleet.)

But for Smokey Stover with grandchildren Sarah and Evan aboard Evanescence, Gary & Pat Salvo aboard Ophira, and Rick & Sandy Van Mell on Vanishing Animal it turned out to be a fun day. The three rendezvoused south of Yerba Buena Island shortly after 1300 and sailed around Treasure Island and rafted up in Clipper Cove. Evanescence, a beautiful Freeport 36, dropped her hook and became the mother ship for Ophira and Vanishing Animal to tie alongside. With salads, chips and jumbo hot dogs it made for a perfect picnic in the sheltered waters of the Cove. We bropke up the raft around 3:30 and all sailed for home. (Rick reported that it was blowing a steady 20 - 25 knots in the South Bay on the way back to Brisbane Harbor.) But all agreed it was fun and relaxing.

For some historical context for "Clipper Cove," here are some links to the Pan Americal Clipper Flying Boats and Treasure Island - built for the 1939 San Francisco International Exposition.

Wikipedia Boeing 314: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_314
Treasure Island: http://www.extranomical.com/HTML_PAGES/TREASURE_ISLAND.htm
Historical time line of events: http://www.flyingclippers.com/timeline.html

Bella Luna	Robert DaPrato, Maria Santiago, Natalie Habib
Evanescence	Smokey Stover & Sarah & Evan
Everyday	Gail & Mervin Giacomini, plus guests
Freedom Won	John & Nanci Melton
Morning Star	Mike Thackberry, Susanne Kemmer, Paul & Dave Bryan
Ophira	Gary & Pat Salvo
Vanishing Animal	Rick & Sandy Van Mell

Pictures by Smokey Stover and Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Hazy San Francisco	Yerba Buena ahead	Old lighthouse	But great house
Old Bay Bridge!	Lunch time	Evanescence ...	crossing our bow
Ditto Ophira ...	alongside.	In Clipper Cove ...	Ophira comes alongside ...
tying up ...	almost finished ...	we're secure.	Looking good.
Time to relax ...	Pat's happy.	Dogs & chili ...	with buns to match ...
colossal dogs ...	Evanescence buffet ...	tastes great.	What's the commotion?
"Where's mine!"	Rick is ...	ready to leave ...	Pat has bow line ...
casting off ...	Rick & Sandy are off ...	getting clear. (Note Sailstice raft near shore.)

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